Raising the USS Monitor with Navy Diver Bobbie Scholley, and New Freediving Records Under COVID-19

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Welcome to the Deeper Blue Podcast, your weekly guide to everything that is happening around the world underwater. My name is Stephen Wheeler. I'm the founder of DeeperBlue.com, the world's most popular diving website. Every week, the Deeper Blue Podcast covers everything that's happening in the scuba diving, freediving, diving travel, and ocean advocates world. So join us as we explore the Deeper Blue. Hi everyone. Welcome to episode 14 of the Deeper Blue Podcast. Come up today, we've got all the latest news in the last week from around the world underwater. We then welcome one of my friends and a fabulous co-host here on the show, the iconic US Freediver and Discovery Channel host, Megan Heaney Greer. Megan debuts this week as the co-host with an interview with Bobby Scholler, a retired captain in the US Navy, where she served for 24 years and specialized in special operations and surface warfare, as well as deep sea salvage. She takes us on the journey and she tells us about her career, as well as helping salvage one of the most iconic and historically significant shipwrecks in the US naval history, the USS Monitor. We then hear from Alex Rose, science editor and photographer at the Incredible Ocean Geographic Magazine. She helps us understand the best way to start capturing epic underwater shots. And believe me, it has nothing to do with the equipment. And then finally, we hear from Polly Wolfenden on her best dive ever. So let's catch up with this week's underwater happenings. Normally, by this time of the year, the team at Deeper Blue would have the great pleasure of attending and reporting on a good number of world-class freediving competitions. I certainly have been glued to the computer screen a few times by now, watching freedivers across the world plummet to incredible depths and breaking national and world records. With COVID-19 having caused all major competitions to be cancelled over the summer, it's really great to start hearing that the competitive side of freediving is getting back into the water. So with that, I'm excited to report that two recent competitions, albeit smaller than we would have expected, have seen some world records tumble. First up was Russian powerhouse Alexei Molchanov, who dived to 111 metres using BIFINS for a constant weight BIFINS record on September the 12th in the waters of Kruk in Croatia for the Adriatic Freediving Trophy. Interestingly, this competition was organised under the supervision of judges from both major freediving federations, that is Ada and CMAS. This means that the records can count towards each federation's rankings and record books. This was quickly followed up by the CMAS Freediving European Cup in Kalamata and Greece, and there are four records toppled here, all CMAS. So Slovenian freediver Alenka Artnik set a 94-metre world record in that constant weight by fins category. In addition, French free diver Arno Gerard increased the records that Alexei had set just a few days prior by diving to 112 meters, that's one meter deeper, in the constant weight by fins discipline. And also, there were two masters category world record set. This is a relatively new category that was introduced last year to recognise records completed by divers who are over 50. In this case, it was French free diver Martin Lenoir, who set a 57-meter free immersion masters world record, and French free diver Xavier Daroux set a 60-meter constant weight by Finn's Masters World Record. So huge congratulations to all the record holders and all the athletes going in the water to compete. And I know there are some more competitions coming up during the rest of this year. So best of luck to all those athletes. So we've just had the first anniversary of the tragedy aboard the MV Conception. For those who don't remember, the MV Conception was a dive boat that caught fire and sank overnight on the 2nd of September 2019. The disaster claimed the lives of 33 guests and crew in what was the worst California maritime disaster since the sinking of the brother Jonathan in 1865, and the deadliest in the United States overall since the USS Iowa turret explosion in 1989. Memorial stone was placed on the site to honor those 34 victims of the disaster that was just off the Santa Cruz Island in California. The effort was a collaboration between a host of agencies and parties, the Divers Alert Network and Paddy Source Memorial Stone and Plarque. A number of agencies from the Los Angeles Port Police Department to NOAA's Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary all play crucial roles in recovering the stone and plaque to its place. This included meeting all the correct regulatory and legal requirements. The Plark itself was inscribed with all the names of the victims of the disaster. A quick bit of product news coming from our friends over at Fourth Element. This week they've introduced a new natural rubber wetsuit that we've been seeing at various trade shows since we first saw it at the Dima Show last year. It's called Surface, and it's a three millimeter wetsuit designed for recreational diving, free diving, and snorkeling use, as well as water sports such as stand-up paddleboarding, surfing, and open water swimming. It's a very sleek and cool-looking wetsuit, and it's got this really interesting mini chest zipper that apparently eliminates the need for a full back zipper and in this case helps with mobility while in the wetsuit and minimising the possibility of water flushing that comes through the zip itself. Personally, I'm a self-convect addict when it comes to Fourth Element products. Jim and Strikey, who are the owners of Fourth Element, I know very, very well, dear friends of mine. I'm just waiting this week for my custom Argonaut stealth dry suits to be delivered, which I am stupidly excited about. So we've got one of these suits heading out to Chris, us free diving staff writer, and she's going to be reviewing it. So look out for the review in the next few weeks. But in the meantime, check out Fourth Element.com for more information about the surface. Now, talking about Dima, they've just announced that registrations and sales are now open for the online show being held instead of the in-person event this year. Dima being that big global trade show that happens pretty much every November in the United States. Dima Show Online kicked off on the 15th September and offers a host of different activities, including live learning streams as well as several on-demand opportunities. Also, several exhibitors will be offering online education opportunities, and this all culminates in a four-day virtual trade show taking place on November the 17th to 20th, which will be looking to replace all networking and in-person discussions normally held at the main show, this time without having to wear out many pairs of shoes from all the miles of walking that attendees normally do. Enslaved is a six-part docuseries starring actor and activist Samuel L. Jackson that sheds new light on 400 years of human trafficking from Africa to the New World, and it is just premiered this week in the US. Based on DNA testing identified from his ancestral tribe, the series traces Jackson's personal journey from the US to the Gabon for his induction into the Benger tribe with rare unprecedented access to secret ceremonies and local customs. The diving portion uses new diving technology such as advanced 3D mapping and ground penetrator radar to locate and examine sunken slave ships on three continents. The series itself reveals an entirely new perspective on the history of the transatlantic slave trade. The series also tracks the efforts of Diving with a Purpose, a collaborating organization with the National Association of Black Scuba divers, as they search for and locate six slave ships that sank, drowning the enslaved humans on board. Featuring the most dives ever on sunken slave ships, Enslaved also chronicles the first positive identification of a freeding ship, an American schooner that ferried African-American runaways to Canada. Each episode follows three separate storylines: the quest for a sunken slave ship, a personal journey by Jackson, and a historic investigation led by investigative journalists Simba Jekobokovic and our author Hirsch. So check out deeperblue.com. We have an exclusive set of interviews with the dive team coming up. And next week we have on the podcast an interview with Kinga Phillips, who is part of the dive team as well. Back in May, you may remember we launched a new online clothing store featuring 10 unique diving designs across a selection of men's, women's, and kids' t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, those sorts of things. The range itself is totally sustainable, being printed on order onto 100% organic cotton clothing that's all made in a factory that runs on 100% renewable energy. We launched the range to give our readers and now you, our listeners, a way of helping to keep the site running during a difficult time of COVID-19 for both us and the diving industry. The idea that we have is to introduce new designs once in a while, and we've now created our first new design on top of the 10 that we already have, and it features a unique free dive design titled, Yep, you've guessed it, free diving. Available right now, if you head over to deeperblue.com/slash clothing, and every order that you place supports everything we do, including daily news and articles on the website, all the social media stuff we do, the forums, and of course, this podcast. Finally, before we get back into our interview this week with Captain Bobby Scholler, who is one of the original inductees in the 2001 Women's Divers Hall of Fame, we actually have some news about that organization. They've announced that they're accepting applications for the 2021 Roster of Scholarships and Training Grants. The grants and scholarships cover a diverse area of research, and while some are only open to women, a good number are open to men as well. They cover marine conservation, exploration, and research areas, with each one offering anything from $500 to $5,000 in value to the recipient. So if you're looking for support to further your diving career, it is well worth you taking a look at what the scholarship offers. It is at wdhof.org. And if you keep listening to this episode, you get to listen to Captain Bobby Scholy, and you'll get some inspiration from her as well. So that's it for this week. Remember, catch up with all the latest news, articles, features, and so on from around the world underwater by heading to steeperblue.com or keep an eye on our social media. And finally, please, please, please subscribe, like, and comment wherever you hear your podcasts and tell your friends about us. All these things really do make a huge difference.

