Matt Bird
Nauru
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Nº85
Date: 1991-06-30 - 01:01
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Max Depth: 9m Duration: 15mins
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- Dive type : Wreck, Reef, Research, artifact salvage
- Visibility: Average Water: Salt
Specific gear used
- Weights: 2 kg
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This dive was an introduction to part of my future that had an influence on my choice to study Maritime Archaeology at University. One of my dive friends, Judy Dunlop, whilst diving had found a small swivel cannon on a previous dive. On this dive we raised and retrieved the cannon using home made inflatable flotation devises.
Our plan was not for a long dive but an efficient and safe retrieval of the cannon. It took 15 minutes to secure and lift the cannon and raise it to the surface. The real challenge was transporting it through the surf line and across the reef at half tide. The hardest test was moving it from the shore, up the beach to the car. For a small cannon they are very heavy(durr). This was hard enough to move but what made it most difficult was that we had to treat the cannon very carefully due to the delicate and soft state of the metal. Once we managed to move it to Judy's home, we placed it in a 44 gallon drum of fresh water, hooked up to a car battery, in which it stayed for 3 month.
The 3 month electrolysis process stabilized the metal making hard again. This also then allows coral growth and other residual build up to be removed easily with out damaging the cannon itself. I believe the cannon was eventually given to and is located at the Australian High Commission residents on Nauru. We spent several dives trying to find more artifacts in the area but found none. Its a difficult location to find unnatural objects in the what because this area is littered by waste and other object resulting for the phosphate industry.