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No extra tilt of the wreck

Mediator_20071104_compared_to_20100725_small

In my report on the dive that we did at the Mediator last Sunday I mentioned that it looked to me that the tilt of the wreck at the bow had increased to starboard. Today I checked this with previous pictures of this section of the wreck. To the left a picture that I made on November 4, 2007; that is more than two and a half year ago. I created a second layer on this picture in which I copied a small section of the picture from last Sunday with an opacity of 50% so that the original picture shines through. You can see it as a small rectangle in the picture at the left. I aligned the pipe in this small section with the pipe that is laying on the sand in the original picture; also the lowest part of the bow is aligned in both pictures. The pipe is not connected to the wreck so if tilt of the ship would have increased since 2007 the bow at the top of the small rectangle (just below the Tarpon) would be misaligned with the bow in the original picture. Although not really visible in the small picture, by clicking on that picture you will get a larger one in which you can see that there is no visible increase in the tilt of the wreck in the two and a half year since the previous picture. So even if there is an increase this would be minimal and certainly not visible with the naked eye.

Back at the Mediator after a long time

Mediator_201007125_025_small After a long time of absence we finaly found the time to get back to the Mediator. The number of volunteers has dropped below a critical limit for structural activities on the wreck. So the only remaining activity is once in a while a guided tour at this historical wreck site. And even these quided tours are not very often because most tourist don't know about this possibility.

On Sunday July 25, 2010, we did a guided dive / rescue exercise at this location. As usual I was the first one to enter the water to have optimal conditions for photography. As soon as I was under water it became clear that the conditions on this day were quite exceptional; the visibility was very good. At least 10 - 12 meters.

The condition of the wreck itself didn't change visibly except for the tilt of the ship. I didn't check it yet with pictures from the bow from previous years, but it looks to me that the bow is more tilted to starboard than I can remember from the past. The picture can not give the final answer because there is always a chance that I have tilted the camera so we need to do a measurement to be sure.

What has changed visibly is the amount of debris on the wreck. There are a lot of tires on and around the wreck. Also other materials that don't belong there are spread over the wreck. A cleaning is something that we should organize for the near future.

Pictures from this dive can be found in the Pictures section under Mediator.

Mystery solved

On Sunday November 22, 2009 we went back to the Mediator for the first time since a long time. The reason for the long period of absence is that we are lacking sufficient volunteers to do the regular things. But this time 5 members of the hard core of the volunteers were present plus a number of guests for a guided tour. The idea was to check the status of the airlift, to find out what is blocking the entrance to the front hold (under the bow deck) and to restart the guided tours. This all with the intention to work at the Mediator at least every other weekend.

My goal was to find out what mysteriously blocked the portside entrance to the hold under the bow deck. Swimming under the bow deck from portside to the starboard side is one of the attractions during the guided tour, but last time we found out that this was no longer possible. I took some pictures of the area last time but apparently missed the essential piece.

Visit of archaeological divers from abroad

Wed - 25 Mar

From March 5, 2009 till March 19, 2009 two archaeological divers from the States and a group of archaeological divers (Mergor in Mosam) from the Netherlands were visiting Curaçao to work on the Mediator wreck. One of the two people from the States is the professional archaeologist under whose direction all archaeological activities on this wreck take place. He wrote an initial plan of the activities that could be undertaken during this period. That plan had to be adapted because it was not possible to dive on all days because of visiting cruise ships in the harbor.

November 27, 2005 - A treasure-chest is discovered in the wreck of the Mediator

To support the good work that Stimana is doing two local companies, the bank RBTT and the insurance company Fatum, decided to donate each 5000 Antillean guilders.

This is done in a special way. Normally on Sunday morning Theo van der Giesen with volunteer divers do their cleaning and archeological work on the wreck. This time also the supervising archeologist Dr. Wil Nagelkerken was invited to join the divers in the water. To his surprise a treasure-chest was found in the most forward hold. The treasure-chest was brought to the surface where in the meantime representatives of the sponsors were arrived. The chest was opened and in it two large gold ducats were found representing the gift from each of the two companies.
Stimana needs donations like these to continue its important work. Organizations or private individuals that want to support Stimana are invited to contact mister Gerd Glaudemans at telephone number (+599 9) 462-1200 (BDO Accountants).

Through this dive I came in contact with Stimana. I work at Fatum and was invited to participate in the activity. Since then I am one of the volunteers who on Sunday morning work on the wreck to clean it.

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