SPEAKER_05 11:24

I am Ken Stewart of Diving with a Purpose, and this is the Deeper Blue Podcast.

SPEAKER_07 11:35

Hey there, I'm Megan Haney Greer, co-host here on Deeper Blue Podcast. And today I have a very special guest on, a legendary diver, Bobby Skoly. Captain Bobby Skoly, that is. Bobby is a retired captain with the U.S. Navy, where she proudly served for more than 24 years. She's a designated officer in special operations, deep sea and salvage diving, and surface warfare. She's also an explorer, and I'm proud to call her a sea sister of mine in the Women Divers Hall of Fame, going all the way back to the original class of 2000. No surprise, this legendary diver has some incredible stories and experiences under her dive belt, including running recovery and salvage dives all over the world, sometimes on shipwrecks hundreds of feet below the ocean surface. Today I caught up with Bobby at her place in Annapolis, Maryland, where she lives just a mile or so outside the gates of the United States Naval Academy. And I'm really excited because Bobby has promised to take us on an underwater journey. Now, granted, it's an audio journey, but as a dry dock free diver in Colorado at the moment, that sounds pretty good to me. And on this dive, she's bringing us back to the era of the Civil War and sharing her epic experience diving on one of the most iconic and historically significant shipwrecks in maritime warfare and US history. The USS Monitor. Hello, Bobby. How are you doing today? I'm doing great. Great to be with you, Megan. First, can you just tell me a bit about your dive career? Uh, how did you find diving and get into it? Was it with the Navy or prior to that?

