The J.B. King

When I heard the sole survivor of this 1930 wreck, saying how sad he was because a diver had stolen the wheel of what was left of his working boat, I became really concerned about the King and wanted people to remember its story.

Located just below the seaway in the St Lawrence river (Ontario, Canada), the King is considered as a technical wreck, not so much because of the depth, which is only 150 feet deep, but because of the location and current which can be as strong as 4 knots.

The wreck looks like just a pile of debris at first sight because it was a drilling barge that exploded, leaving nothing intact except the working boat. It took the team a lot of dives to figure out the wreck and I was amazed how little we knew about it. It is not even a hundred years old but still, lots of information is gone forever.

The J.B. King was the biggest drilling barge in Canada in 1930 having 12 drills. The 26 of june 1930, it became a disaster for the town of Brockville. 30 of the 42 men crew died that day. Ev Snider, 97 years old, is the sole living survivor.

The King is part of H2O secrets documentaries produced by Pixnat. The commitment of the team was not only to document the wreck but also to work with Save Ontario Shipwrecks (Quebec chapter) to place a commemorative stone in this underwater graveyard since 17 bodies were never recovered. The members of SOS and the H2O team were honored to put the stone in the presence of Ev Snider and we had the feeling of an accomplished mission of heritage preservation.

For the filming, I had a team of 3 dedicated divers who were great to work with. The success of the dives is always because of the team spirit and support. At that depth in the St Lawrence, available natural light and good visibility are some things you really wish you had. But the team had a great communication and on each dive we could always find some answers and identify new pieces while filming them in HD of course. Diving with rebreathers 10/50 mix gave us all the safety margin needed because of the exersion we could encounter due to the high flow current and the drag of the housing, lights and powerpack. Most of our dives were around 2 hours, having more or less a minute of deco for each minute of bottom time.

It was a great project to film and to get a feeling of what it was like back then working for that huge seaway that both USA and Canada dreamed about for so long. I will always remember the moment when I found a hammer in the water, wondering if when the King exploded the hammer was just laying in the Blacksmith shop or a man was working with it. This barge is not the biggest or deepest wreck but like with every underwater graveyard, this site has a soul and its history is part of our heritage.

One of my best memories was actually out of the water when I showed Ev Snider the pictures of his boat underwater. It was like making it alive again.

Now we’re back in the editing room. After looking at all the tapes, interviews, I am always amazed to think about what little we knew, how we saw the project and what we finally see.

For the first dive to the last one, we enjoyed the pile of debris more and more. Yesterday while looking at the rushes of the first day, I was really surprised when in the dark background of one of the first shots, I recognized the shape of a piece of the equipment of the wreck that we really realised it exist on the last dive. Looking from the general pictures to the smallest details made us realize how complex and rich a wreck as anything underwater can be. It made me think of the cave I was filming and when sometimes at first we just see walls but when we look at them closer we can see fossils, teeth and more.

It’s time to go back to work and edit the film. For more information about the J.B King and upcoming project, you can visit: www.h2osecrets.com