Eastbourne
by Dave Beadley

What better way to spend a day that you should be in the office working than going diving in beautiful sunshine? There isn't one!
It was an early start and the morning was cool and clear. Jo (Eaton) had driven as far as mine the evening before to prevent the start being stupidly early but it still took some effort to get up.
The drive to Eastbourne's Sovereign Harbour took about an hour, as there wasn't much traffic and when we arrived several other groups of divers were already there and unloading kit.

The boat - Nauticat, skippered by Steve Johnson - arrived a few minutes after we did and fifteen minutes later having loaded all the kit on board we set off. There is plenty of room even with technical divers and numerous stage bottles on board as with many of the cats operating on the south coast she has a large wet deck and sufficient bench space for 12.

Jo and I didn't know anybody else on-board when we arrived having booked on as just a buddy pair, but as is usually the case it doesn't take long before any group of divers start chatting.
The Caleb Sprague, which was the first wreck we dived is a few miles off shore, but the cruise in the early morning sunshine was very pleasant and gave us time to set up kit without any need to rush. The wreck itself lies in 45m of water but our plan was not to go to the bottom but explore the bridge area and the forward decks to the bow, some of which stand over 10m proud of the sea bed.
The Caleb Sprague was 250ft long, displaced 1,800 tons and was carrying a cargo of 2,500 tons of steel and timber to Newport when she and the convoy she was travelling with were attacked by E-Boats in January 1944. The torpedo which sank her struck behind the bridge so the area we were diving is not badly damaged.
Despite the clear and sunny day above the dive itself was surprisingly dark and dingy. We made a circuit around the superstructure as soon as we reached the wreck looking in various holes on the way round and then moved on up towards the bows. There was quite a lot of netting draped over the wreck and care was required to make sure we went around it and didn't get caught up. The visibility was 7-8m, so we got a fairly good idea of the size of the wreck, further enhanced when we looked over the side and could see some of the other divers moving around the bows on the seabed.
On surfacing we received the usual cuppa and a donut and sat enjoying the now warming day.

We had a couple of hours surface interval which involved more chat with the other divers and a spot of lunch before it was time for dive two, the Oceana. I have dived her before but only in poor vis so hadn't seen too much of her on previous visits.
The Oceana was a P&O liner, running to Bombay on 15 March 1912 when she was involved in a collision with the Pisagua. At 468ft and 6,600 tons she was considerably bigger than the Caleb Sprague but as she is now largely flattened it is hard to get any sense of scale if you cannot see much of her. The only really prominent feature is her boilers which stand in the middle of the wreck several metres proud of the rest of the wreckage and the seabed at 28m.
The shot was towards the bows and one of the anchor chains was visible before I'd let go of the line. We moved off towards the stern down what had been the starboard side pausing to have a look around the boilers on the way past. The stern is more intact than the bows and some of the deck planking can still be seen. After a quick pass around the stern we went back to the boilers, before moving up them and leaving the wreck from the top at about 20m.

After the clear and cool start to the day it had warmed up nicely and post dive relaxing on deck was a must. On the way back into Eastbourne we were treated to one of the highlights of the four day "Air-bourne" air show, a display by a Spitfire, Hurricane and Dakota. Sitting on the boat with a great view in the summer sun I couldn't help thinking "this definitely beats being stuck in an office, I must do this more often" This wasn't the first time I had been diving mid-week and it certainly won't be the last.
As a little plug for Steve - anybody interested should log onto www.channeldiving.com for more info and the current dive list and prices.

Kingston & Elmbridge Branch


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