This very pretty, bespoke ring was designed by Lizzy’s mum. It had gold from her gand mothers ring. It also had prescious stones from her late great grand mothers ring and was an 18th birthday present.
On a hot day whilst sailing on the River Thames Lizzy got in the water for a swim. As she exited the water by using a rope to climb back into the boat, the ring came off and disappeared into a weed covered sretch of 2 metre deep River Thames.
Mum tried contacting different organisations to see if they could help recover the ring. No help was forth coming.
A friend told mum of a Divecrew search and recovery diver (Martin) who the media called “Lord of the Rings”, there was an article in the Henley Standard. Martin has completed numerous searches in the River Thames to retrieve peoples personal belongings after boating incidents. With nothing to lose, mum contacted Divecrew, partly expecting to hear the worst, that the ring has gone forever.
Divecrew however did offer to help and would send the “Lord of the Rings” to see if he could find the missing ring. Whilst excited, mum was also advised that it is not always possible to retrieve lost items due to the environment of the River Thames: current, poor visibility, silt, weeds etc.
Martin was told of the history to the ring and he became determined to find it. A short boat cruise on the Thames and we arrrived at the site. Slight current.
Circa 2 metres deep. Silt bottom. 2 metres of weed from the bottom to the surface.
The first explority dive with a torch soon showed this was going to be the biggest challenge Martin would face in numerous search and recovery dives. Nil visibility. As soon as the weeds were moved, the water was a silt out. There was only one other option. A methodical search underwater with a pin pointer (metal detector). Even so, this was going to be a needle in a haystack.
Fortunately Lizzy had taken pictures of the area from the boat, we were able to orientate the search area based on the trees on a near by island. Dropping into the murk and searching the bottom by pushing weeds out of the way is zero visibility, the pin pointer went off. Coke can!! It went of again, a piece of rusty metal. Then again, a piece of metal wire. A quick surface trip to reorientate, then back down to the bottom. After 46 minutes the pin pointer goes off again. Fingers searching in the silt, Martin feels a ring shaped item. On surfacing, it was The Ring.
When everyone else was stating it was a lost cause or did not respond at all, Divecrew responded positively and quickly. With the caveat of the ring may not be found, within 48 hours, the ring was returned to the proud owner.
Divecrew – Different.
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Divecrew is a PADI Five Star IDC Centre and the UK’s only GOLD STAR Centre for adaptive teaching. If you are a Rescue Diver and want to GO PRO, you need to ask yourself a question? Do I want to be the best or average as a pro? Dive Master, the first level of professional, is a pivotal role in diving. At Divecrew if you just want a tick in the box, just a scrape through, we will direct you to other dive centres. At Divecrew we put more resources into the development of Dive Masters than many other centres. Why? The role of the Dive Master in open water includes being the safety diver to the instructor. Why would I want a flakey Dive Master looking after my safety? Makes no sense. Student and Team safety is of paramount importance.
