by Doug Pemberton

The tide of world history has risen and fallen on the world's oceans. Over the past 3000 years man has used the oceans to bring the world together through discovery and trade, and tear it apart through war. The price of maritime ventures over the ages has been high. War, weather, ignorance and misfortune have brought an untimely end to countless ships. And Canada, with it's long seafaring history has not been spared.

As a young boy, I spent several years growing up in a coastal community on the rugged shores of Newfoundland where I gained a lifelong respect and sense of wonder for the oceans around us. I spent many hours sitting on docks or out on boats, gazing into the cold clear waters of the Atlantic at myriad creatures that lurked below, and occasionally caught glimpses of the remains of wrecked ships lying on the bottom. My initial excitement at having discovered a sunken ship was soon tempered by my curiosity as to the circumstances surrounding the sinking. Now, as a diver I have explored many shipwrecks around the world and besides researching their distinctive histories, I have also marvelled at the diversity of life that now congregates on them.

Today the fisheries of eastern Canada are a shadow of their former prominence but the waters of Atlantic Canada still hold many treasures, especially for divers. Thousands of miles of rocky coastlines, raging weather and military action have taken their toll on countless ships, hundreds of which are known and mapped while many more are as yet undiscovered. Many visitors to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland dive in search of these witnesses to history, some that date back hundreds of years but most that fell victim during this century.

Newfoundland, with it's 500 years of maritime history, has accumulated more than its fair share of ship wrecks. The Avalon peninsula in eastern Newfoundland, the Burin peninsula on the south coast and southwestern area of the province has some great diving on a variety of wrecks. Four that have become famous are the Bell Island wrecks in Conception Bay. During two incidents in 1942, U-boats entered the bay and sank four large iron ore carriers, and caused the loss of 69 lives. All the wrecks are upright and intact and show the variety of damage from their encounters with torpedoes and, more recently, with icebergs. The hulls are an oasis for marine life that includes thick growths of anemones, small clumps of pink or yellow soft coral and encrusting sponges and coralline algae. Large eel pouts can occasionally be seen patrolling the decks and Atlantic cod, perhaps the seed for the rebirth of the once prominent fishery, can also be found living in their holds. There is some great discovered diving in Newfoundland but I can't help but think, when I look at the inaccessible and greatly undived south shore, between Burgeo and the Burin Peninsula, what adventures might be found.

Nova Scotia played a very important part in both world wars. Huge convoys marshalled in Bedford Basin and off the entrance to Halifax harbour, activities that did not go unnoticed by German U-boats. Treacherous reefs that guard the entrance to the harbour also exacted a heavy toll on shipping over the years. Many wrecks lie in waters less than a hundred feet deep but with the advent of technical diving, a few wrecks that lie in deeper water, such as the tanker British Freedom are now being dived. But not all ships that lie on the bottom came to a tragic end. Nova Scotia is home to two artificial reefs, the HMCS Saguenay off Lunenburg and the Matthew Atlantic off Port Mouton.

Shipwrecks of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia are blanketed in an assortment of invertebrate life including anemones, tunicates, sponges and coralline algae. Wrecks such as the oil tanker Arrow in Chedabucto Bay are covered in a lush growth of large finger sponges.

The waters of Atlantic Canada are cold and clear and the water column is often alive with a kaleidoscope of ctenophores and jellyfish which, during summer months, attract such rare creatures as the sunfish or Mola mola and offer a smorgasbord to several species of whales including the large humpback travelling to arctic waters.

During the summer, gaudily coloured short-horned sculpins in their mating colours prowl the bottom, vicious looking wolffish peer from their rocky lairs or from within the recesses of the wrecks and the inquisitive and colourful cunner, a member of the wrasse family is a constant and curious companion on most dives. Lurking among thick beds of kelp, lobsters watch suspiciously and vibrantly coloured sea ravens and portly lumpfish do their best to look inconspicuous.

The waters around Nova Scotia and Newfoundland offer a wide variety of great diving. There are many good shore diving areas, however many of the wrecks are accessible only by boat. Local dive shop can arrange for boat charters.