DIVE # 4 and 5........EAST DIVE

The underwater diving company, East Dive Ltd. from Fredericton, was here this week working at the nearby dam. They had time to spare and decided to swing by the wreck site and go for a quick dive. They spent the afternoon yesterday and the morning today exploring the riverbed. Their team consisted of John McFadzen (owner), Dave McFadzen (his son) and Laurel Brewer. I took a vacation day…..I wasn’t going to miss it for the world!

East Dive is equipend with underwater comunications, video and unlimited air supply. This is the first time that commercial divers will be explore the wreck site. Being able to communicate with the diver is a huge advantage and with the air supply hose from the boat, this means the diver can stay down much longer and get more quality exploring done.

We don't know what we found today but the results are very interesting. A heavy metal debris field is located between the piers. We brought up some loose pieces to look at them. We don't know if this debris is related to the wreck yet but a few pieces are cast iron.....old! There was also a much heavier piece which could not be moved. Hard to tell but some of the pieces look very old (Especially pieces number 1, 2 & 3). We don't know if they were part of the locomotive but are pretty sure they are from the accident. Enjoy the pictures.

Pieces 1, 2 and 3 were found in the same area and are the ones I suspect were from the wreck. Piece # 3 was actually inserted into Piece #1. The pen in the picture is to show scale.

Piece #2 was found resting on the bottom but half broken off another bigger piece which was buried in the sand. We tried to loosen it by digging around it and tying a rope in hopes of pulling it free with the boat but in the process we snapped the 3/4 " nylon rope without even bugging anything underwater.

If anybody knows if these pieces might have been found on a locomotive, please let me know.

Special thanks today and yesterday to:

- EAST DIVE LTD. (John Mc Fadzen, Dave McFadzen and Laurel Brewer)

- George Theriault (pontoon)

- Gerald Carroll (Mayor Grand Falls)