Henry C Daryaw
A Tuesday night dive organized by Adam & Barry was a great success! Chartered through Abucs Scuba and captained by Helen herself. We dove the continually exciting wreck of the Henry C Daryaw.
“The Henry C. Daryaw is a steel freighter 219’ x 35’ x 13’ built in France as the bulk freighter Mainier in 1919. In 1923 her owners converted her to a combination bulk and package freighter in Montreal and renamed Oakbay. A small irony that her final resting place ends up to be directly across the river from Oak Point, NY. In 1935 she was fitted with a crane and renamed the Henry C. Daryaw, by Captain Henry Daryaw, Kingston.” (Quoted from scubadive1000islands.com/wreck_diving_daryaw.php)
(Adam Kulczycki Photo)
“Sunk in 1941 in collision with the shoal between American and Canadian Channels. The navigator did not see the shoal in a deep fog and Daryaw run into the shoal bow first with significant speed. She sunk soon thereafter. During sinking, she flipped upside down and landed right next to the wall with the deepest part at 90ft.” (Quoted from http://www.wrecksandreefs.com/daryaw.htm)
We opted to drift onto the wreck. Barry leading the charge, we hopped off the the boat as a group.
(Christian Lloyd-Kohls Photo)
It was a quick decent, and the ship was right there. The nine of us immediately all swam up into the bow of the boat. With flashlights shining all over the place, and silt starting to get stirred up (never from me…), the group started dispersing.
(Christian Lloyd-Kohls Photo)
My buddy (Ivor) and i left the group after a couple of minutes. We swam out from under the boat, and made our way to the bow. Once there we followed the keel from the deck (buried in sand) up and along the hull letting the current drift take us to the stern. At one point we saw a sturgeon relaxing in the setting sun. We stopped to check out the puncture that sank her. After drifting to the props we swam back to the under belly and wedged ourselves between the ship and sand. We watched a fish swimming and our bubbles sliding across the rusted zebra muscled wreck.
(Christian Lloyd-Kohls Photo)
We swam back to the bow through the cargo holds to the place were the group had originally investigated. I was noticing that the sun had diminished to the point that i couldn’t obviously see the exit route. The thought crossed my mind that we should be thinking about heading out, when Ivor started flashing his light at me like he needed my immediate attention. Finning up to see him, he shone his light at the ship… EELS!
(Christian Lloyd-Kohls Photo)
The eels started coming out! the first one Ivor found was 2-3 feet long. I saw three more as we made our way to the rudder, where the exit line is. 52 minute dive. Nitrox is the way to go.
A side note, Dan got a call from his wife 10 min from Brockville that he had forgotten his wetsuit. He decided that he might aswell meet us there to say hello. After the group showed up, it was ether peer pressure or a strong will, but Dan dove with a T-shirt & Boxers.
(Christian Lloyd-Kohls Photo)
He had a 45+ minute dive! It shows the rest of us up in our dry suits!
A great crowd. A great wreck. A great dive!
