I wanted to try to give those of you who can't/don't dive a taste of one of the Caribbean's most famous dive sites. This is the wreck of RMS Rhone and if you click play below we'll take a trip through the open deck of the bow section through the hull and out through the open wound that sank her. Sorry its a little dark and disorienting - I only had my digicam's video mode and my focus light to work with but I think it captures the feeling of moving through a wreck pretty well. Watch out for the turtley awesome cameo at around the 1:07 mark.
The Rhone was a mail ship that went down in october 1867; the victim of an unexpected and unseasonal hurricane. At least 123 people on the Rhone died in her sinking with only 23 crew surviving. Also on board were a number of passengers from the Rhone's sister ship, the Conway, none of whom survived. The full story of the sinking of the Rhone is long and rather complicated but wikipedia has a reasonable version here. She finished up in 2 halves and in the video above we go through the intact bow section. The stern is pretty much flattened. Readers of a certain age may recognise the Rhone which featured in the classic film The Deep filmed in 1977 (the Rhone's scenes are mainly remembered for the sight of Jacqueline Bisset diving the wreck in a white t-shirt). The wreck of the Rhone has a number of 'must-see' features, my favourite of which is shown in the clip below.
This porthole has been down there for a 142 years and even though the rest of the wreck is covered with encrusting corals the hinge still works perfectly. The real attraction of wrecks besides their history is the marine life they attract - some more of that will be coming up shortly.
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