Association debris Trail?

There was a time when I longed to find an intact onion bottle. Found many broken ones over the years. In fact, found a whole gulley of broken ones near the wreck of the Coronation in plymouth once. Little did we know that we had landed on the then unknown deeper site  which had not been found yet at that time. We had no idea how close we were to a great find. But thats diving.  As for eventually finding a whole onion- I  have since located numerous and on one occasion even two at once. Whilst 99 per cent of my bottle finds over the years have came from anchorages, basically debris thrown overboard at that moment in history. Occasionally I find old bottles in very different circumstances. Found a few nice ones on or close to wrecks and so have to be declared from that wreck just in case. Heres a story of 3, that many years ago, came from deep water out by the Wreck of Association that sank in 1707. Two of them on one dive... As so often happens in my life, a local fisherman asks me to help him retrieve some trapped lobster pots.  Two questions are my inevitable response- 'Where are they stuck and how deep'?. Quite often the fisherman will tell a little white lie to both questions. Firstly they will always underestimate the depth. In this instance I was told 30m max. Secondly- they always say that they have been getting rusty crabs from that particular spot; implying there must be iron down there and thus must be a wreck. This is said in an attempt to get me more interested into going and nothing more. If this is said tongue in cheek and the guy is a friend I will go along, but if I think its a genuine attempt to dupe me -then I think twice and sometimes decline as a result. In this case, I liked the guy and his answer being 'near the gilstone' and thus the Association wreck site, made the decision for me. Any offer to be looked after on a dive out west here is acceptable terms. 

2 onions circa 1710

 

....I generally think twice if the pots are lost in water deeper than 35meters but for this friend I said I'd try. He didnt lie-as the down line was located at the foot of the eastern side of the Gilstone reef at the foot of east'ard ledge. This is normal as a good fishermen will always try to lay his pots at the foot of a reef where the rock meets the sand. That is where the lobsters are. I followed the 'up line' down and  found it passed by an old anchor in about 30m off in the distance to my right. Thats interesting I thought, not seen that one before! Further down I found where the 'up line' joined onto the line of pots. I went along this and passed by two pots to where I found the 3rd one in line was caught among the  boulders in that exact depth of -35m as stated. I soon released the offending pot and moved it out onto the sand nearby. I then followed the line further checking the rest of the pots were free too.

Close up of an onion circa 1710

 Being a shipwreck hunter, as I went along, I naturally kept my eyes open for anything else that may be of interest to me.  Heading in a SSE direction, pulling myself along the rope, hand over hand, I swiftly moved along the line of pots checking on each one as I passed them. Very soon I found myself in almost 40meters of water and started to think about not wanting to go any further down.  Having cleared the earlier obstruction I felt I was now free to go up if I wished as every pot was now in sand. However, me being me, I decided to use what little time and air I had left, to have a quick look around in the sand. There was the odd unidentifiable bit of iron work on show,  and also quite a few bits of broken glass from what were clearly once onion bottles. Mooching along and still following the same direction, it felt like the pot line was following a trail of bits n bobs. I soon came to the other end of the line where the other 'up rope'  marked the end of the line of pots. The sea was gin clear and there was no tide to speak of.  As an experienced diver I knew I was most likely a bit narked now, as I felt totally at ease- even when realising I had ended up in well over 40meters I still felt completely in control. This was not unusual to me at this time, as over the previous couple of years I had been performing an ongoing search of  deep water while looking for the wreck of the Romney off Isaacs ledge; the Crim; and also Retarrier; where I often ended up alone in these kinds of depths or even more. This time was actually easier, as today I had a fisherman to look out for me up top and so I was not totally alone.   I was just about to ascend the 'up line' when I spotted the neck of a black glass bottle poking up out of the sand. Thinking it was just a broken off fragment I went to pick it up to make sure. To my utter surprise, as I pulled it from the sand, I found it to be totally intact. After seeing so many broken bits I was utterly astonished; as well as thoroughly thrilled. 

German impression of the disaster drawn in late 1707.

  We are talking only minutes in time here- and now being so deep I had only a  very short bottom time before incurring some serious decompression stops to do. I was now all but out of time. This is when seconds start to feel like minutes. Again I was about to leave when just a few meters away I could see another possible intact bottle-and felt I couldn't leave without checking it out. 'It couldn't be another one'- I thought,  as I again moved and pulled at the bottle. Again it was as intact as the first. I was now trying to think how I was going to carry these 2  up to the surface and do all I needed to do with my hands, at the same time, as I went up. There was keeping an eye on my wrist depth gauge while holding onto the 'up line' - all the while trying to hold two fragile bottles and trying not to drop or break them was not going to be easy.  I dashed back to the up rope and again moved to go up. However, I noticed that right by that last pot on the sand, there was yet another buried bottle. Feeling I couldn't possibly now stay to check it out too, let alone carry it, I kicked out at the sand with my fins. As I did this, some of the sand moved aside and it too looked likely to be an intact bottle as well.  "Bloody hell" I thought-"the one time I don't bring a goody bag along is the one time I needed it most" Sods law! With that I left the bottom and looked at the 3rd bottle as it receded away into the distance below. I never thought I would ever have to do such a thing and it was heart breaking!  

It took a while to ascend so some deco stops were needed. There hovering in 6meters I wondered how to get back aboard the boat without breaking either find. I had to try. Luckily I got them home safely and vowed to return for the 3rd another day. Yes I returned to the spot and got it eventually along with a small clump of coins.  So are these just a few random lucky finds?- or were these part of a trail to the Stern of Association? There are those that believe that, because they never found much gold when excavating the Association site back in their day, that the stern of this wreck must have broken off and thus lies elsewhere. Totally understandable thinking when you see what has happened to other wrecks here. And when you look at from where the prevailing swells over this wreck emanate- then these items could well tell their own story. So is it just a small area of items from the famous wreck nearby? or does the stern of Association lay in even deeper water and this is a debris trail leading out to it? Or were the items I found above from another wreck incident entirely? There have been so many out that way its hard to tell!

(Everything I write about has always been declared to the RoW first. In this case I wrote them up as merely- "possible Association")