The DIR Project's first SREU expedition to the wreck site of the schooner Hera was a mixed success.  After some scheduling issues with the charter boat two scooter teams arrived on the west coast of Vancouver Island on Saturday April 11, 2009.  The first team was made up of Jeremy Hoey and Kim Anderson and the second Bill O'Brien and Chris Fenton.

The wreck site was known to lie in Templar Channel, an area of strong tidal currents.  The high slack tide was at 3:01pm so the group met for lunch at a restaurant overlooking Tofino Harbor with plans to be in the water at 2:30pm.  Lunch ran a little late and we were in the water and ready to go at 3:00pm.  We opted to make the ride out on the surface to the buoys marking the wreck site keeping an vigilant eye out for boats in this shipping lane.  After about 15 minutes on the trigger we arrived at the buoy marked "Heritage Wreck" and began our descents. 

The plan was to shoot video, pictures and make some general observations of the wreck site.  The 5' visibility didn't want to cooperate.  The two teams came upon the remains of the schooner's wooden hull, sticking about 4' out of the mud bottom, almost immediately.  Even in the poor visibility with the currents beginning to pick up it was relatively easy to follow the wreck site - even if it was nearly impossible to get a good overall feeling for the layout.  The site was covered in Buffalo Sculpin and beer bottles - some with the beer still inside after over a hundred years!  Aside from the hull we found mast rings and any number of different pieces of hardware.  We didn't find any of the wooden kegs known to be on site.

Team 2 left the bottom at 25 minutes because of the strengthening current and Team 1 left at the planned 30 minute mark.  When I un-stowed my scooter to begin the ride across the channel I found it to be dead.  Wasting no time Bill and I descended and began the long tow across the channel bottom.  The current (which was heading out to sea) became so strong that we had to point the nose of the scooter almost directly into it to keep our ground - so making headway across the channel (and across the current) was extremely slow.  Finally we got caught up in a back eddie and surfaced to find Jeremy and Kim slowly making there way across the channel on two healthy scooters.

Chris Fenton

The Hera was a four masted schooner built in Boston, MA in 1869 - she was 381 net tonnes. On November 17, 1899 she left Seattle under the command of Captain J.L. Warren and First Mate J.A. McIntyre. She was loaded with, amongst other things 1,800 barrels of lime, 750 barrels of beer and part of a church on her deck! On November 24 she came around Cape Flattery and hit a violent storm and consequently sprang a leak. This was especially unfortunate due to the reaction that water causes with lime – the ship caught fire. She made sail for Vancouver Island immediately and came into Clayoquot Sound. No sooner had the crew left her than she was engulfed in flames, burned to the water line, and sunk.  She lies in approximately 40' of water.