under the surface - scuba diving finds

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went diving yesterday & today. Will post up some videos if I get a chance tonight - brutally early bottle dive at Williamstown tomorrow morning with the owner of the local dive shop who is a bigger underwater seagull than me, I mean avid collector of old & odd lost items.

So I go diving with 2 buddies, Graham & Bruce. We're under the pier at Mordialloc and 3 meters away I see Bruce picking up a bottle and think "yep more garbage" because there's a lot of junk under there. However I was very wrong - Bruce doesn't seem overly excited?
1424504005_bruce_n_bottle_mordialloc_21_feb_2015.jpg
 
so I like finding junk - Mordialloc pier to day
1424507123_mordialloc_21_feb_15_booty.jpg

fone is an i-turd 5 according to my eldest who is busily trying to dismantle it to see if it can be salvaged (good luck kiddo ....hehehehehe).
the pot had red rice and a single coin/token in it.
More lead.
The sunnies work and I put them on as I did a beach exit much to the amusement of swimmers - I thought it sort of James Bond. One day I'd love to surface, pop a waterproof pouch and light my pipe as I wade in.
Brown bottle dates to 1920s or earlier and green bottle has rough mold marks & deep pontil but no markings I can find so will remain a mystery.
Found the place where golf balls go to die and collected 15 of them.
 
Think saltwater would kill a phone quickly. Love seeing what people loose off the pier :)
 
hey Rocketaroo - talking about things falling off piers. What do you reckon this is? Under Mordialloc pier today, and no I didn't bring it home.
1424509167_mordialloc_voodo_brick_21_feb_2015.jpg

String probably held something to the brick but nothing close by -
 
I wonder how many divers get hooked by fishermen..???? There is a lot of stuff down there... I am sure you will find some very valuable things as you go.. I know that divers bring up coke bottles that bring good dough from where us ships were anchored from ww2.. I once had a large transistor radio that was knocked off the edge of a peir at Gladstone years ago while fishing.. :)
 
Robert Le Mal said:
hey Rocketaroo - talking about things falling off piers. What do you reckon this is? Under Mordialloc pier today, and no I didn't bring it home.https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/2546/1424509167_mordialloc_voodo_brick_21_feb_2015.jpg
String probably held something to the brick but nothing close by -

Maybe a long lost pyramid brick
Looks like hieroglyphics to me :lol:
 
Hi Kawman,
I have never had a problem with fresh fishing line, we even saw some this morning just using our torches on the swim out to the bottle site - it was plainly visible so we just finned up a bit and went over it. I have been snagged 3 times on discarded fishing line and there's a lot out there, in some places it looks almost like either a spider web on the bottom or just jumbled up in a big ball. I carry a good dive knife on my leg and a smaller line cutter on the shoulder harness of my BCD. Nothing to panic about but just annoying. On the upside I now have more than 13 kilos in sinkers I've collected - plus a whole bunch of squid jiggers (shame I don't fish).

@ Sandta - not sure, I'd say religious of one sort or another. I wish I knew what was strapped to the brick, that would have solved the puzzle.

Anyway I was in the water with Les & Ron at 6.30 am this morning because we're keen/mental. Actually the other two had to conduct a dive class in the morning so we had to go early before they started their work. Not much in the way of old bottles, though I'm checking what I thought were modern beer bottles more carefully now I know some have dates on them.

Sandta & Rocketroo - I hope you find this one relaxing too.
[video=480,360]http://youtu.be/bj6Pbrnvb4I?list=PLcEE5etdQ0Mx7L0sAK5XBaX1OG5hlF666[/video]
 
So any NEWS on your Excalibur ?

Love the start of the night vid... Reminds me of "War of the Worlds"
 
Robert Le Mal said:
yep. It's going back to them soon to be repaired - properly this time.

So is this the second or third time ?

If you pay for any repair / replacement; demand the old parts back; as they belong to you.

My guess, is that they will or should replace the whole main module... But I would love to get my hands on the old one... Just to confirm what they have or have not done...
 
so I took the CTX out for an early morning wade at Mordialloc. Found 60 cents & a castor wheel off a chair - at least it was a relaxing hour.
Then got my gear on and dived under Mordialloc pier. Wrong wind direction which meant a filthy dive with bad viz and serious surge factor. I don't get motion sick but it's still a pest. On the upside the sand is being ripped off the reef that nudges the pier. Was supposed to be looking for old bottles.
Anyway in hour dive found what feels like a kilo of sinkers plus other interesting junk & some fun and not so fun underwater creatures.

so the haul.
1428223725_finds_mordialloc_5_april_2015.jpg


so glad I wear a full face mask and a drysuit. Too small so I'd probably just throw it back anyway ;)
1428223759_franga_fish.jpg


this little dude was having as much trouble with the surge as I was. Also saw a blue ring occy but photo is pretty bad.
1428223833_horsing_around.jpg


I bet it's been a long time since fins were made in Oz. Anyone ever owned a set of these? "Genuine Hi Power Frogman Flippers"
Wish I'd found the pair as I need some sexy frogman flippers so I can re-enact "Sea Hunt".
1428223895_genuine_hi_power_frogman_flippers.jpg


Capn 'Merica! Foto is rubbish because of the amount of material thrown up by surge.
1428223973_captan_merica.jpg


You could spend big bucks on a detector or just waste it on scuba gear and look around I suppose :)
1428224031_tweny_sents_mate.jpg


Now the interesting find of the day. Works like a syringe but has a large thread on the nose. For syringing grease through a tube?
Anyone seen one of these?
1428224083_bronze_syringe_in_situ.jpg

1428224083_bronze_syringe.jpg


Might put a video up later...
 
That's a sheath jelleyfish by the looks of things, emits a milky substance when disturbed. ;) That's pretty hefty collection of sinkers, must be some jewellery hidden around there somewhere, next trip maybe. :)
 
Ramjet said:
Cool bottles. There is a bottle collector at work and he has been very helpful pointing out old pub sites etc for me to detect.

I found a bottle today saying Simpson white king- any ideas it's brown? Tried googling to no prevail
 
yep, I had to shift some of the sinkers to the pockets of my drysuit because the weight in my finds bag was buggering up my trim. Felt like a lot - and there was more down there but my bladder lasts about 60 minutes, and being in a drysuit you want to stay "dry" ;)

Your reasoning is good, if the sinkers and coins are there - well what else ?
There's so much lead and discarded iron under and around the pier that a metal detector wouldn't be much good anyway.

And the jellyfish definitely got my attention. I didn't disturb it for fear of it emitting a "milky substance" and swimming off.
 
Ramjet - can you put a picture up?
There's so many bottles out there that sometimes finding details can be almost impossible.
 
In the days of old, sailors that contracted syphalis, were given syringes very similar.mThey shot a load of some medicine/chemical up their old fellas daily.
 

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