Ally

A SALFORD fireman has led the world's first successful dive to the wreck of a ship which steamed to the rescue of the Titanic.

A 10-strong amateur dive team led by Ric Waring entered the record books by reaching the wreck and then salvaged artefacts from RMS Carpathia, which sits on the bottom of the north Atlantic some 500ft below the surface, 200 miles from the Irish coast.

Items recovered included crockery and the telegraph machine used on the ship to communicate between the bridge and the engine room.

The vessel was on her way to the Mediterranean on the night of April 14, 1912, when the ship's radio operator, Harold Cottam, picked up the Titanic's SOS call.

Stricken

RMS Carpathia was 58 miles from the stricken liner but weaved through ice fields at full speed and picked up 712 survivors. Six years later, the liner was sunk by a German U-boat while travelling as part of a convoy from Liverpool to Boston.

Five of the crew were killed but the rest and 57 passengers were rescued by escort ship HMS Snowdrop. Although the Carpathia was discovered by the American diver and novelist Clive Cussler in 1999, her depth and the often treacherous weather has meant that in a decade only Ric's diving team has succeeded in reaching her.

Ric, based at Eccles fire station, and his team surveyed the Carpathia for 20 heart-stopping minutes before spending the next five hours slowly returning to the surface.

Ric, 40, from Walkden, said: "Your heart is racing when you are on the wreck because you are aware how deep you are and you want to see as much as you can, but you only have a short period of time to do it. I enjoy it. It gives me a buzz.

"It's dangerous - I don't want to glorify it. We do it for fun and enjoy doing it but there are associated dangers."

With the help of powerful lights, his crew had 100ft visibility in the clear, unpolluted Atlantic waters.

Ric said: "It's obviously been on the seabed for over 90 years and it's started to collapse. The bow section is collapsing down to the seabed. The bridge section is standing up quite high. The stern has started to collapse in on itself."

Pressure

The team, who each paid £3,000 to fund the expedition, took pictures and also videoed the wreck, although two cameras worth £3,000 each were crushed because of the water pressure.

Ric admitted he would `take it easy' following the dive: "I've no ambition to go any deeper. That's as deep as I want to go."

Ric learned to dive with Worsley Sub Aqua Club, where he is still a member.

The team beat the British record for the deepest wreck dive, which previously stood at 475ft.

The haul found by the team will be exhibited in London next year.

(Manchester Evening News)

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