Tom Dettweiler
Traveler Name:
Tom Dettweiler
Adventure:
Finders Deepers
Tom Dettweiler
Adventure:
Finders Deepers
Flash Title: Finders Deepers
As a child, I would stretch out in front of the television mesmerized by my favorite TV show “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau”, and tell my parents “I am going to do that someday”. I was still saying it as I went off to college to study engineering and marine sciences. And for the past 35 years , I have been living my own adventures on the ocean, discovering and recovering interesting things lost in the waters of the world’s seas.
Exploring the deep and meeting the unique challenges it presents is my passion. Literally seeing things no man has seen before and bringing history to the surface is a constant thrill. I was on the team that first found and explored the TITANIC, found and raised part of the long lost Israeli Submarine DAKAR, for which I received a medal of recognition from the Israeli government, found the I-52 Japanese submarine carrying a clandestine cargo including 5 tons of gold earmarked for Germany during WWII, and many other fascinating wrecks.
For the past six years I have been working as Senior Project Manager for Odyssey Marine Exploration, finding, documenting, and recovering historic shipwrecks. Every day is something new and exciting but every so often, we find incredible wrecks, with amazing riches and history that adds definition to the never-ending story of man’s exploration of our planet. One really exciting thing that happened this past year is we were able to share our adventures with folks around the world through our Discovery Channel series ‘Treasure Quest”. The show gave us the opportunity to take viewers along on our adventures as we found and explored shipwrecks, conducting our forensic analysis into the identities and stories of these wrecks.
During the filming, the Odyssey team solved one of the world’s greatest maritime mysteries with the discovery of Admiral Balchin’s HMS Victory. This British warship had been long sought after by many groups since her sinking in a major storm in 1744. She was the largest warship of her time, so feared that she commanded a period of peace as no other, finally succumbing to the ultimate enemy, the ocean storm. This ship was the last Royal Navy warship to be outfitted with 42-pounder (describing the size of the shot) bronze cannon, the most powerful and prestigious guns used in Colonial naval warfare. Working in very limited visibility, we explored the shipwreck, which contained a large number of bronze cannon.. Knowing that HMS Victory carried over 100 bronze cannon including the large 42 pounders, we needed to confirm that some of the guns on the seabed were rare 42 pounders. We needed a method of positively measuring the bore diameters to determine the caliber of the guns, since the 42 pounder had a uniquely large diameter. A quick discussion on-board came up with a collaborative design of a bore measurement tool, which was constructed in the ship’s shop, and carried around to the cannons by the ROV (remotely operated vehicle) until decisively finding a 42 pounder. The decision was made to recover this cannon for the British Navy, as proof of the identity of the Victory, and again, a lifting rig and tooling were designed at sea to conduct this recovery.
I’ve done much bigger lifts, but at four and a half tons, and considering the historical importance, I was certainly glad when we finally pulled this behemoth from the water and set her down on deck. Only then could the majestic beauty and awesome size of this weapon with her intricate cast markings and dolphin lifting handles be appreciated. After high-fives all around, we began to document the all-important details, before placing our newly recovered ‘treasure’ into a large tank to begin conservation. This will always remain one of the most memorable moments of my career, but is a stepping stone to the next adventure.
To learn more about Odyssey Marine Exploration’s adventures please visit www.shipwreck.net.
Exploring the deep and meeting the unique challenges it presents is my passion. Literally seeing things no man has seen before and bringing history to the surface is a constant thrill. I was on the team that first found and explored the TITANIC, found and raised part of the long lost Israeli Submarine DAKAR, for which I received a medal of recognition from the Israeli government, found the I-52 Japanese submarine carrying a clandestine cargo including 5 tons of gold earmarked for Germany during WWII, and many other fascinating wrecks.
For the past six years I have been working as Senior Project Manager for Odyssey Marine Exploration, finding, documenting, and recovering historic shipwrecks. Every day is something new and exciting but every so often, we find incredible wrecks, with amazing riches and history that adds definition to the never-ending story of man’s exploration of our planet. One really exciting thing that happened this past year is we were able to share our adventures with folks around the world through our Discovery Channel series ‘Treasure Quest”. The show gave us the opportunity to take viewers along on our adventures as we found and explored shipwrecks, conducting our forensic analysis into the identities and stories of these wrecks.
During the filming, the Odyssey team solved one of the world’s greatest maritime mysteries with the discovery of Admiral Balchin’s HMS Victory. This British warship had been long sought after by many groups since her sinking in a major storm in 1744. She was the largest warship of her time, so feared that she commanded a period of peace as no other, finally succumbing to the ultimate enemy, the ocean storm. This ship was the last Royal Navy warship to be outfitted with 42-pounder (describing the size of the shot) bronze cannon, the most powerful and prestigious guns used in Colonial naval warfare. Working in very limited visibility, we explored the shipwreck, which contained a large number of bronze cannon.. Knowing that HMS Victory carried over 100 bronze cannon including the large 42 pounders, we needed to confirm that some of the guns on the seabed were rare 42 pounders. We needed a method of positively measuring the bore diameters to determine the caliber of the guns, since the 42 pounder had a uniquely large diameter. A quick discussion on-board came up with a collaborative design of a bore measurement tool, which was constructed in the ship’s shop, and carried around to the cannons by the ROV (remotely operated vehicle) until decisively finding a 42 pounder. The decision was made to recover this cannon for the British Navy, as proof of the identity of the Victory, and again, a lifting rig and tooling were designed at sea to conduct this recovery.
I’ve done much bigger lifts, but at four and a half tons, and considering the historical importance, I was certainly glad when we finally pulled this behemoth from the water and set her down on deck. Only then could the majestic beauty and awesome size of this weapon with her intricate cast markings and dolphin lifting handles be appreciated. After high-fives all around, we began to document the all-important details, before placing our newly recovered ‘treasure’ into a large tank to begin conservation. This will always remain one of the most memorable moments of my career, but is a stepping stone to the next adventure.
To learn more about Odyssey Marine Exploration’s adventures please visit www.shipwreck.net.
|
|
|
