EXPLORER

BRUSSEL

ROCHEFORTHAN-SUR-LESSE

1O IMMËRSED, FALL1999

P R E S E R V A T I D N Ï S T

Marc JasinskiBy Sean Holland

Marc Jasinski excavated treasure from a

Spanish galleon, extended Belgium's largest cave and pene-

trated centuries-old labyrinths under thé streets of Brussels.

But thé charming and down-to-earth Belgian considers his

greatest diving achievement to be land-based: thé création

of Belgium's only underwater archeological society, thé

Centre de Recherches Archéologiques Fluviales.

CRAF unités divers, archeologistsand government entities in under-standing and preserving thé past.Volunteer divers explore and excavate un-derwater sites, especially in rivers (or flu-viales as they are known in Belgium). Pro-fessional archeologists offer expertise,while thé southern Belgian governmentprovides financial and technical support,including heavy equipraent, access andarchives for research.

"It has always been a goal of mine tohâve sport divers cooperate with officiaiarcheologists. Until 1997, there wasn't asingle archeologist trained to dive in Bel-

gium, and surface archeologists tradi-tionally did not attempt to understand anartifact's significance underwater," saysMarc. "Now we hâve three young profes-sional archeologists in our organization."

Even a little waterway like thé OurtheRiver in southern Belgium can turn intoa big project. "A Roman road ran betweentwo impérial cities for 105 kilometers [65miles]. About midway, thé road crossedthis small river," says Marc. Archeologistsexcavated thé road to within 30 feet / 10meters of thé river, and CRAF is pickingup where they left off. It has also beenasked to explore a well that had been

THE INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL DIVINE MAQAZINE

sealed for 150 years toprevent tampering withwaters said to be used

by a saint in performing miracles. Onecan only imagine what this sacred timecapsule may yield. "We hâve more pro-jects than we can handle," he adds.

Last fall, CRAF took advantage of en-gineering work that lowered southernBelgium's main river, thé Meuse, by 10feet/ 3 meters (Immersed, Summer 1999).For three weeks, Marc led 130 volunteersto survey 56 miles / 90 kilometers ofriverbank. A major transportation linkbetween France, Belgium, Holland andthé North Sea, thé Meuse has attractedcommerce and industry for 3,000 years.Clues to a médiéval harbor were amongthé discoveries that hâve survived théheavy modifications of dredges and damsduring thé last 150 years.

"We discovered hundreds of logs thatcreated a structure several hundred me-ters long and might well hâve been a fish-ery. We didn't hâve enough time to finishthé work before thé authorities raised théwater level again," says Marc. Next stepsinclude mapping and excavating thé fishtraps. "It will be difficult, as visibility inthis river is quite poor—seldom morethan a foot, sometimes even less."

CRAF formally organized in 1987,though its roots go back to a 1959exploration of thé Lesse River intothé subterranean passages and galleriesof thé Han cave. Some 75 miles / 110kilometers south of Brussels in thé vil-lage of Han-sur-Lesse, thé 9-mile- / 15-kilometer-long Han is Belgium's largestcave System. "It took us 25 years and twodeaths to explore," says Marc, but in ex-tending thé cave a trove of objects span-ning 3,000 years was found. "We recov-ered over two tons of pottery, gold,jewels and métal artifacts from thé caveand river, including some fantastic dis-coveries from thé late Bronze Age, whichdate from 1,150-650 B.C."

Easy finds were made years ago, soCRAF divers must push deeper into théSystem's crevices to learn more about thésite. Swift currents, nearly zéro viz andcold water tax researchers. "The excava-tion involves working in narrow confines

IMMERSED, FALL 1999

Marc's curiosity about thésubterranean world beganas young boy. The Hancave was just 2 miles / 3kilometers from his grand-father's farm, where hespent much time duringWorld War II. The cavegave thé young Marc achance to forget thé war.

Exhausted diverAndré Fassottedonning hisgear beforecrossing asiphon on hisway back to thédiving base.

PHOTO: MARC JASINSKI

under fallen rockscaught and supportedby other rocks. Natural-

ly, it is an unstable and potentially dan-gerous environment," says Marc. The cavedraws about 450,000 visitors a year, andthé work cannot disturb tourism. Addingthis to thé already difficult working con-ditions heightens thé importance of main-taining good relations with thé cave's own-ers. "That's why our society needs a wiseold man like me to handle thèse matters,"quips thé 66-year-old Marc.

