Plymouth Wrecks
by Andrew Martin

The club organized a superb trip to Plymouth for the May bank holiday 2004. Personally I only dived three times - but each one was brilliant.
The dives were the James Egan Layne, the Persier, and the newly sunk HMS Scylla.
The club camped at our usual spot near the A38. There's a nice quiet campsite there with good facilities and a pleasant environment. Needless to say when we got there it was raining, but some of the gazebos had already been assembled, giving dry shelter for the serious drinkers. The first dive in the morning was the Persier.

Wreck of the Persier
The Persier is a favorite wreck for several divers in the club. It's deep enough at 30m to make it interesting, but too deep. All the same, for divers sucking air bottom time is limited considering how much there is to see down there.
She was torpedoed by a u-Boat in 1945 on her way from Cardiff to Belgium. The story is made particularly gruesome by the fate of the seamen who tried to escape into the lifeboats. At the Persier started to sink, her bows filled with water, which raised the propeller clear of the water still turning powered by the massive engine and huge boilers that are still obvious in the wreckage. The lifeboat was drawn into those spinning blades, chopping the boat to pieces, and of course its human cargo. Not a pleasant way to die.
The wreck itself now is excellent, with piles of twisted wreckage, and three enormous boilers standing proud. There always lots of fish on the Persier too, all congregating the still pockets of water.

Wreck of the James Egan Layne
This wreck needs no introduction, as it must be one of the most dived wrecks on the south coast. It was exactly how I remember it, with all the upright ribs along the length of the ship making hundreds of swim-throughs. There is plenty of fish life on the JEL as well, including Conger Eels.
The JEL also went down during 1945, again by German torpedo, but from a different submarine. Although she was holed below the water line there was time for another ship, the HMS Flaunt, to tow her into Whitsand bay where she sunk in a maximum of 24m. Whitsand Bay must have very weak tide because the ship is surprisingly intact given the fact that she went down almost 60years ago. The cargo is still visible in places, is more or less still in the holds showing she had a fairly painless sinking, and been sheltered by the worst of the south coast winter storms.

HMS Scylla
I was really looking forward to diving the Scylla. She is a decommissioned leander clas frigate of the Royal Navy, sank in 2004 - not by torpedo or mine, but by David Bellamy and a shed-load of explosives. She is the first Artificial Reef in the UK, sunk on purpose to attract marine colonization and provide an 'adventure playground' for divers.
It was strange diving on something so clean and polished - even though there are signs of life already adhering to the metal skin of the ship, it is still clean enough to almost glow underwater. We dropped onto the foredeck, and first investigated the wave breaker on the front, before dropping down one of the sides. The ship is listing to starboard, and I felt quite uneasy about swimming along the starboard side - it feels like the ship is toppling over. There are loads and loads of swimthroughs. Some were cut into the ship before she sunk, and others were created by the charges which punched holes in the hull to let the water in. These tend to be a bit ragged, so caution is needed. The swim-throughs can lead down corridors in the ship, but in general there is always an exit near by.
I found a long unsheathed chrome diving knife on exiting on the passages. I turned round to show my two buddies my new find, but what they saw was me waving a knife at them through the doorway. Both buddies thought twice about swimming any further until I'd dropped the knife! Very difficult to explain no malice is meant, at 20m.
We found the heads and took the opportunity to 'sit' on the toilet. Always worth checking for Conger Eels which find the u-bend to be an ideal hidey place first! We finned to the back of the ship and investigated the helicopter hangar there. On the walls are the old flight warning stickers and various electronics and cabling. I was surprised how much equipment was left behind. I'll be even less surprised to see most of missing by next year.
Only three dives over the weekend - but every one a winner!

South Northants BSAC Branch http://www.snbsac.org/


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