Don Silcock

I first dived the USAT Liberty wreck way back in 1999 and developed somewhat of a fascination with the site itself - which was and can still be an incredible dive - together with how much Tulamben and the overall experience has changed. These days it would be very easy to take one look at the divers kitting up around mid-morning and simply get back in the car and go to a different site. On a busy day at Tulamben there can easily be more than 100 divers on the wreck and it's pretty easy to see that many of them don't have a lot of experience - hoods with white rabbit ears are a key indicator... Underwater that lack of experience becomes even more obvious! And yet, despite the damage that traffic around the wreck has done, it's still a great dive if you understand the site and know when to dive it. In my early experiences on the wreck I used to get lost all the time and basically just meandered around photographing interesting stuff as I stumbled on it. Then back in 2012 I decided to get serious and booked a week of diving with Tulamben Wreck Divers (TWD) who enjoy a very solid reputation. I dived the wreck five times a day for that week and really got to know it and its moods (It does have them). I repeated that experience again in early 2020, just before the pandemic, and in March this year I went back for another week with TWD. Which means I have digital images of the wreck going back to 2005 (plus some earlier film ones...) and, combined with my understanding of the wreck paints a very interesting story. That story has just been published in X-Ray magazine and can be read on this link:

Hi, this is Don Silcock and I am an Australian underwater photographer, SEACAM ambassador and photojournalist based from Bali. Looking forward to being part of and contributing to WaterPixels! Don