With day one of the Alderney dive bearing modest results (an excavated breastplate and a small firearms cartridge), it was time for the dive team to break out the big guns, namely, an Elizabethan musket and one of the ship's cannon.
Skipper Pim de Rhoodes outlined the plan for second day of diving: "We dive at 10.45am, and then again at 2pm. Our biggest job is to check out cannon three and make sure we can raise it. We think it'll be the hardest cannon to raise."
Meanwhile, the British team still had to locate their temporarily misplaced musket, having discovered yesterday that it wasn't where it should have been. "We first spotted it last year, and thought we'd secured it underneath cannon three. But we think now that it might be under cannon six," explained diver Russell MacKinnon.
While dive one reaped no excavated artefacts, it did bring plenty of intrigue: The British team weren't giving too much away, and the official line came courtesy of Phil Donaldson: "I can't say for sure whether we have our musket yet, but come this afternoon, we should have some good news."
That good news surfaced at around 4pm, when Russell, Phil and fellow diver Jason Goodchild finally raised their Elizabethan musket. This was freed up and lifted onto the Fourcault using the makeshift rig that Phil Donaldson had modified for the job.
"My rig's had everyone smirking, but it's done its job," Phil quipped. "I'd almost feel proud if it didn't look so scrappy."
"It's an excellent result for us", added Russell MacKinnon, "The Brits have finally pulled through!"
Project leader Mensun Bound praised the team's efforts: "The musket proves once again that no other wreck in the world had illuminated the revolution in military history more than the one beneath the keel of this ship."
The musket will now be kept in a water tank, before being transported over to Alderney's hospital to be x-rayed. It will then be stored and prepared for the lengthy process of removing all the concreted crust that has grown over it.
The second piece of good news came from the skipper himself. Once the excitement had died down, Pim de Rhoodes announced that cannon three had been cleared and secured with straps and, come tomorrow's diving window, would be ready to be raised.
Belgian diver Danny Moens rounded off the day's success by finding a perfectly preserved set of map callipers, an instrument for which even today, would be used to plot a ship's course.
The day might have started moderately, but optimism was running high by the end after securing some of the larger artefacts. All eyes are now fixed on tomorrow, as the main objective of raising the Elizabethan cannon looks likely to become reality.
Published: June 2008