WOE
- loss of the shot
Deary
me. Our
lovely shot weight is no more - consigned to the deep probably due to
the rubbish seamanship of others - here is the story in the style of an
old adventure story.
As
predicted by the shred of seaweed hanging outside the backdoor the
weather was glorious with just a breath of wind to blow away the early
morning mist, the journey to Port of Littlehampton was uneventful with
no sign of additional highway men (known as Gatsomen) being cunningly
installed under the cloak of darkness. Our ship was reddyied under the
watchful eye of
Cap'n Rachel ( the one who must be obeyed) and once victuals and
equipment as necessary was loaded, the
ship was launched by the ever helpful and prompt good fellows
known as the Wharfmen. We made passage up the Mighty Arun and headed out
to the open sea. Using a combination of compass bearing, dead reckoning,
sextant, Gps and lots of shouting we
quickly tracked down the remains of an unfortunate ship that fell
to the fearful Hun captain of UB41. The unfortunate vessels name was The
Shirala, a grand vessel loaded with Ivory, instruments and a princes
ransom in diamonds, Cap'n Rachel, of course commanded the crew to hunt
out the diamonds at all costs and not to bother returning to the surface
with out them.
Our
dear shot (No. 2 as it is affectionately known, No.1 of course falling
victim to a special knot executed by a club member, now an ex club
member - Oh how we laughed back at the lead foundry !!) was duly
dispatched over the gunwale, the rope whistling over the side as it
plummeted into 10 fathoms of clear water striking the wreck amidships
right up in the bow, a good shot sir ! all exclaimed. Preparations for
the dive were made and the first descent for the diamond hunt was made.
Top
side the remaining crew spotted other ships approaching and preparations
were made to repel boarders if necessary, however it appeared that they
were engaged on the same diamond expedition as were ourselves. They
however lacked a measure of basic seamanship and somehow managed to drop
their shots within a chains circumference of our own. One dropping it
hand over hand, the other simply by tossing it over and hoping it did
not strike anyone in the depths, bless them all
The
diving done and no incidents to report apart from a mysterious shot line
ending one and a half fathoms from the surface and dropping the
recovered diamonds when returning to the ship it was time to recover the
shot. The cerebrally challenged crew of the other ship had made a mess
of their recovery and had a merry tangle of lines and buoys etc which
took them a time to resolve, going this way and that resulting in a snag
of our line.
We
tried all known tricks to remove the snag and at one stage we lifted the
wreck almost to the surface, this is the point at which the line parted
and we ended up with a long length of rope and some buoys but sadly were
missing the lead part of the arrangement.
However,
the location of the missing weight is known and endeavours will be
planned for its recovery later this year, in the twist time an
alternative arrangement will be organised. Our thanks go to the crew for
their efforts to recover the shot and particularly to Cap'n Rachel who
manned the helm in difficult (verbal) circumstances.
