Grappling Grants in Canadian waters

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Last night I watched part of a programme on a salvage expert on National Geographic channel. Following WW2 this salvage expert, Mr. Risdon Beazley, acquired the salvage rights for several dozens of ships sunk with valuable cargoes during WW2. He devised a method to blow the sides of the cargo hold apart, which then enabled his crew to salvage the cargo using a big grappling device. This device was lowered from a ship which used six or eight anchors to position itself over the wreck. A crew member was suspended in a dive bell over the wreck, he was giving directions over a telephone to the rest of the crew to move the ship or lower and raise the grappling device. This way they salvaged valuable materials like zinc, tin and aluminium (even some silver and gold) out of some eighty ships.

One of the ex-crew members noted they only salvaged the cargoes, leaving the debris of the wreck on the sea bed as they had no right to salvage that. This included valuable items like the ship's spare propellers, and putting some of the deck cargo aside on the seabed: "one time we used the grappling device to remove a Churchill tank, which weighs about 20 tons". This remark came just when I thought I had seen enough, so I decided to stick around. I was rewarded by a few shots clearly showing what looked like Sherman tank bogies! After the TV show I looked up some of the ship's names Kaaparen and Kolkhosnik on the internet, and found the following:

Source: AROUND THE WORLD IN 40 WRECKS
"Kolkhosnik: The Kolkhosnik was heading from Boston to Halifax to join an Atlantic convoy when on 17 January 1942 she struck Smithson rock and sank in 42m. Dive it for the cargo of M3 Grant tanks. Our picture shows the 76mm gun barbette on one of the tanks"

Source: Halifax and Halifax gives you extra
"The Russian" is the local nickname for the Kolkhosnik, a freighter carrying, amongst other things, a deck cargo of M3 Grant tanks. It has something of a mystique amongst local divers, at 42 metres being the deepest wreck that it is sensible to dive on air.
Most of the hull has been blasted out during salvage of the cargo of tin and nickel ingots, leaving the boilers and engine intact and upright and propeller haft exposed.
The Kolkhosnik was heading from Boston to Halifax to join an Atlantic convoy when on 17 January 1942 she struck Smithson rock and sank. At the time there were rumours of torpedo attack, but simple navigation error is the more likely cause of sinking. With the wreck now still a recognisable shape but spread out on the seabed, any trace of the original hole has been obscured by subsequent damage.
We follow the propeller shaft to the stern, biasing our route slightly to starboard where two of the M3 Grant tanks have come to rest. One upside down and one on its side.
The M3 Grant was a predecessor of the much more successful M4 Sherman tank, having similar suspension but a very different hull and turret. The main 76 millimetre gun was carried in a barbette on the right side of the hull, with a turret above carrying a smaller 37 millimetre gun.
I have dived Sherman tanks, Valentine tanks, Stuart tanks, and some Japanese tanks, but these are my first Grant tanks. Exposed corners and wheels are garnished with some lovely plumose anemones.
It takes a brisk 25 minutes to cover the wreck end to end and get back to the buoy line. On the way pausing to check out the stern gun, steering, propeller, bow, anchors, ammunition and more Grant tanks. Decompression on air takes another 30 minutes hanging on in a gentle surface current. The 3 metre stop feels positively warm in the 12 degree surface layer.
In my log book there are few wrecks as inspiring as the Kolkhosnik."

Also see Halifax 2003 - Day Two - Kolkhosnik and Halifax 2003 - Day Five - Kaaparen.

Hope this is of interest to anyone - if any divers among us can come up with more pictures, please do!

Regards,
Hanno

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Hanno Spoelstra
Source: Halifax gives you extra

"76mm main gun in the barbette on an M3 Grant tank on the Russian wreck"

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Hanno Spoelstra
Source: Halifax gives you extra

"Suspension of an upturned Grant tank, its tracks fallen off, on the Kolkhosnik"