Bell Island Minequest

The expedition team wants to sincerely thank Sancon Commissioning for assisting in our upcoming project in Bell Island. Not every expense can be anticipated, and when we realized that we needed some funding to support the assistance offered from the Bell Island Historic Society (BIHS), exploration diver Cas Dobbin requested help from his employer Sancon Commissioning. They are obviously as proud of Cas and his hard work as we are, because they did not hesitate to offer financial support to BIHS.

This project is made possible through the support and volunteer efforts of so many people. Some are out in front and others are quietly assisting from afar. It is sometimes difficult to mention all the people that have volunteered – all the people that sent some food or worked an extra shift so their partner could participate, all the people that swung a hammer or offered warm clothing for the team. We are grateful to everyone for building a great project that will celebrate the important contributions that Bell Island’s residents have made to Canadian culture and history.

Today we learned that we have been granted the honor of carrying the flag of the Explorers Club on our project in Newfoundland. The Explorers Club flag represents an impressive history of courage and accomplishment and has been carried on hundreds of expeditions by Club members since 1918. To carry the Club flag is an honor and a privilege. It has flown at both poles, from the highest peaks of the greatest mountain ranges, traveled to the depths of the ocean, to the lunar surface, and outer space. A flag expedition must further the cause of exploration and field science.

The current flag was designed by Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, one of the Club’s founding members. Between the red of courage and the blue of fidelity lies a broad white diagonal displaying the initials of the Club’s name and a compass rose, symbolizing the worldwide circle of the Club’s interests. The first members to carry the new flag were Clyde Fisher and Carvath Wells, who journeyed to Lapland in 1924 while leading an astronomy expedition for the American Museum of Natural History.

Today there are 202 numbered flags, each with its own history. Many of the older flags have been retired. A select handful of these retired flags are framed and displayed at headquarters in New York City, including the flags carried by Roy Chapman Andrews, Bob Bartlett, Thor Heyerdahl, and the miniature flag carried by the astronauts onboard Apollo 11.

The final report of the project will be archived at the Explorers Club and on www.Explorers.org.

Jan 26th, 2016

Steve Lewis – Tech Diver Training

As the days tick down, preparations for Mine Quest are truly picking up speed. The process is somewhat mitigated because at least Newfoundland is not so remote that forgetting to pack some little but essential piece of hardware would probably not be a total disaster… not quite the same pressures as an expedition to jungle or the arctic; but pressure nevertheless.

Several great developments during the past few days. And one of the sweetest is that we got word that our team will be carrying an Explorers’ Club Flag.

These have been and continue to be part of the history of exploration. Explorers Club flags have been carried on hundreds of expeditions in the past 100 years, and represent one of the key principles of the Club’s mission: To engage in scientific exploration and share the results.

Explorers Club flags have been to both poles, to the highest peaks of the greatest mountain ranges, to the depths of the ocean, and to outer space. Now we get to take one for a trip to Bell Island, Newfoundland.

Also, the list of sponsors is growing… Our friends at Shearwater and Sub-Gravity are now supporting team members with products we know, trust, and are happy to depend on in the toughest conditions.

Steve Lewis – Tech Diver Training

One of the first people to dive Bell Island Mine was a long-time friend and cave-diving buddy, Erik van Dorn. He was with us when we did a “proof of concept” dive in the summer of 2006.

We didn’t swim for long, just far enough to get some idea about the conditions. We laid a little line, found what looked like the remains of a small shed or stable, left a Newfoundland and Labrador provincial flag, and were back on the surface within 35 minutes.

He called me this morning to wish the team luck for our latest adventure, and he mentioned something that got me thinking about the differences and similarities between diving in a mine, in a cave and exploring the inside of a wreck.

Certainly it got me thinking about the first few dives we did. And the surprising number of artifacts we found… from downed tools and mine machinery, to graffiti written on mine walls with soot from miner’s lamps, and memorials for miners who lost their lives working the ore and trying to put bread on their family’s table.

That’s the sort of thing you simply don’t find in a cave.

Steve Lewis – Tech Diver Training

In February 2007, Joe Steffen suffered a massive embolism while exploring the Bell Island Mine, and passed away a few metres from the surface in the main shaft were today a memorial cross bears his name. Joe, a popular and respected figure in both the cave and wreck-diving communities, had an undiagnosed health issue, which was discovered during the medical examination following his death. The original exploration team’s medical officer (Dr. David Sawatzky), suggested that Joe’s passing would have been instantaneous, and probably caused by an ascent that would not have been an issue for a healthy diver.

