Diving Targets in Oxnard, CA with Triton Diving

Summary

Tyler “the magician” Stalter has done it once again – we found another airplane wreck based on his bathymetric research.

Danny Graham operates the Triton out of Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard and we’ve been trying for quite some time to do some diving on his boat to go look for new wrecks. We were finally able to schedule it and look at some targets on 9 January 2024. I was joined by Steve Millington and Francesco Cameli.

Tyler had six targets for us to scan and then Danny had a few as well. We looked at all of them and decided to dive one in 180 fsw and it turned out to be an airplane. We now have quite a few other very good targets verified and ready to dive.

The area around Oxnard and Ventura on the California coast is relatively untouched in the deeper depths and there is a lot to find. We expect to find numerous airplanes given that there is a Naval Air Station at Point Mugu.

The Triton

Danny’s boat is ideal for technical diving. He is a very accomplished diver and knows how to work and support technical divers and the Triton is a great platform for technical diving. It has a lot of open deck space, a great compressor system, and room to store both wet and dry gear. He also has an excellent and very cool sonar system that allows for pinpoint accuracy and for 3D mapping of the underwater structures.

He even has a crane to help lift out of the water those heavy GUE JJ configurations!

The Dive

We spent some time looking at a few of the targets in 180 fsw and decided to dive the first one Tyler sent. It had a consistent and repeatable sonar return. Based on the shapes and shadows on the bathymetric data, we were expecting a boat of some sort with a crane or mast.

The conditions were not great with visibility in the first 70 feet of water somewhere around 5 feet. To give you an idea, Steve tied a strobe into the downline when we were on deco while he & Francesco sat idle with their scooters — just in case they got more than a foot or two off the line. It was pretty bad.

The bottom at about 180 fsw had maybe 15 feet of visibility but it was definitely a “night dive” and pitch black with no natural light due to all the particulate matter in the upper water column.

The bottom was covered with squid eggs and rockfish similar to the corsair site that Tyler and I dove a number of years ago. The sculpin were not quite as dense at this site but they were definitely numerous.

The Wreck

When I got to the bottom of the downline, I was fully expecting to see a boat of some sort. I was shocked — in a good way — when I saw what was obviously an airplane engine from a propeller airplane.

This is the first photograph I took (note the fish hiding out at the top of the prop shaft!):

We put strobes on the downline but didn’t run a line and didn’t want to wander too far given the very limited visibility. There were three major areas of the debris field that we discovered (there are probably more).

Engine

It is obvious a rotary engine with two rows of cylinders and appears to have 18 cylinders (two rows of nine). I can see about six cylinders in the top row and it appears to be about 70% of the circumference so it is likely to be 9 cylinders in each row.

If it is an eighteen cylinder radial engine, then it is very likely a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine.

Propeller

It is obviously a three blade prop and sits about 5-10 feet away from the engine. Also note that the propeller blades are not bent at all.

Fuselage

Part of the fuselage is past the prop going further away from the engine. The most visible features are both landing gears and the engine oil cooler. Given that you can see both landing gears, it is obviously upside down. There is also a lot of wiring around the wreck site.

The landing gear and tires face “backwards” and not “sideways” into the wings which can be used to help identify the aircraft type.

Wreck Fuselage Video

Steve Millington had a GoPro running and took this video crossing across the section of the fuselage. You can see him pointing out the landing gear and excitedly “whooping” into his rebreather loop. 🙂

Wreck ID

The number of airplanes that have a R-2800 Double Wasp Engine with three props is limited. 

The most likely candidate is a F6F Hellcat. It had:

• A R-2800 18-cylinder radial engine
• A three blade prop
• Wheels that folded backward into the wing
• The oil cooler was on the underside (now facing up) and protected by a metal frame similar to what we see at the wreck

Here are some pictures and diagrams of the engine oil cooler location:

Below is a picture that shows how the wheel and landing gear go backwards on the wing. This also rules out one of the other airplane possibilities based on the engine type (F4U Corsair) since those wheels folded out into the wings and not backward.

In addition, there are records of the Navy using F6F Hellcats as “drones” or “targets” and would paint parts of them orange. There are a few places on the wreck debris that are orange which matches (e.g. see the top left photo of the landing gear above and the orange piece sticking up).

Next Steps

There is a chance that it is another type of aircraft. At some point, we will probably return to the site to further investigate and document it.

References

Wikipedia R-2800 Double Wasp Engine

Wikipedia Hellcat

Largescale planes forum posting

Thanks To…

Tyler Stalter for, once again, using his skills on bathymetry data to find a wreck site (and we have more viable targets to dive based on his research)

My dive partners Steve Milington & Francesco Cameli

A huge thanks to Danny. It was great to finally dive on the Triton and I look forward to many more adventures with him!