James Egan Lane Vs. HMS Scylla – A Trip into darkness
by Bill Quinn

August 21st 2004, the Severnside BSAC Branch (http://www.severnsidesac.com) had organised a large number of divers to dive these two famous wrecks. In total there was about 25 divers across 6 different boats. The plan was for the more experienced to dive the Elk, whilst people who weren’t as experienced (or who just wanted an easy day) to dive Scylla in the morning. We would all meet up for lunch and in the afternoon we would all dive the James Egan Lane.

I was looking forward to this, as I was fortunate enough to see Scylla towed out of Plymouth on the 27th of March and after a morning dive on Hillsea point watch her being sunk. It was very impressive, despite the numerous false starts.

Weather that week hadn’t been too good. We were all keeping our fingers crossed that it would break for the day. It did lovely warm sunshine. Air temperature was about 28 °C. Very nice indeed.

Since there was such a large number of divers and boats, the dive marshal had his work cut out. The whole day was planned with military precision. The first boat left to shot the Elk, whilst everybody else got ready at Mountbatten. Then we all set off, some going to the Elk others to Whitsand Bay.

I had heard the stories, but when I got there I was still surprised how many boats and divers were around Scylla. It was going to be busy.

I was in the first wave of divers to go onto the Scylla. My buddy and I were dropped at the stern marker buoy. At 11.25 we started our descent. About 5 metres down the shot, we came across a group of divers coming up so we released the shot and did a free descent. At 10 metres my dry suit was squeezing, put some air in clear my ears and continue. At 16 metres, I was thinking we should nearly be there but no sign of her. At 20 metres, more air into my suit and the thought that we should be on Scylla by now. At 26 metres we hit the sandy bottom but where was Scylla?

Torches went on and then we realised how dark and limited visibility there was. I was thinking, can’t be that difficult to find a 2,000 ton Leander Class Frigate could it? We swam off in one direction, after 5 metres or so no sign so we swam back. Fortunately there was a Tesco rubbish bag on the sea bed which acted as a useful reference point. After a 5 minute search in several directions, bump there was some metal.

From a meter away you couldn’t see her. I reached up and concluded that this was definitely a large lump of metal so must be Scylla. We followed the side of the boat up to 15 metres and climbed over the guard rails. We were both ecstatic to have found her. It would have been a bit embarrassing surfacing and saying Scylla, where was she?

We had gotten to deck one (we think) on the port side of Scylla. We swam along the side just under an overhang. The low visibility was really disorientating and making this a difficult dive.

I was going to use the words crap dive, when I remembered an article by Mark Evans in Sport Diver “Just because you can’t see 50 or 60 metres doesn’t mean that you are going to have a bad dive, you just have to think a bit differently” Today this was so true. We had to stick close together, but also you were looking harder for that bit of excitement.

We passed several hatches on our left side. The briefing was no penetration unless you were suitably qualified. I can see why, even with our torches it was black as anything in there.

After about 5 or so minutes we swam up onto the top deck. We were at about 12 metres. We turned round and swam towards the bow. After about 5 minutes we reached the bridge. Visibility was better, allowing us to have a good look inside the bridge. It looked just like the photographs. In some ways quiet haunting.

We slowly swam around the bridge and along the starboard side. After a while my buddy signalled running low on air. We decided that due to our location and bad visibility we wouldn’t have a cats chance of finding a shot line so we did a free ascent with a 3 minute safety stop. When we surfaced it was chaos with dive boats. Which was ours? Thankfully we had good boat cover and were picked up in a matter of minutes.

In all the dive was short, only about half an hour. I wouldn’t say it was crap dive more a challenging dive. It certainly did a lot to improve my skills and confidence. I was disappointed that I didn’t see more of Scylla but at the same time plenty more to go back for.

Everybody on the boat was agreeing about lack of visibility. This was probably caused by the storms kicking silt up from the bottom and the sheer number of divers on the wreck.

Once everybody was back on their boats we headed to Whitsand Bay. We decided to have lunch in the boat as it would be quicker and easier. Whilst we finished off, one boat went off to check shot lines on the James Egan Lane.

By 14:30 we were kitted up and ready to enter the water. We descended down the shot line to the upper deck at about 5 metres. Visibility was still a problem. We swam down the starboard side of the boat. As both of us were unfamiliar with this wreck and we couldn’t really see that far ahead of us; it was very easy to get disorientated. We swam over some holds descending slightly into them but not penetrating the wreck. After about 15 minutes we descended down the starboard side to about 20 metres. This was like doing a wall dive but against a sheer surface. This was really interesting, loads of Dead Man’s Fingers and Starfish. Occasionally you would come across a rusted hole that you could peer through. A couple of times, we were able to see large shoals of Pollock lit up by light from above.

After a few minutes on the bottom, we ascended to 10 metres and swam back along the starboard side to the shot line. Here we stayed for a few minutes completing a safety stop. This was quiet difficult as the current had picked up.

Both dives are quiet different and very easy to complete in a day. Personally, I preferred the James Egan as there was much more to see. Scylla was interesting but it just wasn’t bustling with life. Despite this, it will be fascinating to see it develop over the years. I would also say the lack of visibility didn’t help on both dives as you just couldn’t appreciate the layout and structure of each wreck.

It was a good day, and I would actually say one of more enjoyable days of diving. This was because the visibility was appalling but I still managed to enjoy myself. I also felt that my skills in low vis have improved as I managed to enjoy the uncomfortable and disorientating dives.

I would do both sites again. However, I would like to do Scylla in better vis when I can really appreciate what I am swimming over. Definitely worth doing. My tip would be to do it mid-week (if time allows) as there were just too many divers out there at the weekend.


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