The family Joe left behind, the original exploration team, the Bell Island Heritage Society, Bell Island Mine Museum, and the community of Bell Island, decided to continue the expedition back in 2007. We figured we owed it to Joe to push on.

This February, almost exactly on the ninth anniversary of Joe’s death, another team will be continuing the work begun in 2007. The hope remains that by opening the submerged area of the mine to guided tours similar to those conducted above the water line, a new group of visitors will have access to something truly unique in Canada.

With that in mind, and with the permission and support of Jennifer, Joey, Lindsey, and Linda, the members of the 2016 Mine Quest Team are dedicating this year’s expedition to Joe’s memory… RIP, mate: we think of you often.

The Bell Island volunteer brigade has been continuing the back breaking work of preparing the diving area for the expedition team. The staging area is about complete and floating dock is being measured and will be installed within the next couple weeks. Heavy Duty benches for different equipment configurations are complete. 12 huge picnic tables have been installed for briefings. The boardwalk over the wet area is nearing completion. The stairway has been adjusted to walk over pipes. We’re getting close!

This area where divers enter the water is called cross section 23 on Pipe Shaft and our staging area/benches is on pillar 22. The picnic table will in the Room on cross section 22.

“Build it and they will come”

“And I would like to thank…”

Steve Lewis – Tech Diver Training

In case you ever have to juggle “leadership”aspects of an underwater enterprise with many moving parts, and a whole bunch of so-called key personnel, each accomplished in their field. Here’s a secret tip to getting it off to a good start.

First and foremost, hope for quality support from the folks who really matter… the ones who do all the prep work for nothing more than the camaraderie, and a sandwich.

With that in place, the rest is a breeze.

As Jill Heinerth and I sit in the warm, coffee in hand, drawing up the framework of Mine Quest’s SOPs, a team of folks are working in the cool and damp putting the finishing touches to surface infrastructure in the mine. And from the pictures we seen, they have far exceeded expectations. I cannot imagine a better way to start a project, than to have these folks getting things ready for us.

Of course, it’s not all about Mine Quest. One of the project goals is to finally open Bell Island Mine as an adventure dive tourism destination, to complement and enhance the attraction of the four historic WWII shipwrecks resting a few hundred metres away on the bottom of Conception Bay South.

To be successful on that score, several pieces have to fit perfectly in place when we “go live” on February 15. However, thanks to the work of our support team, Bell Island Mine is starting to look like a really top-knotch dive destination!

Many thanks to all… but special gratitude to the folks wielding pickaxes, shovels, hammers and saws :

Ros Hurley, Jack Wood, Marcia and Mark McGowan, John Olivero, Nick Dawe, Kyle Morgan, Teresita and Des McCarthy, Ron Reid, and Bonnie and Tom Spracklin, Cecil Johnson, Holly Green, Debbie and Jillian Stanley, and others.

Steve Lewis – Tech Diver Training

One of the Bell Island Mine Quest team recently asked those of us who were part of the original expedition, how much of the network of passages is there left to explore… “Not the deep stuff running off for kilometers, but shallower stuff accessible to cave divers?”

Fair question and one that’s probably best illustrated by comparing the area we explored during our 2007 project, with a plan of the working area of the mine contained in the Bell Island Museum.

The “green map” shows the scope of our original exploration with the black lines representing gold line laid during our ten-day expedition.

The larger diagram below, shows that map overlaid on a partial map of the Bell Island Mine Workings that’s on display in the Bell Island Museum.

As you can see, the possibilities are almost limitless. For the record, the deepest 2007 dives went to approximately 55 metres / 178 feet, and lined approximately two kilometers (about 6,500 feet) of passages.

Steve Lewis- Tech Diver Training

The volunteer team added to the workplace infrastructure yesterday and today.

The plans call for a boardwalk down to the water’s edge and an entry platform on the water’s surface so that divers can get into the water without silting things out.

Unlike the vertical or near vertical shafts found in many mines, the iron ore seam on Bell Island slopes at a roughly ten degree angle.

During past exploration, the dive teams getting into the water and beginning their dives had to wade for quite a distance before being able to float themselves and their kit. At the end of a “workday” the visibility in the water column from around three metres to the surface could be zero.

