Identification of SS Hernodia

GUE divers Tomas Nilsson and Mattias Vendlgård completed a dive to indentify the wreck of the SS Hernodia on Friday the 12th of August at a depth of 120m in the Baltic Sea.

In 2009 the dive center at Åland in the Baltic Sea saw the wreck on their sidescan sonar and plans were made to identify the wreck. In 2010 all was ready to dive the wreck but the weather gods didn’t approve; the winds were to strong and the sea to rough, but this year the weather cooperated. The divers went down to the wreck and started their search for something that would identify the wreck.

After 19min of the 20min bottom time they discovered the ship's bell with the name Hernodia. After 45min the support divers met up with the deep team. After a little conversation by wetnotes about the wreck and the name, the support team went up to inform the rest of the team and the divers continued their decompression for 2 more hours, checked on continually by the support team. It was a team effort; all divers and even the boat crew was GUE trained. The team hopes to get back to photograph and video the wreck that sits at 120m, completely intact. It's a great GUE project with the Nordic cold water divers, with water temperatures only 4°C below 25m.