Robert Gaskin Brockville
Another weekend the weather man was wrong. Overcast but no lightning or rain. The plan was to dive the Robert Gaskin as a drift from blockhouse island, but our group didn’t end up having enough cubic feet of air between us. Instead we dove from Centeen park, and followed the rope that lays out the way. We were diving with cubic foot tanks of 100, 125, 130, double 80′s, double 100′s, plus one stage tank. This is considered an overhead dive. The boat traffic above this dive creates a dangerous scenario if one had to surface.
Five of us geared up. Four in drysuits, one in wet. Turned out to still be drysuit temperature. We descended and swam towards the beginning of the line. Taking the lead I decided to grab the line and pull myself along. It didn’t take to long before I felt the tug of the rope from somewhere behind me. My attention was required because I was silting up the bottom, but also (as I was told after the dive) the line is for navigation not for an easy ride out to the wreck. Correcting my mistakes I continued swimming against the current hovering 5-10′ above the bottom. Getting near the site I could see a charter boat above attached to the buoy overhead.
Fannie and I were ahead of the other three, so we waited for a couple of minutes around the small “artificial reef” someone created. We could no longer see our friends. This meant we either missed them going on to the wreck, they turned around towards shore, or they surfaced. Hoping they were on the wreck Fannie and i swan to the bow and into the ship via the large openings.
(Thanks to Warren Lo Photography via SOS for this shot)
In 1889 the Gaskin was being used as a salvage barge to help retrieve the railroad ferry Armstrong that had sunk. During this process the Gaskin sunk three times, with the third time being the final demise. It now sits around 60′. The buoys that the charter boats tie on to can be seen from Blockhouse Island and Centeen Park.
We dove through the wreck then drifted over the deck. Midway over the deck the sound of a large tanker passing through the shipping channel became apparent. The “Wum Wum Wum” from the powerful engines can be easily heard and felt. Getting back to the bow we checked with each other on the status of our air. Each of us being at 1000 psi meant it was time to head back. The swim back is always easier because your following the current, but also because you know that safety is closer.
Following the line back to the park eventually ends up beside a large pipe. The swim to and fro is not that exciting. The excitement for me comes with the distance to swim out and back, and the fact its an overhead dive. A 3min saftey stop back at Centeen Park and it’s over. Turns out that Dan in the wetsuit we chilled to shivers after the first 15-20 min, so he and Gunes turned back. Adam noticed they disappeared and headed back to find them. Fannie and I had no idea where everyone ended up, so we completed the dive as planned. We both ended with over 500psi.
