Miss Lindsey 2001 Merida II

The Merida is a passenger liner (Ward Line) sunk in 1911 in a collision with the SS Admiral Farragut, approximately 80 miles west / northwest of Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 210 feet of water. The wreck has been subjected to a couple of salvage expeditions, looking for the cargo of silver bars she was supposedly carrying. It is turtled (upside down), with some large holes blown into the hull by the salvors to allow access. It is seldom visited, and I was told that the last time anyone was there was over five years ago.

The following pictures (all images from video) are from the voyage of the Miss Lindsey out of Virginia Beach, Virginia, to the Merida on Sunday, June 24, 2001 (continued from page I).

Richie Kohler explores around the stern near the end of his dive.
	Mark Nix doing his hang. He is using tables produced by Bruce Wienke's reduced gradient bubble model (RGBM) algorithm, which result in stops that start much deeper and longer than the Buhlmann algorithm, but also have much shorter shallow stops (and a shorter overall hang).
The whole gang on the line, with the boat above.
	Rick Atkins jumps in to do his dive. Last year Rick found, freed, retrieved and bagged a large porthole off the Ostfriesland at 375 feet, in just 6 minutes!
Looking into an opening in the hull. There are holes at various places in the hull that were blown open by the salvage expeditions looking for the silver bars.
	Swimming aft, I pass a large triple expansion engine laying on its side. This is the same one that Gary Gentile writes was removed by salvors. ;-)
Another view of the triple expansion engine.
	Richie Kohler and Dan Bartone (left in picture) enter the wreck via a large opening in the hull. This was a really neat swim-through, in which you passed the four boilers, a couple of which were inside the wreck.
This structure is holding up this part of the hull. One of the boilers is on the right.
	Debris inside the wreck.