Dear Dirty Dozen Team Member,
We hope this email as always finds you well.
Last week, a team of 9 divers from the inaugural Palau trip with The Dirty Dozen Expeditions conducted a successful dive on the destroyer USS Perry DD-340. A challenging wreck, which has only had around 30 divers visit her since 1944.
This is the story of the USS Perry and our dive.
The USS Perry met her fate as an American Destroyer converted as a minesweeper - less than a mile from Angaur Island, Palau on September 13, 1944 when she scraped a mine at 14:18, sinking her to 78m/255feet.
Our team dived and documented the wreck on August 11, 2022 - 100 years and 4 days after she was commissioned.
The challenges for diving this wreck cannot be understated. We originally planned to dive this wreck exactly on the 100 year anniversary but kept getting blown out by weather.
On our last diving day, the weather gods turned into our favor and at 5am we were all up and loading the boat for a sailing to Angaur Island.
A support boat was on site and a rescue plane had been chartered to monitor our SMBs - should we blow off the wreck which has treacherous ocean currents and sea conditions. About 150 minutes after arriving and locating the wreck, the current slacked to a point where it was safe and our dive team jumped in the water.
This photo is actually from the ascent and purely for illustration. The surface current was absolutely ripping and it took all our strength just to get from the boat onto the line to about 5 meters, and to relax a little before the descent. After a long pull down on the descent the bottom started to appear, and anxiety of the shot being thrown in the wrong place started to creep up. Where was the wreck?
Turns out the shot line was stuck at the seabed, some hundred meters from the wreck and once on the bottom a faint dark hue was glowing in the distance. It was the USS Perry. Before leaving the line we attached a 18,000 lumen video light, meant for film production, as a line marker. This came very much in handy later at 78m where every minute counts.
THE DIVE
We spent about 20 minutes at the bottom of 78m/255ft and all I can tell you from my wreck diving experience - is that the USS Perry is simply a 10/10. The extraordinary visibility, history, logistical challenges and experience diving this wreck is truly world-class. Highlights on the wreck include 3 inch guns, depth charges on racks, magnetic mine cables, gun platforms and the elusive Japanese mine on the seabed.
Dirty Dozen was also on site with our RED Digital Cinema Komodo ready to film the USS Perry in unseen 6K quality. We have been working non-stop to being able to show you a teaser of what we filmed, which you can see on the link above.
WATCH IN 4K QUALITY ON DESKTOP FOR BEST VIEWING EXPERIENCE.
One of our support divers, Niall McCarty, did a photogrammetry run with about a 1000 photos and you can see the results here. I will upload a higher resolution version in our KNOWLEDGE BASE and let you know when he finishes the model after a second dive.
**** UPDATE 1 SEP 2022
Here is a higher resolution image after their second attempt.
It is interesting comparing the composite photo above taken by Bill Remick in August 2000, clearly showing how much deterioration has happened in the last 22 years.
After a good 20 minutes on the bottom, it was time to head up. We were extremely fortunate to have somewhat slack current on the line and were able to do all our decompression there, instead of decompression drift for miles in current as per the original plan.
The USS Perry Dive Team.
From left: Matt Boyle, Perry Brandes, Didier Follain-Grisell, Aron Arngrimsson, Jakub Slama, Geoff Creighton and Antti Apunen.
We dedicate this dive In memory of the eight men that gave their lives when USS Perry sank in Palau on Sept. 13, 1944.
Their names and home states, according to the U.S. Navy:
Joseph Brand, New York
Paul Burnette, Tennessee
Frank Byrd, Ohio
Henry Edgell, West Virginia
Ottice Joplin, Texas
Arthur Schieber, Minnesota
Donald Schomer, Nebraska
Dan Wersebe, Texas
Burnette and Schomer died on a rescue ship and were buried at sea. The others are believed to have died inside a fireroom. They were not found before the ship sank. (Source: www.ussperry.org)
I want to personally thank Matt Boyle, Richard Barnden as well as all our extended support team Niall McCarty and Jesse Alpert for making this dive happen for all of us. You went above and beyond making a seemingly impossible task happen on the last dive day we had in Palau. The dive team and I extend our heartfelt thanks.
Also big thanks to #teamdd member Richie Kohler for sending this video congratulating the team after the successful dive.
WHEN IS THE NEXT TRIP TO PALAU?!
I know - we have been really late launching the follow up dates, but, in the interest of giving you the best possible experience I believe you will want to hold on just a bit longer. We have a lot of surprises coming up in coming newsletters.
Having said that - we are going to release our first date which is August 13-20, 2023 with add-on land based packages at the end of this month. We already have 70+ inquiries for this trip but expedition team members will be selected based on their skills, experience and attitude.
If you are interested in joining us then drop us an email now and we will send out details.
That’s a wrap from us this week!
We hope you have some great plans coming up look forward to seeing you all above and underwater soon. Please don’t forget, if you ever feel lonely, we are always here to chat Dirty.
Best,
Aron & The Dirty Dozen Team