SPEAKER_06 13:20

Actually, I had never dove a day in my life before I joined the Navy. I grew up in Illinois in the Midwest, away from the oceans. After I graduated from college with a degree in biology, looking at what I wanted to do with my life, I stumbled upon a Navy recruiter and decided, oh, well, maybe I wouldn't mind joining the Navy for four years. And I went through officer candidate school and had an opportunity to go to a ship. And remember, this is back in the early 1980s when women were just being allowed to go aboard ships for the first time. And my first ship was a submarine repair ship. And that was my first exposure to Navy divers. My job was the electrical officer on the ship. But I would watch these Navy divers working on the repairs under the water on the submarines, and I was fascinated by what they were doing. And I looked into it, and sure enough, women officers could be diving officers. And that's what prompted me to look into that career path. And I was one of the early women to go through Navy dive school and started my career as a Navy diving officer back in 1983.

SPEAKER_07 14:36

So this whole idea of join for four years and then flash forward 24 years later, and you had served all of that time. So you must have just kind of fallen in love with diving. What is it that you love about diving? What do you connect with the most?

SPEAKER_06 14:54

Well, I really did intend on only doing four years in the Navy, but once I started getting into my roles as a Navy diving officer, I realized that I loved the challenges, the rewards, the camaraderie. And I loved being under the water, of course, and doing the work that we did. And plus I was serving my country. So it was a little bit of everything.

SPEAKER_07 15:18

I'd love to hear about one particular dive that was your most important or special dive that that really stands out to you, that played a role in your dive career in some way. Can you take a sit underwater with you on this dive? Okay. As you can imagine, this is a nearly impossible question for a career diver like Bobby to answer. I mean, it is no easy task when you have a very deep pool of riveting dives to pick from. Things that maybe you and I can barely even imagine being part of. Like the operation recovering the aircraft and victims from the tragic TWA flight 800 that crashed off Long Island in 1996. Or like the recovery operation after the USS coal was bombed in Yemen in 2000. That is some serious and heavy diving. But after a bit of consideration, Bobby landed on a particular dive experience she wanted to take us on.

SPEAKER_06 16:19

So probably the pinnacle of my career was when I was able to work on the USS Monitor Expedition in 2001 and 2002. It was I was out there in charge of the operation for two summers as the commanding officer. But I also got to make 19 dives over the course of the two summers. And the depth of water was 235 feet. The Navy was making these dives with both saturation divers and with surface-supplied mixed gas diving. We were using the big heavy surface-supplied helmets and dive rigs. So it's this large yellow helmet, like this big motorcycle helmet almost that you put on your head and then you connect it with a neck down. And because of the depth of water, you know, it gets pretty cold down there at 235 feet. So we use a hot water suit, which is like a really wet suit, but then we have a hose coming from the surface with hot water running through it. So it's kind of like you're diving with your own personal jackoozie, you know, that keeps you warm at those depths.

SPEAKER_07 17:30

Wow, that's that actually sounds pretty luxurious to have the hot water. Now you're tethered to the surface, you're down 230 some feet, tethered with two hoses, essentially, one with the hot water and one with your air supply. Does that pose any problems for you? I mean, is that that seems a little nerve-wracking to me being a free diver and free of all this stuff? So, like, how how does that work?

