To see another part of the offshore work that MMT does, I was recently transferred to the MMT vessel, Triad. The Triad is smaller than the Icebeam, the ship that I was previously on, but a lot most cosy and I have really gotten to know everyone on board.
Unlike most of MMT’s projects which generally have to do surveying for pipeline or cable projects, the Triad is currently working on exploring the sunken wreck of Mars the Magnificent, a Swedish battle ship that went down in the late 16th century. Carl Douglas (Midd alum and reason I’m in Sweden) has a strong passion for marine archaeology, so a lot of what he does with MMT is use their resources to learn more about wrecks. I’ve had the opportunity to meet Carl here and I can say that he is really passionate about exploration and has collected a really unique group of professionals to explore this site.
The Triad is not the only vessel on site, as the exploration of Mars is a project with a Swedish University, Deep Sea Productions, Ocean Discovery, MMT, the Defense Academy, and a few other partners. The other vessels are the Otto (Ocean Discovery) and the Mama Duck and Skutt (also MMT boats). All of the boats are diving boats, meaning that they are easy for divers to leave from and get back on to.
I, more or less, have joined the crew of the Triad and am no longer doing data processing, but helping them with day to day operations. Since most of the work exploring the Mars is physical work, there really is no data being collected from the Triad. Instead the different teams of divers, scientists, and archaeologists are looking to get a closer look at life on board the ship, it’s military prowess, and salvage and pieces possible.
My typical day looks like this:
Wake up around 7:30, have breakfast hopefully while standing outside, enjoying the already bright and warm sunshine. By this time everyone is already working, rearranging ropes or what not in the tether system that keeps us situated directly over the wreck. (The ship doesn’t have the more modern dynamic positioning system that uses GPS to keep us in one spot, so they have rigged up a series of anchors to keep the boat in place over the wreck- old fashioned dynamic positioning.)
While the Triad is generally positioned right over the wreck, the Otto and Mama Duck bring the rest of the divers who are staying onshore on the island of Öland, off the east coast of Sweden. (We have 3 divers on board the Triad, and arguably the best divers in the whole expedition.) The other diving boats arrive between 8:30 and 10:00 in the morning, and soon drop off their divers. Not knowing anything about diving, it’s been pretty interesting to watch the whole process. It takes the divers about 4 or 5 minutes to get down to the wreck site. They explore the site for about 15 minutes or a half hours, and then the ascent and decompression period takes 1.5 hours for them to return to the surface!
Depending on the tasks for the day, the divers will measure various pieces of the wreck, prepare pieces to be lifted to the surface, take pictures, or film for an upcoming documentary. The operations from the Triad include keeping a watch out for the safety of the divers, testing a new multi-beam system to accurately image the wreck, exploring the wreck with the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and just support the exploration.
The crew here have been really welcoming and have let me learn and try out a few of the different jobs as part of the project. The other day, I learned to drive the Skutt, and even got her up to a speed of 32 knots! I had a shot at exploring the wreck with the ROV, and got to see the canons up close and personal. I even got the chance to drive the Triad for all of 5 minutes, but I wasn’t very good at that, and our path was anything but straight.
Overall, it’s been a great few days out here. I love that this project involved us working outside all day, instead of in front of the computers. It is summer after all and worth it to be in the sun.
I am now halfway through my my time offshore. Let’s see what the next two weeks holds!