Emerald Sea Photography
On August 26, 1956, a routine training flight from the
Sand Point
Naval
Air station went awry when the flight crew missed setting
their flaps and the PB4Y Navy Bomber they were flying
crashed shortly after takeoff into Lake Washington.
The WWII bomber, a Navy version of the venerable B-24, sank
in 175 feet of water, after all crew were safely evacuated
to life rafts. Salvagers eventually managed to get the
plane back to the surface, where a shackle pin broke and the
plane sank back into the depths of Lake Washington and all
further salvage efforts were abandoned.
The official Navy accident report lists the final position
of the plane in 210’ of water, a forgotten bit of history
lying undisturbed in the cold darks waters of the lake.
When the plane was rediscovered by divers, it was found to
be remarkably well preserved, lying on the muddy bottom in 155’
of water, not far from the boat ramp at Seattle’s Magnuson
Park.
I was fortunate to be able to dive the PB4Y-2 Privateer on a
bright sunny day, with calm waters. We had dropped the
shot-line about 10’ from the aircraft, but
the first two dive teams had
descended to the bottom, and were unable to locate the
plane. Visibility at the bottom of the lake generally
runs about 5 – 10’, and the lack of contrast between the
murky brown water and the muddy bottom actually caused both
of the previous teams to “crash” into the mud on descent.
Both teams humorously described their descent as watching
their depth gauges go, “ 120’, 130’, oops, where did the
lights go”, as they were enveloped by clouds of soft mud
from the bottom.
When it was our turn, I found the descent dark and
disorienting, with no visual reference other than our down
line. I stopped at 130’, to make sure I was perfectly
neutral, and then exhaled to descend slowly. At a
depth of about 150', I observed
the white down line simply vanishing and realized I was at
the bottom, and the shot was down into the mud, but it was
nearly impossible to actually see the bottom.
Attaching a reel to the line, we swam north toward the
plane. Ten feet, twenty feet, thirty feet, hmmmm, we
should have seen it by now. I felt something brush my
fin tip, and turned to check, but couldn’t see anything, so
continued another ten feet, feeling something brush my fin
again. I turned to look, shining my HID light back,
and saw nothing, so turned to go forward, and ran smack
right into the side turret of the plane! Wow, we’re
here!
Once the reel was attached, we swam up over the top of the
wreck, where it was easier to orient yourself. We then
swam forward to peer in through the escape hatches (used by
the 11 man crew of the plane to escape as it sank) and into
the cockpit, wheels still in place (and flap controls still
in the wrong position). At the very front of the
plane, the .50 caliber machine guns still point off into the
murky waters, protecting the plane from imagined enemies in
the gloom. The wings are still in place (110’
wing span), and the starboard landing gear is down and is
still helping to support the 45,000 lbs. plane off the
bottom. The outer engines are still in place, with
propellers that look as though they are ready to take off on
another flight.
The machine guns are still in place in the tail turret, and
are pointing down into the mud, and it was here that the
dive story became very entertaining. As I descended
down the rudder towards the tail turret, I spotted the line
from our reel, running just below tail of the aircraft.
It was heading off to the South, and with two fin kicks, I
could actually see the shot line heading back to the
surface, a mere ten feet away. I showed my dive buddy
the line, and we both began to laugh. Apparently, we
had swum right underneath the plane, below the port
stabilizer and along the body of the aircraft for about 30’
before I ran into the side turret. Even though
sweeping from side to side and up and down with my light, we
had missed the plane that was so close, I had actually
brushed it with my fins twice. Did I tell you that it
was MURKY, and DARK down there!
After a good laugh, we recovered the reel and began our slow
ascent back into the world of sunlight and warmth.
Water temperature at the bottom of the lake was about 45
degrees (about three degrees colder than my recent dives in
Puget Sound), and visibility is very, very low.
However, the lake is littered with historical wrecks, so
I’ll be back, prepared for the more difficult diving
conditions encountered there but feeling privileged to be
able to view such well preserved history.
For our second visit to the site, we
launched the boat from Magnuson Park (the old Sand Point
Naval Air Station) and found the old Navy Bomber about 0.4
miles directly off of the boat ramp (side scan sonar makes
it easy). We dropped the shot line in and geared up in the
rather warm sunshine. I was actually looking forward to some
nice cold lake water after roasting for a bit in my drysuit.
Can you say, “well done”?
I'd warned my dive buddy (Mike “the energizer bunny” Fitz)
to expect completely horrid viz, and that he'd have to run a
line from the shot line at about 145',
and head West to the airplane.
Following our plan to the letter, Mike was putting on
the brakes, and concentrating on unclipping his reel and
stopping at 145' to attach the guideline. What he didn't
realize, was that we were incredibly lucky and had stumbled
into stellar visibility. I could see the plane clearly (the
shot line was touching it). At 142’, he unceremoniously
belly flopped onto the wing, just as he pulled out the (now
unnecessary) reel. Very amusing when you're holding a big
camera in your hand instead of helping a friend out in the
dark.... ;-)
Viz was easily 20-25', and we spent a nice 23 minutes
exploring the plane and taking pictures. The aircraft is
massive and is in extremely good condition (see the May,
2006 issue for details). It always amazes me how well
preserved the fresh water wrecks are when compared with
those in Puget Sound.
Deco was also extremely pleasant, with a nice thermocline at
20' where the water temp jumped from the mid-40's to 60
degrees.
Ahhhhhh.
For more images of
this stunning wreck, please see our
PB4Y
Privateer Photo Gallery! The location and
dive information for this wreck can be found in
Northwest Wreck Dives.