The two vessels pictured to the left are the EURO (top) as seen during service in the Port of Adelaide and the PIGOTT (bottom) on the waters of Port Phillip Bay. As can be seen, even from these thumbnails, the vessels are quite dissimilar in the shape and positioning of their superstructure. The EURO had the wheelhouse set amidships whereas the PIGOTT has its wheelhouse set more astern.
While the slightly more oblique angle of the PIGOTT image does make it slightly harder to compare, the angle shouldn't shorten the stern deck area significantly to the eye, especially when comparing later images. Both vessels have a straight bow and a cruiser stern, which complicates identification when one is in a poor structural condition on the seabed.
The depth of both of these vessels is beyond the normal recreational diving limit of 40 metres. Nitrogen narcosis coupled with water that usually is clouded with sediments from the Barwon River can mean that the divers suffer an impaired vision of the wrecks. One of the vessels being significantly broken up and this complicates the identification process. Divers sometimes resort to recognising or identifying any of the significant features remaining intact and then referencing these visible clues with historical images or plans from their construction (if they are available).
One particular feature remaining on the bow of the collapsed vessel is the anchor davit (used to raise/lower the anchor from the water and storage on the foredeck).
For sometime, the feature was used as an indication that this vessel was the PIGOTT. All of the previously found historical pictures for the EURO showed that it didn't have a similar anchor davit until additional research found the image when the EURO was working in Adelaide.
The images to the left have been cropped from the first images above, increased in size to provide better detail and set beneath each other. The additional historical images for the EURO (non available for the PIGOTT) are included in the gallery pages linked in the text below).
Details regarding each of these vessels were recorded at the time of dumping at sea. These details include such things as gross tonnage, length, beam and draft are all captured, and still exist, in historical archives. Additionally, plans from the ships construction could be found if the shipyard still exists or their records have been archived at another location. This is the case with the Gourlay Bros. Shipyard where the EURO was built in 1897. The Gourlay Brothers & Company (Dundee) Limited was incorporated on 1 March 1904. By 1905 the company showed a debit balance of over £19,000, a loss which was attributed to the 'serious depression in trade'. By 1907 the loss was over £1,000, much of which had been spent on new buildings and machinery at the shipyard. In 1908 the company's debts forced it into liquidation and the company was wound up. Fortunately there are many records still kept in the Dundee City Council and Dundee University regarding this company including many plans of the various ships that were built in these yards.
Surveying the remains of a vessel can also provide clues or answers to the identity. The EURO has recorded dimensions of 130.0' x 22.5' x 12.2' and 257 tons and the PIGOTT has recorded dimensions of 160.0' x 28.1' x 12.6' and 495 tons. With these dimensions in mind, Rowan Stevens conducted a survey in 2000 in an attempt to confirm the remains of the PIGOTT and obtained a length of 157'. None of the other participants mentioned in the "Divers involved" list above were present during that survey and this has led to further confusion when attempting to reconcile GPS co-ordinates between different charters that have names, or co-ordinates, transposed for each wreck. The reader, if they are acquainted with any sort of wreck diving, especially deep wreck diving, then they would also be aware of how closely these co-ordinates are guarded again hampering the reconciliation/confirmation.
While we are very close to solving the puzzle as to which vessel is which, there are several more dives before we can prove conclusively. We were very fortunate to have perfect weather conditions just prior to Christmas 2003 where Greg Blair and Pedr Klein were able to dive one of the sites, assisted by Jeff Giddens and his dive charter Scuttlebutt. Greg was able to gather a large number of images using a fast black & white film combined with ambient light allowing further analysis of the vessel and comparison to historical images. Please look over the remaining gallery and we would like to hear about your views as to the identities by emailing us at IANTD Australasia.
Posted by Webmaster
on January 19 2006 16:34:11
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