Posted by Kendall Raine on November 06, 2000 at 13:25:21:
In Reply to: "progressive penetration" posted by Frank on November 06, 2000 at 12:38:17:
Frank;
You forget, the Doria is really big inside. Nothing like a warship or the wrecks out here. It's tough to totally silt out more than the immediate area around you if you're working. The guys who really penetrate the wreck are the old salts. These guys typically have over 100 dives per on the wreck. They worked their way through the wreck over a decade worth of diving a little bit at a time. They can navigate the stairs and corridors as much from memory as referencing during the dive. That means if the route in is silted out, they can often use another way out. They also typically get into places few non-regulars know about, so it stays pretty clean. I'm not aware of any of the really experienced guys snuffing it on the Doria.
That's certainly not justification for the way they do things, but it does explain why they think the Doria is their wreck and why they look down on peolple using cave skills and techniques. Since it's "their" wreck, they certainly don't want foreigners from Florida or California messin with their artifacts on their wreck-MHK's point exactly. The irony is that the whole thing legally belongs to John Moyer, anyway.
If you want a picture, imagine a dog peeing on a hydrant. That's his hydrant now and he'll bite any dog who doesn't respect it.