This one is for dedicated divers only!
To get to the lake go to the far back side of the town site of Jasper, West, and find the pyramid lake road almost across from the swimming pool. Follow this road up the hill, watch for bears and trail riders! The Lake you want is the first one you see on your left. If you follow the curve around you will come to a pull out that has a plaque dedicated to Project Habakuk (see below). The plaque will give you more details than I will! Parking is in short supply.
To get to the site of the sunken ice barge you have two choices: walk around the lake to the left past the Patricia Bungalows (bring lots of willing Sherpas to carry your gear), it is quite a hike (1.5 km), or bring or rent a boat to ferry you over to the spot.
You will find the site on the southern shore near a tall tree with a wooden crossbar pointing in the general direction. There is also a lot of tar (see below) on the shore with some steel cable sticking out of it.
You can park your car at the Patricia Bungalows but if you don't ask permission and get a tag you will get towed. Getting a row boat from them is possible, for a price!
This dive is a more advanced dive due to the sharp dropoff and hazardous structure of the ice barge.
From the tarry entry point the bottom drops off very sharply. If you head in the direction indicated by the wooden cross in the tree you will find the wreck on your left in about 40 feet of water. The temperature can be cool, as are the other lakes in the area, about 4 to 10 degrees Celsius. Visiblilty is OK depending on conditions. I have heard that under the ice the visibility is excellent!
The maximum depth of the lake is about 100 feet. The barge lies in about 40 to 100 feet.
This dive starts at an altitude of about 4200 feet.
Very few fish! But then again, we are here to see the barge!
Please take care around the barge, it has been there for 50 years but it can be damaged by careless divers. If you take a boat, please do not use an anchor, it may damage the structure. There are many cables and pipes lying around the wreck - DIVE WITH A BUDDY!
Watch out for row boats, canoes and sail boats.
Project Habakuk was a project of the British Military during World War II. The concept was to build a large flat "ice berg" that could be used to launch air raids on Hitler's armies. Theoretically a large ship made of ice could float around for a very long time providing a safe, portable air strip on the ocean. In Lake Patricia lies the prototype version built using prisoners of war. The idea was not considered cost effective and was cancelled. Supposedly the ice barge floated in its place for the entire summer before melting enough to sink!
The wreck consists of an open topped rectangular box with only three of the original four sides standing . The sides in deeper water have fallen down and are laying towards deeper water. You will see a lot of piping that was used for the coolant and asphalt that served as insulation.
There is a plaque in place at the shallowest corner commemorting the proclaimation of this site as an underwater historical resource. This is a pretty cool dive!
The Alberta Scuba Diver's Council has a brochure on this project.
Wade Stoddart sent me the following information - I hope that there is more to follow:
Project Habbakuk got its name from Bibilical reference in the Old Testament, The book of Habakkuk. The project name was deliberately mispelled according to the information I have. But the reason is not mentioned. The verse reads " Behold ye among the Heathen and regard, and wonder marvelously for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe though it be told you."
I can only guess they wanted the name to signify something very grand. The original idea for ships made of ice came from a an eccentric inventor and thinker Mr. Geoffry Pyke, scientific advisor to 'Lord Mountbatten, Chief of Combined Operations in Great Britain.' Heck of a title. After the sinking of Titanic in 1912, an International Ice Patrol tried in vain to destroy icebergs using heavy munitions and bombs. The attempt failed miserably. But it gave Pyke an idea to use glacial ice as a building material for ships. ranging in size from small cargo vessels to aircraft carriers up to 600 meters long. Pyke sent a memorandum to Mountbatten stating his ideas and Mountbatten beleived the idea should be given some attention. Afterall, icebergs float, why not a ship of ice?
Thanks Wade:
Article from the the Toronto Star - May 16 1982.
This is a historical Article only and was written from information dating back to 1942.
Sir Winston Churchill was taking a bath at 10 Browning Street when the door was flung open and a grinning Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten walked in. "Look at this," said the Admiral, taking a block of ice from a paper bag and tossed it into the Prime Minister's tub. This was to be the start of one of the most bizarre projects of WWII, one that would involve dozens of scientists and engineers across Canada in a wacky scheme to build an aircraft carrier out of ice. In a book written by Jack Sexton, a project engineer, who is quoted to say, "the only construction project of comparable magnitude for which data were available was that of Hoover Dam (then known as Boulder Dam), and it served as a basis for estimating manpower, production equipment, commissary, and supply requirements." The estimated cost of Habbakkuk also called the "Ice Lozenge" by Churchill was to be $70 million dollars.
Frozen porridge In the beggining of 1943 the original research was transferred from the Canadian North to the Universities of Man., Sask., and AB., and to avoid of time, the construction of a model ice ship, 60 feet long, 30 feet wide, 20 feet deep was undertaken simultaneously on the frozen surface of Patricia Lake in Jasper National Park. The research immediately established one disappointing factor. Ice was not a good building material, it has low strength, its resistant to explosives was unpredictable-and of course ice melts in temperature above zero. Pyke had inquired, "Is there a way to reinforce an ice ship to prevent it fracturing from a torpedo strike?". So experiment began in three countries on strengthening ice, Canadians were mixing it with wood and moss. Dr. Hermin Mark in the U.S. used wood pulp and a British scientist was testing ice with a mixture of paper and saw dust. Wood pulp gave the best result. In appearance, it looked much like frozen porridge, it was subsequently called Pykerete in honor of the man behind the whole idea.
During a summit meeting on August 17, 1943 in Quebec city, a twelve inch cube of pykerete was to be examined and it was the closest Project Habbakkuk ever came to killing anyone. To prove the strength of the material, a man produced a pistol and took two shots at the cube. One shot ricocheted and hit a U.S. admiral in the leg. Admiral Mountbatten had been quoted as to saying, "Person's outside the room thought the British and the US chiefs of staff were argueing so bitterly thay they had started shooting at each other." British accounts allege that Mountbatten also brought in a regular block of ice asked the strongest man to try and shatter the block with a cleaver. General "Hap" Arnold made his attempt on the regular ice and with a heavy blow sent splinters of ice flying about the room. Then with a grin the General approached the block of Pykerete and leveled a blow into the block. Arnold howled with pain, dropped the cleaver and recoiled as pain shot through his arm and shoulder. The block was intact with hardly a mark. The next morning, Roosevelt ordered the U.S. navy to participate in building the mammoth ice field at Corner Brook, Nfld. The Habbakuk was to be 2000 feet long, 300 feet wide and 200 feet deep. Driven by twenty motors to a speed of 7 knots or it would be towed by tugs to position. U.S. navy officials had exploded when they heard inventor Geoffry Pyke, an unstable man, and remembered as difficult in Washington, had been recommended as Combined Operations Representative on the project. On December 16, 1943, the U.S. navy dropped the project. It appeared the main reason for this was in 1943 the allies began to obtain the upper hand in the Battle of the Atlantic. Also it was found that the time needed to build Habbakkuk was equal to the time needed to construct a conventional steel Aircraft Carrier. The fact remains, however that if German U-Boats had continued to hold the upper hand, Habbakkuk probably would have sailed the North Atlantic. Disiposal after the war would be as simple as pulling the refrigeration unit and let the Ice Ship drift and melt. After the war, Mr. Pyke was said to be still brimming ideas but could not get anyone to listen. On a wet winter's night in February 1948, he swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills in his Drab London boarding room and died.
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Last updated: Monday, April 08, 1996 9:04:48 PM