Dive on the deep wrecks of the Proteus and the natal suite

PURSUIT OF THE PROTEIN AND NATAL

A team of experienced technical divers dived on two historic wrecks in the Mediterranean off Marseille, the Protée and the Natal:

PREPARATION 
It has been years that in the circle of technical divers, we hear about Proteus and Natal.
Following the discovery of the Protée in 1995 by Comex and the first autonomous diving by the Triade expedition composed of Evelyne Verdier, Cédric Verdier and Florent Locatelli in 2000, no article or diving report has appeared.
Le Protée et le Natal is a bit like the Holy Grail of wreck diving in France: many people talk about it but few people were lucky enough to be able to dive there (in fact, apart from the Triad expedition we did not have other confirmed return).
These wrecks are 6 and 11 miles from the coast between 120 and 130m. It is therefore not only necessary to find a boat and an ad-hoc skipper, a team of experienced divers, support divers…. all this a weekend of great weather without current and without wind.

A LITTLE HISTORY

The French submarine Proté which disappeared in December 1943.

-On April 6, 1995, the Protée was discovered by the director of COMEX, Henri DELAUSE, who operates aboard the exploration submarine REMORA 2000. The wreck lies on a bottom of 125 meters, on the Blauquières plateau , near the Cassidaigne pit, 20 miles from MARSEILLE. the Proteus struck a mine which damaged only the kiosk. All panels are closed. The wreck is in a remarkable state of preservation and still contains the bodies of the crew, there will be only one survivor out of the 74 crew. It has been declared a “maritime burial” by the French Navy.

Natal, Shipping messenger liner launched in 1882 and cast in 1917.

The NATAL, liner of the Messageries Maritimes, which sank off Marseilles 30 August 1917 in ten minutes

with the commander and 104 other victims including 76 passengers on 503.

In order not to repeat again and again the historical side of the thing, some having made a descriptive

in detail much better what we will do you will find the whole story on the links that follow:

http://www.cassis-forum.com/gabian/Vieux/LE_PROTEE.doc et http://matostek.over-blog.com/.

Natal is also the legend of a treasure ...

The hold of Natal,

The preparation

It was during the 2011 Diving Show that Guillaume decided to organize it after a first failed attempt in 2010, told Nicolas about it. After 25 round trips in the aisles of the diving fair, the project takes shape:
For the boat, we will go with Philippe Peyrusse of Diving Passion to La Ciotat and who has already worked on these two wrecks.
The team members will therefore be:

Divers: Guillaume Caillard, Aldo Ferrucci, Alexandre Fox, Thierry Mara, Jean-Mac Morère and Ncolas Schiavon

Diver Support: Serge Allier, Fred Criscola, Brigitte Leccia, Jacques Mezergues, Anne and Marius d'Atoll Plongée

We are planning the operation from April 25 to 27 just after Easter weekend in order to have time to prepare everything quietly. We try to plan ahead and plan three days for two dives, just in case!

The bottom diver will all be equipped with electronic CCR rebreather: Inspiration, Evolution Aldo alone will be in Megalodon.

We are preparing maximum 3H runtimes for a background time between 8 and 12min with a mix of 7 / 80. In addition to his rebreather, each bottom diver will ship with him 3 or 4 bails out.

For a dive like this, a rise in open water is not an option and it is imperative to go up along one end.

In addition to the bails out, a support diver will wait at -60m with emergency blocks of 20/30 and Nitrox 50, ready to take over or wait for us for pure oxygen. Other safety blocks are waiting on the boat with a diver ready to get into the water.

When you spend almost 1 hour 30 minutes between 9M and the surface, a bearing bar is necessary. Nico will therefore embark on the manufacture of a landing bar on several levels and telescopic allowing the 6 divers to make their bearings quietly and to be able to drift with it in case of current. In the end a more than good result!

One of the objectives of 'In pursuit of the Proteus and Natal' was to put together videos and photos of the seabed in order to show the state of conservation of the wrecks as well as the flora and fauna present on these wrecks.

For this we had two photographers in the team Aldo Ferrucci et Alexandre Fox . As for the video, Nico with his Gopro and his box with two headlights will do.

Everything is then in place, everyone prepares their gas, checks their equipment and of course makes adjustment dives. It was during the preparation dive that Nico lost his GoPro and his housing. But nothing will stop him and he will arrive in Marseille with another GoPro and a box.

During the fifteen days preceding the dive, we review all the meteorological sites and we do not dare to believe it but all the conditions seem to be met.

Papa Heats the lime

Diver safe at work!

The bails out and the landing bar.

Guillaume on the natal

Full of life at this depth

Jean Marc Morere on the natal

There are other images that are published on the blog and on our Flikr account.

You will be able to follow the complete story of this adventure by reading the Octopus magazine of June which is to be published at the end of June.