Diving the Ajax on Beowulf!

by Alan Ewart

It's been a bit bizarre down here in the Poole area lately. I mean Easter was in Mid-April and divers were reporting 10 Metre visibility on some of our popular wrecks. On the 18th of April I went out to Dive the Kyarra on an evening dive and did in fact enjoy 10m visibility. The following weekend I dived her twice and found the visibility even better. Out of curiosity I checked my logbook and found that I dived the Kyarra on the 17th April last year and the visibility had been so poor that I lost my buddy on the shot-line! Being a great believer in 'making hay while the sun shines' I have been trying to pack in as much diving as possible whilst these amazing underwater conditions last.

So, when Pete Gough, one of the charter skippers I use regularly rang to ask if I wanted to dive 'The Ajax' over the bank holiday weekend, I leapt at the chance. Pete is a superb skipper. He has been running charter boats for divers for about one hundred years, the boat, Beowulf, is equipped with a lift, a spacious cabin if the weather is inclement and the kitting up benches are perfect, especially if you are diving a twin-set.

My enthusiasm was further fuelled by the fact that I have not dived the Ajax before and it is one of the wrecks on my list of local dives to complete this year. The depth at around 40 metres also fitted well with my planned progression towards some deep Trimix dives this July. The depth of the wreck meant I could get a decent bottom time without running up too much deco. With the water temperature still only around 9 degrees I really didn't want to spend more than 15 minutes off gassing. On checking the forecast on Friday all looked set fair so I popped off to my friendly local dive store and filled my set with Nitrox 28 and my stage cylinder with an 80% Deco mix.

Saturday morning dawned calm and sunny so 9.30am saw me on Poole quay loading my gear onto Beowulf. There were only five of us onboard today so there was plenty of space to spread out and set my kit up. After a few moments I became aware that I was very definitely going to be the odd one out of this group. Everyone else was diving a rebreather, a fine collection it was too. Two Ourobouros, one Evolution and a Kiss. It wasn't long before some wag christened me 'The historical diving society'! Shortly after 10 we headed out from Poole quay for a gentle run out to the wreck site. We aimed to be there in plenty of time to shot the wreck and kit up well before the predicted 12.30 slack window. In this area it is a good idea to be on site in plenty of time, especially on a spring tide (as this was). The slack times can be unpredictable and on a big spring can be very short indeed.

The run out to the site was an absolute pleasure, the sun was shining brightly and the sea was flat calm. Looking over the side the visibility looked good too. I was able to relax on deck with a nice cup of tea and contemplate the dive.

The wreck known locally as 'The Ajax' probably isn't the Ajax at all. It is more likely to be the 2000-ton British steamer 'Eleanor' which was built on the Tyne in 1888. The German Submarine UB-57 torpedoed the Eleanor in February 1918 whilst she was in passage to Falmouth. The ships manifest shows her as carrying a cargo of 1500 Anti-shipping mines and nearly 300 depth charges. 34 men including her skipper were lost when she was sunk. As an ex-sailor myself the fact that men were lost on a wreck always gives me pause for thought. The fact that it is less than week to the 24th anniversary of the sinking of HMS Sheffield during the Falklands conflict provides additional poignancy for me. The first week in May always brings a sense of melancholia for me as I remember friends who lost their lives on Sheffield, Glamorgan, Coventry and Ardent.

We arrived on site at around midday and quickly put a shot onto the wreck and prepared ourselves for the dive. We dived in a two & a three. Mark, diving an Evolution, and myself making up the pair. Mark and I have dived together many times in the past so we are comfortable with each other. We were first into the cool green water; I descended quickly to 6m where I waited for Mark so we could carry out a bubble check before continuing our descent. On arrival at 6m it was obvious that the superb visibility of the previous weekend was not to be repeated, the water was full of plankton. The current was still running quite strongly so we had to swim carefully down the line to avoid dislodging the shot. On reaching the bottom of the shot line at 39 metres the visibility improved slightly, but only to around 4 or 5 metres. On looking up there was a green glow in the water, but little ambient light reached the bottom. I was very pleased that there was five metres visibility, because the shot was just off the wreck and this at least meant we didn't have to reel off and search for the wreck.

We arrived on the port side of the wreck, and made our way towards the bow. This part of the wreck is well broken and now lies pretty flat to the seabed. It is definitely worth a rummage though. On looking under some plates I could clearly see the brass dog clips of a porthole. Further investigation suggested this was intact, but unfortunately with all the rubble and metal on top of it there was no way it was coming out. I reluctantly swam off and just a few moments later I saw a lift bag partially hidden under a part of the bow. A few moments investigation suggested this was attached to a shot weight and for some reason part of the wreck had collapsed on top of it making recovery impossible. The bag was too tatty to bother cutting it free so off we swam along the starboard side. There is all manner of interesting wreckage lying around the seabed, but to be honest it was all so flat that I was beginning to lose interest.

After a few minutes exploration we found a large break in the hull and the stern went off at an odd angle. I can only presume that the ship broke her back as she sank and lies at an odd angle. This can be a little disorientating in poor visibility, but you certainly need to persevere. At around this point I lost site of my buddy. I'm finding it a little difficult to get used to diving with closed circuit divers. With open circuit, if you lose sight of a buddy you can listen for the sound of them breathing or rise a little and search for bubbles. With closed circuit this isn't an option. As we are all independent self-sufficient and carrying plenty of bail out our standard procedure is to continue our dive, so after a few moments of searching I turned off to explore the huge boilers and then turned towards the stern. After rising over a piece of wreckage I got my first views of the munitions the ship had been carrying.

I was awestruck! There were depth charges in their racks and they are the size of oil drums. There are loads of them all over the place, and the mines. Hundreds upon hundreds of huge round anti-shipping mines, the type with huge metal spikes sticking out of them. I simply paused as I gazed at this amazing sight. After a few moments I began to swim slowly and carefully above this display of destructive power. After several minutes I sort of stopped looking. A few moments after that a flash of grey caught my eye in the extremity of my torch beam. A closer look revealed a huge conger. Then I noticed small gobies here and there; blennies peered at me from inside some of the mines, where they had rusted through over the years. As I swept the beam if my hid lamp around I saw swarms of fish larvae in the water, crabs and lobster had made homes below the mines and just out of reach. I smiled through my regulator as I reflected that, as is so often the case, out of death comes a new cycle of life. As I turned around I saw a yellow rebreather box as my buddy rejoined me. I smiled again in the realisation that those few minutes alone, in silence, with my thoughts and memories in this environment had been exactly the right way for me to remember fallen comrades. As I started my slow steady return to the surface I gazed down and gave thanks for a hidden world that so few of us see.


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