Marc's curiosity about thé subter-ranean world began as young boy.The Han cave was just 2 miles / 3kilometers from his grandfather's farm. "Iwas practically raised on thé farm andcovered in manure most of thé time, too,"he laughs. Marc spent much time at théfarm during World War II. "German anti-aircraft guns surrounded our home inBrussels. Allied air raids occurred almostnightly. Neighborhood boys spent thémornings picking up thé spent shells thatfell ail over our property," he says. Han-sur-Lesse and its famous cave gave théyoung Marc a chance to forget thé war.

Lights were restricted by thé war onhis first visit to thé cave, so nine-year-old Marc used just a simple flashlight tosee thé cave. "It was amazing to feel théenormity of thé cave without fully seeingit." His fascination brought him backnearly every weekend. "After thé firstfew visits, thé guards stopped asking mefor a ticket. I became part of thé team atthé grotto and even received tips fromvisitors," he says.

Marc's interest in caving grew whilehe was a student at thé University ofBrussels. There, he teamed up with PierreBrichard and Suzanne Tobback to ex-plore a small sinkhole on his grandfa-ther's farm in 1954. "They were like meand had already explored many of Bel-gium's caves. We wanted somethingnew." The three started excavating thésinkhole, hoping that its stream of waterwould lead to a gallery. Digging withshovels and picks took too long, prompt-ing Marc and Pierre to use homemade ex-plosives to blast away at thé sinkhole'sbottom. Although this helped move mud

and rocks, "we were very lucky that thosenasty things did not explode when wewere hammering them in," he says. Aftersix months of weekend efforts, thé ex-plorers broke through to a cave Systemsome 264 feet / 80 meters deep.

Many cavers learn to dive to furthertheir exploration of dry caves beyondwater-filled sumps, but not Marc. In 1959,he finally finished his university coursesand his Belgian military obligation andrealized that chemistry didn't hold his in-terest as a life's work. So Marc repaired toa Club Med in Corsica to do some soul-searching. A spearfishing enthusiast fromthé âge of 14, he tried thé resort's divingclass. "During my first dive, I realizedscuba diving was made for me," he says."My skin diving expérience was fantasticpréparation for actual scuba diving. Iknew then that scuba diving was going tobe my life. It was a fabulous révélation."

During his checkout dive, Marc evenfound a pièce of a Roman amphora. "Theinstructors wanted to find pottery forthemselves. It was silly how jealous theybecame," he says. As thé overseer ofmany underwater archeological sites inBelgium, he now laments taking théshard. "It might hâve been thé only visi-ble pièce of a lost sailing vessel. This ispart of thé problem with people pickingup artifacts."

Marc pursued his new-found loveby skin diving in flooded quarriesback home in Belgium, a sharpcontrast to thé warm and sunny Mediter-ranean. Yet, he remained enthusiastic."Quarries offered absolutely clear waterwith 130 feet / 40 meters of visibility," hesays. Reading Graham Balcombe's BritishCaving: An Introduction to Speleologybythé Cave Research Group fueled his imag-ination. "In thé 1930s, this gréât man andhis buddy Jack Sheppard actually in-vented cave diving and created fromscratch ail their diving equipment. Soon,I was thinking about Han-sur-Lesse."

Joined by his first wife, Annette, Marcsnorkeled thé grotto. "We had no lights,no visibility and there was lots of under-water junk, including rolls of barbed wire.We didn't even hâve scuba tanks at firstsince there were no dive shops in Bel-

Machinery in a sub-mersed quarry in

Southern Belgium.This photograph,

won Marc thé 197OStella d'Oro (Golden

Star) in MaurizioSarra, an Italian

photography prize.It was taken with aSeven Seas Optics

fisheye lens on aNikonos III.

gium. Ail we coulduse was just simplesnorkeling gear," hesays. Once they ob-tained tanks, théyoung adventurerspushed past onesump after another,making thé firstmajor extension ofthé Han in morethan a century."That's when we started finding artifacts,"he adds. "We found pottery from thé 14thand 16th centuries, even from thé time ofthé Romans."

Annette recalls thé fascination of théfinds. "It was hard to believe that therewere so many objects in thé cave. Eachweekend we found pièces from différentperiods starting with prehistoric times tothé Romans and thé médiéval âge rightup to modem times," she says. "Plus ailthé newspapers and photographers cameto see our finds. I was probably thé onlywoman in Belgium at thé time scuba div-ing in a cave."

Not everyone was enthusiastic. "I tookmy finds to varions institutions in Bel-gium, but ail thé archeologists turned meaway," Marc says. "No one believed inunderwater archeology." One seniorarcheologist finally showed interest, butnever attempted to understand why théobjects were there. "He just wanted us todredge objects up to thé surface as quick-ly as possible," he adds.

