Diving Lake Washington

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boydski
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Diving Lake Washington

Post by boydski »

Wow, what a glorious day for diving. The weather was beautiful, and the vizibility at the bottom of the lake was just awesome.

We put the new boat in Lake Washington and managed to locate the PB4Y Privateer and the YMS-359. We had a nice dive on the PB4Y and even managed to take a few photos.

What a cool dive! :book:


Image The Forward Machine Gun Turret.



Image The Cockpit, left seat.

Image The Aft Machine Gun Turret.

Click on any photo for a larger version of the image.
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Zen Diver
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Post by Zen Diver »

GREAT pix Scott!

-Valerie
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Jan K
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Post by Jan K »

Awesome!
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Burntchef
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Post by Burntchef »

droool!!!!! :supz:
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Joshua Smith
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Post by Joshua Smith »

Really nice pics! Some of the best I've seen of that wreck!
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Sasquatch
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Post by Sasquatch »

Oh, yeah!

That's about as cool as it gets and the viz looked good.

Sweeeeeet :supz:
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Curt McNamee
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Great pictures

Post by Curt McNamee »

Great Pictures Scott!!!!!!! What do you think the vis was?????
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BASSMAN
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Post by BASSMAN »

Wow!
Is this a deep dive?
Hi, my name is Keith, and I'm a Dive Addict! :supz:
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John Rawlings
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Post by John Rawlings »

Absolutely great photos, Scott! I have never seen the vis so good on the P4Y-2. You can color me absolutely GREEN with envy!!!! Everytime I have dived her you couldn't even SEE the wreck until you virtually dropped right onto it!

Just as an informational heads-up (strictly for us historical nerds!) - in 1951 the Navy eliminated the Patrol Bomber category and the designation of the Privateers was changed to P4Y-2, dropping the "B". Since the crash of this aircraft occurred in 1956, the plane held the designation P4Y-2 at the time of its sinking.

Many web sites dealing with this plane wreck persist in calling it a PB4Y-2 because is simply sounds far more cool to say that they dived on a "bomber". Frankly, the size of the aircraft and those machine guns are all the "coolness" that I need! HA!

That being aside, it is quite simply the most exciting wreck in Lake Washington!

Here's a link to a site including parts of the US Navy Accident Report:

http://homepage.mac.com/ljjames/scuba/r ... 4y2si.html

There are LOTS of other sites dealing with this specific wreck and with the P4Y-2 and PB4Y-2 aircraft as well.

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Ken G
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Post by Ken G »

Great shots. Thanks for sharing with us
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Penopolypants
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Post by Penopolypants »

Very nice! I have yet to dive Lake Washington, but I hope to soon.
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Post by dsteding »

BASSMAN wrote:Wow!
Is this a deep dive?
Fairly deep, 150 foot range, definitely a tech dive.
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boydski
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Lake Washington P4Y

Post by boydski »

Thanks for all of the positive comments.

John, I'm going to have a hard time remembering to "drop" the "B". PB4Y just sort of rolls off of the tongue like Peanut Butter and Jelly... :smt032

Curt, Viz was an amazing 20-25'. Every dive I've done previously has been "dive by braile", so I was VERY suprised to find such good visibility. I'd warned my dive buddy to expect the worst, and after the dive, he was commenting, "that wasn't so bad"!!!

More photos:
Image Cockpit, pilots seat.


Image Tail Numbers on the P4Y.

Image Starboard Engine

Image Last but not least, another photo of the tail guns. Can you tell I like the gun turrets?
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LCF
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Post by LCF »

Those pictures are almost unbelievable in clarity. Really beautiful.
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Diver_C
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Post by Diver_C »

Awesome pictures!!!
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Post by Tangfish »

Very cool! =D>
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Curt McNamee
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Lake WA

Post by Curt McNamee »

If we could only figure out when and why the vis gets as good as this.

I have dove that wreck many times and only once was the vis any good for pictures.
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CaptnJack
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Post by CaptnJack »

That vis looks great! Best pics I've ever seen of the PB&J, oops I mean P4Y-2.
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Post by divernick »

The pics are great, thanks for posting them.

Nick
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Aquanautchuck
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Post by Aquanautchuck »

Dang, I am green with envy. One of these days I will get tri mix certified to do dives like that.

Charles
Last edited by Aquanautchuck on Tue Jun 05, 2007 10:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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mattwave
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Post by mattwave »

Aquanautchuck wrote:Dang, I am green with envey. One of these days I will tri mix certified to do dives like that.

Charles
Nice Shots!

Yes proper training and helium is the best way to approach this wreck, the vis has been fantastic in the lake this last month. I concentrate a good portion of my Tech Courses in lake wa, it's a unique experience that is an excellent training platform. Off to scooter the lake tommorow morning (On another fantastic wreck in lake wa). On the another note, a Navy buff told me a few years back that planes such as these, the B is short for Boat, eventhough they are not for water landings, it was like flying a big boat, huh?

Let me know if you are interested in NAUI-Tec training, soon the lake's deco waters will be in the sixties.
Last edited by mattwave on Tue Jun 05, 2007 7:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
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peo
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Post by peo »

Those are some really great photos, Scott.

Thanks for sharing.

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Sergeant Pepper
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Post by Sergeant Pepper »

Nice pics. Thanks for sharing!
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Post by peo »

I've dove the P(B)4Y-2 about a dozen times, but I noticed something new on my last dive on it, late last week.

On the top of the wreck are two pretty large hatches. We were checking out the tail one of these, peeking into the wreck, when I spotted something in the tail end on the starboard side in the fuselage -- two T-bottles, presumably two oxygen tanks.

I wonder if those are still pressurized. If so, it's kind of sobering that they'be been sitting there for fifty years in that state... I wonder if/when they'll blow up.

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boydski
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Post by boydski »

peo wrote: I spotted something in the tail end on the starboard side in the fuselage -- two T-bottles, presumably two oxygen tanks.

I wonder if those are still pressurized. If so, it's kind of sobering that they'be been sitting there for fifty years in that state... I wonder if/when they'll blow up.
Hi Peo,

That's pretty cool. My camera wouldn't fit inside, so I didn't look too far into the fuselage.

We did a week in Truk Lagoon this summer, and saw lots of pressurized containers from WWII (including lots of Oxy/Act sets). None of the ones we saw had a catastrophic failure, so I'm guessing that they slowly corrode, and the gas is released slowly through a pinhole rather than going "BOOM".

At least thats what I told myself when brushing up against the land mines that still had the little trigger fingers sticking out to catch unwary divers!
:smt032
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