Wood

In July 2011 Luuk went diving in South-France and while doing so, he visited the Donateur at the bottom of the ocean. While being down there his friend found a piece of wreck wood and the both of them thought it might be something for me, so they took it with them. Luuk and I talked about making a pen of wreck-wood before and when he gave me that piece of wood I knew it was going to be a challenge. And it really was, but I really like the result. The bottom of the pen is made of wreck-wood and the top is made of iron wood.

Ship wreck history
De Donateur was build in 1931 by Holz Worksted in Bergen (Norway. She is 78 meter long and twelve meter wide and she could reach the speed of fourteen to fifteen knot because of an engine with 1800 pk. In 1933 she was sold to la Compagnie Générale d’Armements Maritime and renamed as the Petite Terre. after that she was used for transporting bananas between Europe and the West Indies.
In 1933 she became the property of the la Compagnie Algérienne de Navigation pour l’Afrique du Nord ou Compagnie Schiaffino. It was custom to rename the ships after the names of the family members and so the Donateur was renamed the Prosper Schiaffino. This company had lost twenty ships in 1939. Nineteen of those sank during World War Two: thirteen shipwrecked or hit mines and six sank because of bombardments.
After the war the Donateur was the only surviving ship. But on 10 November 1945 she met het faith while carrying a shipload of wine from Algeria. The sweeping of the mines in the Mediterranean was far from done and Captain Baillet had his man on high alert, while the mistral blew hard. But when they were near the island Porquerolles par le Sud they sailed on a mine. The bow was destroyed and the ship ran into the water, causing the stern to sink quickly. The 29 crewmembers could save themselves in the rowboats. Thankfully the R.A.F. witnessed the tragedy and warned the rescueservices, who showed up four hours later and saved the 27 crewmembers. Two had gone missing by then. Also the sinking of the Donateur sealed the faith of the Schiaffino.

Description of the wrack
The Donateur is one of the many wreck diving examples in the Mediterranean. These kind of dives need to be well prepared, since the current is very strong and the wreck is very deep under water. This wreck is very extensive and very well conserved after 55 years under water. She lies straight up on the sandy oceanfloor. The stern lies on a depth of 51 meter, while the prow is on 48 meters. When you’re on your way down to the ship, it’s intresting to make a small stop around 20-25 meters. From that point you can see the whole ship. A couple of years ago you could to this by the top of the mast, between groups of fish. But unfortunately, the mast of the Donateur fell down in January 2000, the remaining part of the mast is no more than a few meters.
When there’s no current, it’s possible to visit the entire ship in one dive. But it is better to visit the ship in several dives. To get a good impression you’re going to need two of three dives to the ship. You can start at the rudder and the screw at its deepest point at 51 meters. The screw is enormous and gives a good impression of the power need to move this ship of 1698 tons.
When you move further to the front, you’ll pass hallways, or rather, what’s left of it. The damage done by the explosion gives a rather good indication of the force and the speed with which the ship sank.
Nowadays the wreck is overgrown with gorgonians that block the passageways. There are fish living everywhere on the wreck, so there’s flora and fauna everywhere.