The ship sits low in the water; it has already been partly flooded for stability. On the deck members of the demolition team are moving about laying the finishing touches to their charges.Just 100 metres from the Saskatchewan, the Cape Breton is moored above its prospective new home. A pair of tugs manoeuvre to hold the ship in position and minimise strain on the mooring lines.
The ship sits low in the water; it has already been partly flooded for stability. On the deck members of the demolition team are moving about laying the finishing touches to their charges.
Close to the waterline a row of big rectangular holes has been cut through the hull. Partly to assist with the sinking, but their main purpose being to open the ship up for divers to explore inside.
It seems that every small boat from Nanaimo and nearby ports is out for the show. In the back row of one of the huge car ferries which cross from the mainland has thousands of spectators on board. Afterwards one of the spectators remarked to me that with everyone against the starboard railing, even a ship this size had a noticeable list!
It takes a while to get all the final arrangements in place, so it is later than planned that the switch is thrown and the charges go off.
First a rapid sequence of shaped charges blow holes along both sides of the hull just below the waterline. Plumes of water shoot out sideways and the Cape Breton begins to settle lower in the water. These charges do the real job of sinking the ship, but they are completely overshadowed by the pyrotechnic display that follows over the next few minutes.
In close succession from stern to bow, drums of aviation fuel are exploded to give vertical clouds of flame and black smoke rising hundreds of metres into the air. As the last drum goes up on the bow deck I can feel the heat of the explosion on my face.
The Cape Breton has taken on a noticeable list as the starboard railing dips below the surface, water spouting vertically up through open hatches. In 3 minutes and 37 seconds it is all over, the helicopter pad at the stern being the last part of the ship to vanish in a swirl of green water. For a few minutes bubbles continue to rise then the sea is calm again.
Spectator boats race back in to Nanaimo and a host of parties. I pass on the parties and head to the Ocean Explorers dive shop where I join a growing crowd of divers waiting to explore the new wreck.
News from the clearance team begins to arrive. The list has corrected and the Cape Breton now rests on an even keel with the deck just shy of 30 metres. The bad news is that one of the pyrotechnic charges has failed to go off and it will take the rest of the afternoon to clear the explosives.
Next day visibility on the Cape Breton is considerably less than I had experienced on the Saskatchewan. Above deck it isn't difficult to locate the engine room ventilation hatches, but once inside there is little point in exploring further.
It isn't so much silt stirred up from the seabed by the sinking as all the loose dirt inside forming a fine suspension in the water. Poor visibility inside the wreck coupled with the knowledge that the steam engine had been removed for display at a museum in Vancouver soon has me deciding that my limited bottom time will be better spent touring outside the wreck.
Without time to accumulate marine life, the Cape Breton is not a spectacular dive in the same way as the Saskatchewan. Nevertheless, I am convinced that given time for the dust to settle and some marine life to become established, Nanaimo will have another winning wreck dive.