Articles

Presentation of “Mystery of the Last Olympian”


Within the DEMA Show 2015 in Orlando, FL, Richie Kohler, a world-known technical diver-explorer and a good friend of ours, presented his book “Mystery of the Last Olympian”. The crew of U Boat Navigator has assisted Richie during the final stage of his exploration so that everyone could enjoy reading his book about Britannic very soon – in February 2016.

“The book details the mysterious sinking Titanic’s sister ship Britannic. Most people know the story of Titanic, but do not know she had two sisters, the Olympic and the Britannic. Britannic was the largest ship sunk during World War one and for almost 100 years there were many questions that couldn’t be answered about her mysterious sinking, until now”.

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Richie and his team joined our expedition in summer 2015, on board of the U Boat Navigator research vessel, to once again submerge to the wreck of Britannic. Richie has been diving to Britannic’s wreck for many years, and this time with our support he performed a unique dive, collecting precious materials that now allowed him to finally finish his book. Everyone did their best to have this book completed by year 2016 – to commemorate a 100-year-anniversary since Britannic and many other ships [as Burdigla], that served during WWI went to rest.

American team of technical divers “Explorers Club” submerged to the wreck of the legendary hospital ship under the supervision of U-Boat team in Triton 3300/3 submersible constantly lighting their path by its beams, cameras and ROV. Having the ability to use our vessel’s diving bell made it a much more pleasant experience as their decompression stops became significantly more comfortable.
Our team on the other hand, had a great time working with the highly trained group of divers devoted to what they do.

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It was also remarkable to find people who are as inspired by this ship and her story as we are and who’s goals and interests meet ours in so many ways.

We are already looking forward to our further mutual projects with Richie and Explores Club. And, of course, we can’t wait to get ahold of a copy of “Mystery of the Last Olympian”. This book, written by Richie Kohler and Charlie Hudson will be out in February 2016.

This post is also available in: Russian

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Films

Selection of videos about the two lost ships in Kea


https://vimeo.com/206388150As few appetizers, we would like to offer in our first post a small selection of videos about the two great lost ships in Kea waters nearly 100 years ago!

Starting with the lovely trailer of the film Dark Waters under preparation by our friends from the U-Boat Malta Org.

Trailer of the Mystery of Britannic

While at it its nice to listen to the HMHS Britannic’s owner and friend Simon Mills talking about the importance of this notable shipwreck!

Two more videos involving Simon and Evangelos Papatanasiou from the Hellenic Center of Marine Research supported mission of 2008:

And a blast from the past, a short film from the 2006 expedition on the HMHS BRITANNIC 👍

Plus the IANTD Benelux expeditions to Britannic in 2012.

How about a real treat? The film by Jacques-Yves Cousteau & the Calypso team regarding the discovery of HMHS Britannic back in 1975 🙂

For our Greek viewers, here is an interview by Byron Riginos with Peter Nicolaides aboard the R/V Cdt. Fourcault from the ill fated 2009 National Geographic Expedition to the HMHS BRITANNIC.  Peter Nicolaides had taken part in the discovery expedition of the Britannic in 1975 by Jaques-Yves Cousteau. This video is in Greek language. It is highly recommended to read more about this mission here: http://www.richiekohler.com/project-files/national-geographic-britannic-expedition/. In memory for his friend and mentor Carl Spencer who tragically died while exploring Britannic on this expedition.

Last but not least, couple of videos from the discovery of S/S Burdigala in 2009 by a team of amateur [but daring] divers from the KeaDive.gr expeditions.

This one is from the 2012 expedition [with opening titles in German]. From point 9.25 you can see clearly the heavy trawler net which covers a large part of the vessel’s aft section. During the Sept 16th 2016 Event we plan to lift this net which endangers divers and traps many fish from their natural habitat, leading to their unnecessary death.

Plus, a pictorial selection o the great ship S/S Burdigala (ex. S/S Kaiser Friedrich).

Finally, our event’s short video trailer 🙂