(PIcture of the Puriri)

On Saturday the 9^th of January 1999 Pete Mesley and Tim Cashman descended onto the wreck of the HMNZS Puriri. This is the first time that anyone has been on the wreck since she went down 58 years ago.  She was a 188 foot long, 924 ton vessel. Commissioned by the 25 Flotilla as a Minesweeper in the Hauraki Gulf. She had an armament of only one 1-4 (102mm) gun. On June 14^th 1941 she struck a German mine and sunk within minutes claiming the lives of 5 crew members including the CO. She now lies in 100 meters of water 9 miles North East of the Whangerai heads.

 The dive was planned to a max depth of 98m, the highest part of the vessel estimated at being 90m. The wreck when observed by the sounder appeared to be in two main pieces lying in a Northerly to southerly direction. A shot line was used to buoy the wreck as it would have been an awkward exercise trying to anchor the boat on the wreck in 100m of water. This was done with precision and the shot line was dropped right in the center of the main hold in the stern section (nice aim Phil!). The deco station was rigged independently of the Noresman and all back up gas and gear prepared by the support team. The need for a support team on a dive like this is imperative as there are many variances that could "ruin the bottom Divers day".

(Picture of the SMS Wolf)

 After the dive Tim and Pete pieced it all together: "We descended onto the main deck and proceeded to swim down on the port side of the hull. The reduced light took a bit of time to get used to but once on the wreck it all started to fall into place. It is pretty weird being at that sort of depth having the clarity of mind not being blinded by narcosis. It really hits home how important helium really is for these dives. We then swam round the stern section trying to look for things of recognition to help orientate ourselves. Our first thought was that we had dropped onto the bow area but after further evidence it was definitely the stern section.  Large plates off the starboard hull had already fallen away making access easy into the holds.  Black coral trees were abundant with sponges and soft corals covering the wreck. We swam into the stern hold through one of the holes in the hull and had a scout around. Hapuka were in abundance, not too perturbed by our presence. Loads of unrecognizable rubble cluttered the floor and some coarse netting was spotted. We did not get as far as the bridge area as our time was almost over (We will get to it on the next trip and hopefully answer a few more questions). Viz was a staggering 30-40 meters in midwater and about 8-10m on the bottom.

  With a bottom time planned for 15 minutes at 98 meters that gave the bottom divers a deco obligation of a little over 2 hours. All dive planning was done on Voyager Deco Software. The bottom mix used was a Trimix 9/55, travel gas was air, and deco gasses were 50% and 100% O2 . The bottom divers carried all their own gas, also having the full back up of the support divers and extra drop tanks .

 Phil Bendle, Skipper of Norseman charters was responsible for putting us onto the wreck (and that he did!!). Keith Gordon was also on the boat. Keith has actually been on the Puriri before (no - he wasn’t on it when it before it sank!!) He has "dived" it with his ROV (remote operated vehicle). A nice toy if you want to see these deeper wrecks and not have to get wet (and sit on the line for hours decompressing!!).

 Special thanks to Air Liquide for supplying gas requirements and to Poseidon New Zealand who helped make this event possible. Noresman charters for getting us.

  The dive team included, Pete Mesley and Tim Cashman (bottom divers). The support team Brian Oxenham (chase boat & surface marshal)  Geoff Payne (deep support) & Willy Heatley (shallow support).

 We all now use Closed Circuit Rebreathers so increase our bottom times to 30 minutes to get more out of the dive!

 If anyone has any knowledge of this massive piece of our maritime heritage please contact me at info@petemesley.com , or 09 2686473 (h) or 027 2782250. I would love to hear form anyone that can piece together the many parts of the puzzle. If anyone knows of any relatives or actual crew who are still alive I would love to hear from you too. We will be planning more expeditions to the Puriri in the near future to learn more. We now have video gear that can go that deep so will be organizing copies of this footage to MAANZ so that others can share in this very exciting site.

© Dive T.E.C.
Email: info@petemesley.com