First day at French Frigate Shoals

Today we got to French Frigate shoals a half a day earlier than planed. The crew let us get a head start on our work and snorkel our sites. Getting into the water off of this ship is really interesting. They have 5 work boats that take the different crews to their sites. They lift the boats off the deck and over the side (which is where we walk on and throw on our gear) and then we are lowered into the water while the ship is still moving. The site that I went to today is called Shark's Island (yes it has that name for a reason, but our crew only saw very small reef sharks). It is the location of a currently unknown shipwreck. The maritime archeology team believes that it is a ship called the "Twin Brothers", but they have yet to find an artifact with a makers mark (like the ships bell). They do know that it was a whaling ship. There are lots of boiling pots around the area. These pots were used to boil the blubber of whales and turn it into oil. There are also two anchors, whale hooks, and a spearhead. If this ship is truly the "Twin Brothers" then is came all the way out to Hawaii from Great Brittan. The whalers in the Atlantic practically hunted whales to extinction in the 1800's and began to work their way around they world. This ship was heading for the Japanese fishing grounds when all the sudden out of no where they hit a reef. Most of the crew ended up getting rescued except for a few that I think died of starvation or dehydration. The monument crew is hoping that the arrowhead will have some sort of defining feature that will allow them to confidently say that it is the "Twin Brothers".
Diving was really interesting here. The surge was crazy and according to the veterans on the boat it was a calm day. I felt like I was "surf snorkeling"... It was a lot of fun though and I for sure got a workout. There were some very big Ulua (which is a Jack for those of you who do not know Hawaiian names). They were definitely curious, but they were gorgeous. There were also huge plates of Montiporid corals and giant mounds of Porites lobata. There was not that much diversity at this particular site though.
Tomorrow we are heading for the "Churchill" wreck in the morning.
so, until then...
good night.