A fter discovering thé huge complexof new galleries called Le RéseauSud (thé southern System of gal-leries), Marc and thé others learned apainful lesson about thé price of discov-ery. In September 1959, Pierre died whilepenetrating this new leg. "We really don'tknow what happened. He kept asking formore line and thé tender was giving it tohim. Suddenly, we saw his lights just afew meters from us." Fully suited as thésafety diver, Marc jumped in to help. "Itried to resuscitate him but he was alreadydead. He even had air in thé tanks," hesays. "We were destroyed. Pierre was likea brother to me. It was dreadful. AfterPierre's death, I lost my interest in cave

1 4 IMMERSED, FALL1999 THE INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL DIVING MAHAZINE

PROVIDING EXPERTISE INCHAMBER MANUFACTURINGFrom one man 750mm lightweightaluminium shells at 6001bs (272Kgs),to onshore 1500mm steel shells at70001bs (3500Kgs), to médical2500mm multiplace HyperbaricChambers. Formed from an originalinvolvement with nuclear marineprojects and offshore saturationdiving, HSM has built a solidréputation on solving problems andcreating unique productsmanufactured to exact customerrequirements. HSM Technologyprovides a cost effective modem OEMsolution with a backbone of soundengineering principles.

INVESTMENT IN THELATEST TECHNOLOGYService and equipment offered to thétrade diving industry inlude highpressure SOOOpsig gas filtrationshells, stainless steel repackcartriges, visual indicators andstainless fittings. Oil-free/oil-lesshigh pressure compressors using théproven Rix design for Oxygen.

HSM TechnologyTAMAR SCIENCE PARK

DERRIFORD ROADPLYMOUTH, ENGLAND PL6 8BQ

HSM Engineering Technology Ltd.UNIT 3 BEAUMONT COURT

BELTON PARK IND. ESTATELOUGHBOROUGH, ENGLAND LE11 ODA

Tel: +44 (0) 1509 211233Fax: +44 (0) 1509 269061

E-mail:hsm-engineering.demon.co.uk

Contact: lain Middlebrook

CIRCLE 025 ON READER SERVICE GARD

Marc préparesfor a surface-feddive in a Phoque,a French-madeforerunner of adrysuit

diving and had no désire to go back tothat damned cave."

Marc abandoned caves, but not diving.In thé 1960s, researchers exploring thé14th century wall that once surroimdedmédiéval Brussels turned to Marc to com-plète underwater portion of their survey.Annette was then seven months pregnantwith their first son, Stéphane, so Marcteamed up with René Thierry, a Belgiantélévision personality, to penetrate théflooded remains of thé fortress walls andgalleries some 33 feet /10 meters beneaththé streets of modem Brussels.

"It was very successful but rather dan-gerous," says Marc. Time and old treeroots weakened tunnel walls and roofs."The ceiling was crumbling down. Roofscollapsed under several sections. Wecould hâve been buried alive if anythinghappened. It was frightening. We evenfound human remains. Eventually westopped when thé ceiling became toolow, making it impossible for us tosqueeze through."

Fellow Belgian and cave diving buddyRobert Sténuitbrought Marc and An-nette to northern Ireland in his 1967search for thé Girona, a Spanish vessellost during thé Spanish Armada (Im-mersed, Spring 1999). The two met dur-ing Marc's expéditions at Han-sur-Lesse."Marc could do everything from under-water video to still photography," Robertsays. "He is very careful in preparing fora dive and getting thé necessary equip-ment together. He's quite a lens builder,too. In fact, l'm still using one of his home-made 17-millimeter lens, which is over30years old!"

The two-year probe of thé Girona gaveMarc, a freelance photographier, time totransfer his topside skills to thé under-water world, where primitive equipmentprevailed. "When I first started, I lost twoexpensive Leica caméras in supposedlywatertight caméra housings," he says. Hebecame one of thé first owners of a Ca-lypso, thé predecessor of thé Nikonoscaméra. "Its sériai number is 93," he adds.

For thé Girona, he modified a 17-mil-limeter fisheye lens, then developed alens port to greatly reduce thé circulardéformation associated with ultra-wide-angle photos. Wide open at f/4, thé lenswas able to capture action with availablelight on thé most advanced film of thétime, high-speed Ektachrome rated atASA160. "Today, we hâve excellent ASA1600 film. What a change!" Marc says.His Girona still photos, along withRobert's narrative, were widely pub-lished, and footage shot with his expéri-mental 16-mm underwater movie cam-éra was featured on "Chronicle," anarcheology program on BBC télévision.

