Sole Searchers Newsletters

Monday, June 14, we have Kendall Raine and John Walker, of the UB88 organization. I mentioned it briefly at our last meeting, but here’s a short version of who they are from their website.

The UB88 Project began in early 2001 as a collaboration between Gary Fabian and Ray Arntz to locate the elusive WWI German submarine UB88. The story of that collaboration, through the discovery of the sub, the addition of deep divers Kendall Raine and John Walker, photo documentation of the sub and reproduction of rare photographs and wartime records, is recounted on their website http://www.ub88.org/.

What began as a search for one sunken vessel has evolved into a quest to locate other “lost” submerged wrecks. Sometimes this involves solving mysteries surrounding their crews and bringing closure to families, some of whom have wondered for decades as to the fate of their loved ones. These wrecks are both ships and aircraft. Each is afforded a section on the UB88.org website and they have compiled histories of the crews, the loss of the craft, history of the respective search efforts and photo documentation of the craft then and now.

From Gary and Ray’s work on the UB88 came a growing collaboration with aircraft archaeologist Pat Macha (aircraftwrecks.com). Pat’s work centers on finding lost aircraft, civilian and military, in the mountain and desert regions of California. Working with Pat, the Project is in its fifth year of trying to locate the remains of Gertrude Tompkins Silver and her North American P-51 Mustang which went missing in 1944 - presumably in Santa Monica Bay. During the search for the missing P-51D, the Project located, identified and documented the wreck site of a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star in Santa Monica Bay which went missing on a training flight in 1955. Pat also collaborated on the Project’s location and documentation of the Convair B-36 Peacemaker lost off San Diego, CA in 1952.

They maintain active search efforts for other submerged wrecks off the Southern California coast and publish our finds from time to time.

Kendall Raine

Kendall Raine is Executive Managing Director of Marshall & Stevens, Inc. where he leads the Financial Institutions Group. In his off hours, Kendall is an active technical diver with special interests in shipwreck and underwater cave exploration. Kendall was a lead diver on the discovery and salvage of gold coins from the Civil War era side wheel paddle steamer S.S. Brother Jonathan, the discovery and photo documentation of the German U-boat UB88, the discovery and photo documentation of a Convair B-36D in the ocean off San Diego, California and most recently of a lost Lockheed T-33 jet trainer off Santa Monica, California. He has also dived on deep wrecks including the Andrea Doria, Pan Penn, Norness, Triple Crown, Comet, Zillah, U. S. S. Wilkes Barre and U. S. S. Ozark. Kendall is also currently involved with on-going survey of several the largest known underwater cave systems, located near the village of Tulum, Mexico. In addition, Kendall has assisted the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Special Enforcement Bureau in the recovery of drowning victims from deep water near Catalina Island and in Lake Castaic, CA.

John Walker

John Walker is an IUEC Elevator Constructor and has been a certified diver since 1978. His occupation is what helps him pursue his true passion, exploring our world, underwater. His exploration is diverse, extending from beaches and lakes to shipwrecks and caves. John was an underwater educator from 1984 to 2004, specializing in mix gas diving and overhead environments such as caves and shipwrecks. He had taught through accredited agencies such as NAUI, IANTD and GUE. He is an accomplished cave cartographer and wreck explorer, diving hundreds of shipwrecks such as the USS Monitor, USS Wilkes Barre, UB88 as well as many aircraft casualties. But nothing intrigues him more than finding the skeletal remains of ancient human and prehistoric animals or Mayan pottery thousands of feet inside of a water filled cave. Since John’s retirement from teaching scuba, there is a better chance of finding him behind a video camera underwater than a chalk board in the class room.
Ken’s very passionate about this, so it should be very cool! He’s bringing stuff not found on the website, and will also talk about the process of wreck archaeology, location, and identification. He will touch on tech diving theory and practice, as well as show some really cool cave diving videos.

Is is just me, or does this sound amazing?
Please join us in giving our very best Sole Searchers welcome!