The wreck of the Norwegian steamship Trane can best be described as surreal, starting with the fantastic blue visibility and coarse white granite sand. As we descended the outline of the wreck could be seen from 20 metres above.
There is not much there, as sand has banked up over the stern and much of the wreckage. But what is there is even prettier than the Swansea Vale, with anemones and dead men's fingers positively glowing in the sunlight.
From an engineering point of view the Trane is also unusual for the period. The boilers and steam engine are at the rear of the ship, but the wheelhouse and main superstructure are amidships.
Of the boilers and engine, all that can be seen are a few bits of metal poking out of the sand. Further forward the framework of the wheelhouse is collapsed but still above the sand, with some of the cargo of iron ore the Trane was carrying from Bilbao to Middlesborough just in front of it.
The bows still rise above the sand, providing a more dramatic structure for the marine life to cling to.