Red River Conditions

Hugo Lake Dam, a few miles upstream from the wreck site.

Diving conditions in the Red River were difficult by any standard, and a particular challenge to some of the newly-minted divers participating in the 2001 field school. Visibility is very poor, typically just a few inches near the surface, and zero a few feet down. There's a strong current, between one and two knots, running almost directly down the length of the wreck. One field school student observed that "you gotta have one hand to hold on with, one to hold the slate, and one to write." This current can -- and on occasion did -- sweep a diver completely off the wreck, but all divers were briefed in advance on proper recovery techniques, so this was more of an inconvenience than an actual problem.

The height of the river changed from day to day, in large part due to the opening and closing of the gates at the dam at Hugo Lake a few miles upstream. The gauge height of the river (below) dropped during the last few days of the project, exposing the boat's starboard wale at the stern and part of the central machinery section, both of which were among the prime areas of interest for the project.

The gauge height of the Red River in feet at noon on each day of the field school, as measured at nearby De Kalb, Texas. Thanks to Greg Estep of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for providing this data.

More unusual still was the dynamic nature of the riverbed itself. It's normal for sandbars and holes to form and reform over a period of weeks and months, but in this case they appeared overnight -- literally. Project team members would discover in the morning that areas clear of sand the afternoon before were now buried under several feet of sand and gravel, while previously unseen parts of the wreck had been swept clear to the original wood timbers. In several cases, a diver sitting in the same spot for several minutes, carefully taking measurements and writing them on the dive slate, would discover that a miniature sandbar had formed around his or her feet, necessitating a hard kick to break free from the riverbed.

Many divers' experiences with the Red River, good and bad, are chronicled in the daily updates posted from the project site.