This slope, and the average height of the mine workings — approximately three metres/ten feet — makes for a slow descent and ascent… If you recall your High-school trigonometry and sine, cosine, tangent calculations, getting to a depth of 40 metres (130 feet and around the maximum for most of our planned exploration) requires a swim of approximately 230 metres / 750 feet.

Steve Lewis – Tech Diver Training

One of the team goals for this February’s dives are to explore new passages and add to the two kilometers of line we laid during the 2007 project.

But we also want to “do some science.”

Of particular interest to any readers who dive or have friends and family who dive, is that members of our dive team will be part of a study monitoring decompression stress. Data will be collected from two-dimensional echo imaging ultrasound will be used to detect bubbles on both sides of the heart. Also, venous blood draws and buccal swabs will be collected to study stress responses. Study subjects will wear data loggers on all dives to capture their profiles, and information about the dive will be downloaded from PDCs and CCR controllers.

In addition, and in respect to ‘other markers’, changes in gene expression as a response to diving and epigenetic signatures related to repetitive diving will be collected.

Volunteers will have restricted activity for a two hour window after every dive, and will report for three minutes of scanning in every 20 minute time block during those two hours.
The research team will also collect onsite physical state and functional fitness measures before diving begins. Height, weight, skinfold thickness, pushups, situps, and range of motion cover most of the measures.

We hope that although the sample is small and the vastly diverse in age, gender, fitness level, and dive experience, useful information on decompression stress and its successful management will be the outcome of this aspect of the expedition.

The team leading these endeavors will be:
Neal W. Pollock, Ph.D., Research Director, Divers Alert Network
Dawn Kernagis, PhD, Research Scientist, The Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC) – Pensacola, FL

Steve Lewis – Tech Diver Training

During yesterday’s team conference call (team members make their homes across North America and Europe), Jill Heinerth, our group’s renaissance woman, unveiled our project logo. We love it and hope you folks do too.

One of the project sponsors is Fourth Element. These folks have supported the efforts to map Bell Island Mine since we first started exploration in 2006. They have been super generous and have supplied team members with various bits of essential kit.

And now, they will be supplying us with hoodies adorned with our brand-spanking new “project identity!”

A BIG thank you.

Steve Lewis – Tech Diver Training

Many things set expedition diving apart. One issue is that successful expedition diving is always the result of a team effort, and the outcome of a dive can depend as much or more on the individuals schlepping gear, and pumping gas, than it does on the folks laying line or surveying. Another thing to consider is that every moment spent in the water is bought with the effort of several hours work by many, many more people than the few who “get wet and glorious” in the water. Needless to say, in expedition diving, especially of this type, the term “dive team” covers everyone… even the folks making sandwiches and tea.

To illustrate the point, here’s a precis of a recent posting by Rick Stanley of Ocean Quest (the main project sponsor). It tells us a little about the clean-up process in the mine shaft where we will be basing our operations in February. By the way, the main shafts in Bell Island mine are not vertical as they are in many mines. In Bell Island, they slope at about 10-degrees from horizontal… both above and below water. Makes for an interesting challenge in both environments.

“Another successful day with another third [of the prep work] done, with volunteers Mark and Marcia McGowan, Johnny Olivero, Nick Dawe and myself. Belle Islands Staff Volunteers Bonnie and Tom Spracklin and Teresita (Teddy) McCarthy all on hand.

“We cleaned up big area where large picnic table will be going along with an area around the Rib 32’ for a gear set-up work bench and storage. We cleaned down walking area down the slope to the water’s muddy edge. We installed steel supports over a deep trench to attach our platform and for a gangway to floating dock. ( Docks and platforms yet to be built).

“Lunch today was prepared by Marcia in the cafeteria of the mine…fantastic sandwiches cakes and cookies…and she’s coming again tomorrow with special chilli…..going to keep her on…and you should see her moving iron ore…the miners were turning over in their graves today…ha, ha, ha!

“In the afternoon we continued working on bridge area and cleaning slopes… We edged the walkway with iron ore chunks and old Powerline posts that were nearby for safety to keep folks on track walking down slope. We cleaned away iron ore off old water pipes as they are artifacts and to have that nice line looking down the shaft to the water.

“Good day had by all and tomorrow we work on lighting, diverting water running down slope and installing a water pump and hose for wash-down area. Also beautification will continue ;-)”