telegraphcove4

I came back to Telegraph Cove on Jan. 6, 2024 to have another look at the "wreckage" near the right-hand side of the bay. Visibility was surprisingly decent for Telegraph Cove. It was about 15' and maybe as much as 20' out away from the beach. I swam out along the rocky rubble slope on the right side of the bay.

I saw the old cable I remembered from last time. I thought it might be what's left of the original telegraph cable that ran here from the mainland in the 1860's. I recently read that there was a B.C. Tel telephone cable installed here (probably) that ran out to San Juan Island in the early 1900's. So this cable I saw might be that one instead. It was mostly covered with grey-brown algae, which made it hard to see. There was lots of dead bull kelp along the bottom, which made following the cable even more confusing (the cable was about the diameter of bull kelp).

I reached the area of wreckage that I had come to see. It was on the sandy bottom about 20' deep at the base of the rocky slope. I call it "wreckage", but I really can't figure out what it is from. The main feature is a large iron shaft about 12 or 15' long, with a small square hub on one end and a larger round disk near the other end. My imagination always makes me think it's a paddlewheel shaft, but there's only one instead of the two that would be on a paddlewheel steamer and I think it's too long anyway. Surrounding it are lots of other iron beams and unrecognizable iron chunks half-buried in the sand/gravel. There's also some kind of wheel with curved spokes. Back in the 1800's, when this neighborhood was an explosives plant, there was a dock running out in the bay near this location. I assume this wreckage has something to do with the dock (which there is no longer any trace of). The strange thing is that the wreckage is only in one small area and not stretched out along where the entire dock used to be. My logical guess though is that the wreckage must have something to do with the explosives plant and the dock.

One thing I noticed today that I didn't notice last time, is that there were several strange-looking large black rocks near the shaft. A couple of them were cemented to the iron disk on the shaft, but I picked up some of the other ones nearby and they were unusually-light, almost like wood. I realized that they were coal. This adds another strange factor to the wreckage. I assume that coal was used in the manufacturing of the explosives and coal-powered steamships visited the dock to load explosives, but it still seems strange that the coal would be underwater in the same small area as the iron wreckage. Maybe the old dock had a safety railing along it except for a small gap in one spot where everybody accidentally kept dropping things into the water.

I gave up trying to figure out the wreckage and I swam out to the maze of rock reefs at the entrance to the bay. I don't know why I keep visiting this area since it's very grey and silty and mostly lifeless. I think since it's such a maze, I keep thinking I'll come across some new part of it that's more interesting, but I never do. My maximum depth out here was only 32'. I could have followed my compass out farther and deeper along these reefs, but the current was strong enough to make me stay close to the bay. The tops of some of these reefs were only 10' deep. Visibility was a bit worse out here with the current and the mild surge stirring up the silt.