The Girona was but one of many ad-ventures of Marc and Robert, who hâvesearched around thé world for treasurewrecks lost during thé 16th to 18th cen-turies. "Treasure diving was tremen-dously exciting," says Marc. "My fellowdivers were bright and i'ull of fim. Manypeople just dream of finding gold. l'mhappy I did it." Though Marc would glad-ly join another expédition, he feels that"everything has become so complicatednow, with légal problems as states andcountries try to get control of thèse sites."

THE INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL DlVING MAGAZINE

E ven cave sites hâve their controver-sies, and Marc's dives stirred one atHaii-sur-Lesse. His discoveries therechallenged thé accepted theory of land-trained archeologists that thé cave wassimply a place of refuge in time of warand strife, and Marc's finds were just thétrash left by ancient visitors.

Eugène Warmenbol, a specialist in pre-historic Belgium archeology, now coun-ters thé trash theory, proposing that Han-sur-Lesse was a gréât sanctuary whereofferings to thé dead were left. Marc ex-plains: "Water was often associated withdeath, and gold was never found outsidethé context of death. Most of thé tools andweapons we found were new and proba-bly intentionally tossed in thé river. Evenin Britain, they find brand-new but de-liberately broken weapons and jewelsthrown in thé rivers." Finds from thé ex-plorations becarne so numerous that Marchelped start thé nearby Musée du MondeSouterrain (Muséum of thé SubterraneanWorld) to hold thé enormous collection.

Documenting Han-sur-Lesse chal-lenged Marc. Photography and video film-ing are rendered useless in thé near-zerovisibility, and excavating thé muddy bot-tom frustrâtes many surveying tech-niques. " We needed to find a good way ofusing underwater topography to find howan artifact related to thé context of thésite," he says. "Otherwise, you can't un-derstand thé nature of thé site."

Marc devised a System he calls trilater-ation. Similar to satellite-based Global Po-sitioning System navigation, it requiresonly distance measurements, instead ofthé distances and angles used in conven-tional surveying. A simple measuringtape can be used to détermine thé dis-tances between a target and a set of accu-rately surveyed fixed points. Thèse mea-surements can pinpoint a target to withina few millimeters. A diver needs just afew inches of viz to read a tape measure.Using full face masks and underwatercommunications Systems allows diversto give thé readings to surface monitors,who plug thé numbers into a laptop com-puter to perform thé laborious geometri-cal calculations. "This team effort saves alot of underwater time and reduces mis-takes," he says.

THE I NTERNATIdNAL TECHNICAL DlVING MAGAZINE

Marc's expéditionswith historian-treasureseeker Sténuit shapeshis perspective on thé accelerating tug-of-war between salvors and archeologists."I hâve nothing against salvors, I just don'tlike how they do their job," he says. "Thehiring of archeologists to oversee a sal-vage job, to do research and protect théhistorical integrity of thé shipwreck, ismore cosmetic than anything else. Usu-ally thé archeologists are young peoplewho aren't up to fighting their bosses: thétreasure hunters. It is a conflict of interest.

"But archeologists can also go too far.Is it always really important to knowhow a ship was built three or four hun-dred years ago? It certainly is for histor-ical ships that mark thé introduction ofnew building techniques or navigationmethods. But I don't think it is alwaysnecessary to raise thé wood and build amuséum to préserve it."

Marc has published sevenbooks oncaving and scuba diving inFrench, Dutch and English andhas had photos and articles in magazinesaround thé world, but underwater re-search projects and tending to thé growthof CRAF hâve overtaken writing efforts oflate. "It is easy to stay busy by makingothers busy. The hard part is recruitingthé right people. People who are betterthan you. I hâve a good team that can han-dle thé job, and we hâve so many goodopportunities to explore. The organiza-tion can continue after Fve stopped div-ing, too," he says.

Above ail, Marc is especially proud ofhis four sons, ail of whom are divers:Stéphane, Jérôme, Matthew and Sébast-ian. The eldest, Stéphane, often serves onRobert Sténuit's explorations as an un-derwater cameraman. Says Marc: "I con-sider myself lucky since I hâve a led amost interesting life, met gréât people andlived with gréât ladies who gave me gréâtchildren. F m a happy man." •

Sean Holland is a member of thé British Society

of Underwater Photographers and thé New York

City Sea Gypsies dive club.

POSEIDON 012345678:

CIRCLE 059 ON READER SERVICE CARD