SPEAKER_06 17:58

It is, and actually, um, we call that our umbilical. And there's more than just the two hoses. We also then have a communication line, and then we also keep a light on our helmet, and then we have a camera on our helmet. And then we don't wear fins, of course, when we dive down to the bottom. We wear boots like fireman boots that are are weighted also. So this whole rig is about 200 pounds. On my very, very first dive, it was just amazing because I'm looking down and like watch the monitor come into view. And the USS Monitor, which was the first Civil War ironclad ship of the Union Navy, and I saw it slowly emerge in front of me. And it really gave me goosebumps because I had been reading, of course, about the history of the monitor and the Battle of Hampton Roads, which was the battle between the USS Monitor and the CSS Merrimack, and what that meant to our country's history and to naval history. It was just this amazing feeling. And, you know, I'd read about all the sailors and the officers who had served on the monitor. So it was just, it was just surreal. And this was kind of the pinnacle of my career. So in 2001, we were able to remove and recover the very iconic steam engine. Monitor was known for its unique, first of its kind steam engine. And then in 2002, we were able to remove the revolving gun trick, which took quite a bit because the monitor had actually flipped over and was upside down when it settled on the bottom of the ocean. So in both cases, we had to cut both of those large items free of the ship. And this was an archaeological expedition, so we tried to do that surgically so that we didn't ruin the rest of the ship. It was amazing. The turret is quite large, as you would expect. And it was all filled in with sand and coal and stuff from where it flipped over, and we couldn't lift the turret. We had to excavate that stuff out of the inside of the turret so we could free it up from the wake before we could haul it up. And in the process, we did find the human remains from a couple of the sailors that had perished with the monitor. So it was also a recovery operation. And, you know, we went through the ceremonial aspects of recovering the sailors that were still inside the turret. They were fellow sailors. We had about 215 people on the barge, mainly divers, and the whole barge stopped and impacted everybody and put a different feel to the operation for the couple of days that we went through that process. And uh it made us stop and and think about what it was that we were there for.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Oh yeah, I I actually forgot. Okay, uh, let's see. Uh hi, this is Aaron on Grimson, a complete wreck junkie, and you're listening to the Deeper Blue podcast.

unknown 21:59

Hi.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Jason Olius, producer of the Deeper Blue Podcast. Today's top tip comes from Alex Rose, science editor and photographer at the incredible Ocean Geographic magazine.

SPEAKER_04 22:10

Okay, here's my top tip. So I think this is a tempting thing for all divers to do, but once you start diving, you want to immediately start capturing what you see underwater. You see amazing things and you want to show those amazing things to everyone you know. And that's great. But the problem being sometimes it's really easy to jump into photography a little bit too soon. So task loading is a really big thing when you're diving. And when you're first starting out, you really, really need to focus on being the best diver that you can be before you put a camera in your hands. So my recommendation for anyone who's starting to think about wanting to take images underwater is to first evaluate how good of a diver you are. If you don't have amazing buoyancy, it's not going to get better once you start with a camera because you are not going to be paying attention to your diving and you'll be completely engrossed in making images. So try to become as good of a diver as you can be before you get a camera in your hands, because you can't be a great photographer underwater if you're not a great diver first.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Finally, every episode we share a story from you, the dive community, where we ask you to tell us about your best dive ever.

SPEAKER_03 23:20

Hi, my name's Polly Wolfinden. I contributed to Deeper Blue in the early years when I was a working instructor, having done my apprenticeship with Camel Dive Club, and then my instructor's exam with Dive in Leisure London in the late 90s. And now I live near Sulcom in Devon, having worked in Egypt, Cayman Islands, Canaries, and East Africa. But I'd say my greatest dive was one of my most recent, uh, joined a dive reunion to Dahab this June. My great friend and dive buddy Lonnie O'Reagan, who used to work for Reef 2000, and I jumped into the canyon to find ourselves the only divers in the water that day. It was such a rare treat. And after a sensational dive, when we ducked back to see the fishbowl teeming with life again, we carried on over to do our deco on the outside of the blue hole and watched in utter awe and completely uninterrupted two large octopus making love. They were romancing, they were dancing, their testicles were seducing each other, and the camouflage spectacle of colour transformations was just amazing. And for five minutes we watched absolutely entranced, and then suddenly the male shot off towards our right and started seducing a furred octopus. We were just 15 metres away at this point, and we were still the only people in the whole dive site, and we felt extremely blessed. It was completely magical, the colours were magical, the silence, and it really was one of the most incredibly personal experiences that I just couldn't rate it higher.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

We'd love to hear your story about diving. So at the end of the show, you'll find out all the info you need to submit your best dive ever. Thanks for listening to the Deeper Blue Podcast. Find out more on all the stories you've heard this week, plus connect to the world's largest online dive community at deeperblue.com. And if you like what you've heard, please subscribe, like, and comment wherever you hear your podcasts. These comments and subscribes really make a difference. Before we go, I want to give a big shout out to Jason Elias, our producer. In case you didn't know, he has an amazing podcast about people who have a deep connection to our world's oceans. Connections strong enough that they've dedicated some part of their lives to being in or working on behalf of the water. Take a listen when you get a moment to Jason's show, the Big Deep Podcast. Every week, we want to hear your stories and share them with the world. So please record and send in your short story of your best dive ever. Keep it brief, no longer than two minutes, please. And in it, tell us your name and location, where you were on the dive, what happened that make it so great, and why it's meant so much to you. You can get that over to us at bestdive ever at deeperblue.com or head to our website podcast.deeperblue dot com forward slash best dive ever. Join us again next week and explore much more of the deeper blue.