Black Hawk Weekend18th to 20th July 2003 Divers from the Net Diving Group joined members Newbury SAC, for a long weekend of adventurous diving out of Weymouth. We used the Charter Boat Tango skippered by Phil Corben. The target of the weekend was to dive the WW2 U-Boat U-772 and her last victim the Liberty Ship SS Black Hawk, which now is in two sections 15 Nautical Miles apart. The weather was clear but breezy, blowing S to SW 3-5 all weekend. It is times like this when you really appreciate the stability of the Offshore-125 hull, in a lesser boat or RIB we would have had to cancel the trip. U-772 - Friday PMThis site is six nautical miles south of Portland Bill. It is often misidentified as the UC-62; this is due to the 4 life Raft Canisters in the Bow being wrongly identified as mine chutes. This boat is definitely a late WW2 attack boat not a WW1 minelayer. The most probable candidate is U-772, which was sunk by HMCS Calgary after it had successfully torpedoed the SS Black Hawk. The Stern section of the Black Hawk lies just a mile and a half from this wreck. We found the wreck listed over to Starboard by at least 450 and partially covered by sand up to 1m below the deck. The seabed was 50m dead with the top of the attack periscope standing up 5m, this was on the LW slack, the Seabed can be 54m on a HW slack. The instrumentation in the conning tower was still in a very good condition, the attack periscope was extended and there was a radio mast and radio direction finder all intact. The conning tower hatch was open allowing you to see into the conning tower. Going forward the casing was damaged so we could see between the deck and the pressure hull, so you could see the life raft canisters were and some of the other machinery. Again back at the port side of the conning tower the casing around the port ballast tank was broken up, exposing the tank and some of its plumbing.
We didn’t take any photographs but some excellent pictures can be seen on Simon Brown’s site, see the link at the end of this report. As well as a fantastic historic dive there was plenty of life on this site. The highest conger count seen by a single diver was eight, with five of those in one place. Squat lobsters, lobsters and crabs could been seen tucked safely out of the way between the casing and pressure hull and there was a large cloud of pouting and pollack surrounding the sub. Salsette - Saturday AMWe had two ‘spare’ dives in the weekend’s itinerary so we fitted in ‘Diver’s Number One Wreck’. This P&O express Liner was also a U-boat victim but in this case of UB-40 in WW1. The Shot line was in the Stern section which gave us opportunity to explore the upper deck structure with its gun at the stern before ‘standing off’ the stern itself and taking in the magnificence of this wreck. It was then a swim forward as far as gas would allow us, taking in as much of this of the huge ship as possible. Even after over 80 years on the seabed this wreck is still in very good condition with much of its wooden decking still in place. Portland Breakwater Drift – Saturday PMFor the second of our ‘spare’ dives we did a drift just outside Portland Harbour Breakwater. This gave those who think they need to put something on the table after a diving trip chance to collect a few scallops. As well as the king scallops everyone took home there were also queen scallops that danced up as soon as you approached. The life wasn’t limited to scallops with rays, sole, plaice and plenty of crabs being seen. A colourful and exciting dive in its own right. SS Black Hawk (Stern Section) – Sunday AMThe SS Black Hawk was torpedoed on the 29th December 1944. The explosion of the single torpedo blew the stern off which promptly sank. The remainder of the vessel remained a float and was towed into Worbarrow Bay and beached. The original plans were to recover her but winter storms caused the wreck to be declared a total loss in April 1945. The Worbarrow Bay section has been blown up twice, once by the Royal Navy, so she wasn’t a hazard to shipping and once to allow the discharge pipe from Winfrith to be routed though the site. Whereas the deeper stern section has been pretty much left alone, the propeller was salvaged but apart from that the only damage is from the ravages of the sea. The stern section is still a big lump of wreck. It stands up 8m from a seabed of 48m. The stern itself is recognisable but as you head forward from that the wreckage becomes more jumbled. The Section lies on its port side with the deck nearly vertical, as you go forward the decking breaks up and you are diving under an over hang that is the Starboard side of the ship. The deck gun now lies upside down on the sea bed, ammunition boxes were seen (and left well alone) near the gun, we don’t know if they were exclusively for the gun or general cargo. Again being a reasonable distance off shore the visibility was very good and the local fish life has made the Black Hawk their home, the usual suspected were clocked with lobsters and congers in the wreck and pouting and pollack around it. SS Black Hawk (Bow Section) – Sunday PMAfter so much High Explosive has been used on this site it is a bit of a scrap heap. Individual features can be identified but there is no overall feeling for the size and shape of the vessel, unlike the stern. One of the features that is in evidence is a boiler that has been shattered open revelling all its innards. There is meant to be an anchor on a length of chain on this site but we have yet to find it. The nice thing about this site is that it is in 18m not 48m. So diving it on a rich Nitrox mix gave you just about unlimited dive time, which makes a nice contrast to the dive on the stern. The Team
Links
Simon Brown - U772 |
