Once again 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 targets of the weekend were a list of dives the trip organiser hadn’t done before, ranging from the massive HMS Empress of India to the tiny Anworth.

The Empress was built in 1893, such was the pace of naval technology at the time she was obsolete just over a decade later. In 1913 she was striped of her propellers and primary guns to be used for gunnery practice by some of the newer battleships that now replaced her. The shoot was expected to take some time but a lucky shot below the water line caused her to turn over and sink. For divers this is probably a good thing if she had endured several hours of pounding before falling to her watery grave then she wouldn’t be in as good a condition as she now is. She is the sister ship of HMS Hood which lies across the southern entrance to Portland harbour, both were of the Royal Sovereign Class. With both turned-turtle it is easy to see the similarities between the two great ships.

The Empress is a long way round from Weymouth, we left the quay at 06:30 to get round in time for a 10:30 slack; all the travelling would make this a one dive day. The west-south westerly 4 to 5 gave an interesting trip round Portland Bill and through the Race. A couple of divers didn’t make the boat in time but got to the Bill in time to watch us go round, they said at times they lost us in the waves! Once we were through the Race the waves quietened down a bit and as the day wore on the wind dropped. Unfortunately a combination of the early start and the bouncy trip round the Bill left a few people feeling a bit green. Only one dropped out of the dive, the rest were glad to get off the boat for a bit.

When arriving at the bottom of the shot line at 30m unless you have got it into your head that the seabed is at 45m you would think you are off the wreck, in fact you are resting on the keel and as you swim off line the hull drops off to the seabed and the deck level. As with the Hood the primary guns may have been removed but the secondary guns are still in place pointing out, also deck railings and walkways were still in evidence. The stern deck was supported out of the mud leaving a 1-2m gap, the stern came to a point and if it wasn’t for the presence of the rudder and prop shafts you could have mistaken it for the bow.

Going forward from the stern the hull is intact except where the two condensers have been salvaged, at this point the hull is ripped open on both sides leaving a narrow bridge along the keel joining the forward and aft sections of the wreck.

The life on the hull was what you would expect on a rocky sea bed at 30m, lots of fan and cup corals with some soft corals and sponges, few fish. On the vertical sides of the hull there were dense patches of plumose anemones and dead mans fingers. The deck and surrounding sea bed was where the fish life was, a large shoal of pollack and bib surrounded the wreck, conger eels, crabs and lobsters were seen sheltering inside the wreck.

The Iolanthe was sunk by a torpedo from UB-75 in January 1918. She was carrying a cargo of railway trucks and hay, she is known locally as the railway wreck.

The shot was snagged in a set of bogies from a railway truck, a good start on the ‘railway wreck’. The bow and stern remained upstanding but the wreckage between them had ‘flatpacked’ to the sea bed, with some of the cargo of trucks spilt across the sea bed. In places the deck still stood a few meters off the sea bed allowing a swim through between holds.

The structure of the stern section was still in good shape though the plating was deteriorating. The stern lay on its port side, the steering gear was still attached but there was no sign of the prop. The stern was covered in soft corals and anemones.

The wreck was generally at about 40m with the scour at the stern being 45m and the scour at the bow being 49m. Once again it was a case of the ‘usual suspects’ as far as life on this wreck. Anemones, soft corals, fan and rose coral growing on the wreck, crabs, lobsters and congers in the wreck and a shoal of bib and pollack around the wreck.

For the second dives we did a gentle drift on Lulworth banks, there was just enough current to push you along nicely. The whole drift took place over a crowded queen scallop bed. As you approached they all leapt and danced around, you could feel them bouncing off you and see them snapping at your mask. When looking at your buddy it was as if he was swimming along in a cloud of scallops.

As well as the queenies there were also king scallops, crabs, cuttlefish and skate.

This was the smallest wreck we did in the three days, 150ft long compared to the 380ft of the Empress and the 325ft of the Iolanthe. This made the dive site a bit crowded with 11 divers on it.

The main section of the wreck was amidships starting at the engine room and finishing at the end of the hold. There was on sign of the stern and the bow was broken and lying in two sections. With no stern the engine space with boiler, condenser and other machinery could easily be explored. The hold was half full of bags of cement, the bags have long since gone and the cement has set, leaving a fossilised pillow effect.

This wreck was once popular with the Weymouth charter boats and known locally as the ‘lobster wreck’. We did see several lobsters as well as four or five conger eels living in the wreck.

For the last dive we did a drift just outside Portland Harbour Breakwater on our way back to port. 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, but not as many as on the drift dive we did on Lulworth banks. The life wasn’t limited to scallops with rays, grey gurnard, plaice and plenty of crabs being seen.

Tango
Net Diving Group