I have been diving now for 16 years and since my very first trip to Seal Rocks I have always wanted to dive the wreck of the SS Catterthun. Tales of gold on the ship and its elusive depth (for a then recreational diver) made the wreck something that I wanted to
see, plus it is often touted as one of the best wrecks in NSW. Over the last 10 years I must have planned 20+ trips to the Catterthun, which for whatever reason resulted in me diving not the site…until now that is.
Having failed so many times, I booked a spot as ring in on a Sydney Project trip with a very lax attitude. We set out from Sydney as if we were doing a local dive at Long Reef, taking very little in the way of spare kit or camera options. Pack light we said, which was fine by me as I’d fully expected to be going for a long drive, only to meet with disappointment once more. I sealed my camera, charged the scooter, blended some gas, prepped my CCR and almost by magic the next morning I found myself hovering at 55m, just above the 92m wreck of the SS Catterthun.
The wreck itself is quite nice, though at least on my dive not deserving of the hype surrounding it. A variety of fish (in decent quantities) and colourful corals and sponges on the wreck make it quite distinct. The majority of the wreck is broken up, with the bow, stern and engine being the main draw cards. I did not see any sharks either, which perhaps could be a good thing as the site is reputed to have a lot of not so friendly resident bronze whalers.
Visibility was good, so I said to myself, “take some shots”. I proceeded to get my camera out and take a few metering shots. My lax attitude hear would be my demise, as my strobes would not fire and at that depth artificial lighting is critical. Content to do the dive sans camera, I packed it away and scootered around the wreck for the next 30 minutes.
Complacency it seems, was all that remained of my long standing Catterthun curse. I typically follow a regimented post assembly camera check process, as experience has painfully taught me (perhaps not well enough) that failing to do so will result in failed photographic endeavours. My post assembly check includes simple but critical things like checking auto-focus, strobe output, batteries, memory cards and anything else that is a critical component of the camera rig. What is important is to execute some test shots, which in my haste I did not do.
The next day it was back to basics and as if like magic, everything worked as expected. My curse was over and I managed to bag a few
decent shots. Ultimately it worked out perfectly, as I did one dive to scout the wreck and another to shoot it (something I rarely do). It’s a timely reminder though, that murphy is always lurking, and he can be painfully expensive at times…
Damien – I think you did a very sensible thing in scouting the wreck first before taking photos. You ended up with pictures that tell a story and bring the mood of the wreck to the viewer, your first photo attempt on the first dive may have resulted in just snaps, who knows. I really like the feel of the wreck your photos bring out.