USNS Grasp & MDSU2

With his ship ablaze and much of the crew dead, John Paul Jones had the chance to surrender to the British on Sept 23rd, 1779. Instead, Jones, considered the father of the US Navy, declared, “I have not yet begun to fight!” After the British surrendered, Jones and his men tried to save his ship, the Bonhomme Richard, but it sank in the North Sea off the coast of Flamborough Head. More than 220 years later I was aboard the USNS Grasp for a three-week expedition with the US Navy, filming with MDSU2 (Mobile Diving & Salvage Unit 2) and The Ocean Technology Foundation looking for the wreckage. Surveying roughly five square miles off the coast of England, US Navy divers continued the search for the long-sunken ship. With water depths of more than 200 feet, divers tethered to the surface used a helium and oxygen mixture known as Heliox. On this expedition the divers from MDSU2 were the first surface supplied US Navy divers to the bottom of the North Sea and the first to dive greater than 200 feet. The search for the Bonhomme Richard continues to this day, but if found would be considered one of the most important archaeological discoveries in US naval history. MDSU2 and Master Diver Jim Mariano are among the toughest I’ve ever seen anywhere. RIP Jim M... Hooyah!

Tech Specs

Name: USNS Grasp
Motto: “Any Ocean Any Time”
Overall Length: 255 ft
Extreme Beam: 51 ft
Draft: 17ft
Light Displacement: 2354 tons
Full Displacement: 3345 tons
Dead Weight: 991 tons
Propulsion Type: Diesel Engine
Accommodation: 9 Officers, 12 enlisted