Chadwick
The Chadwick is not a particularly intact wreck, but what remains has enough structure to be a ship rather than just a pile of twisted metal. With strong currents flowing along the west of Skye there is some impressive marine life and with clear water and bright sunshine it is an incredibly pretty dive.
The bows have broken from the rest of the wreckage and are twisted back against the line of the wreck. The actual leading edge of the bows is lying flat against the seabed in about 22 metres, with a few plates from the port side sticking up about 4 metres into the current. This is the part of the wreck most exposed to the current and the size of the soft corals shows it. Not just dead men's fingers, more like dead men's arms. With the 20 metre plus visibility typical of this area you may be able to see an upright boiler in the distance.
Behind the bows a large pile of anchor chain lies amongst scraps of broken plates. Moving back in towards the shore, a large admiralty pattern anchor encrusted in anemones lies propped across the top of the bow, with the anchor winch still attached to a heavy section of deck plate nearby.
From here a mast lies along the slope between two more winches and some well-flattened plates of wreckage. Following the line of the wreck away from the shore you soon come to a more intact arch of hull with plenty of room to swim inside. About 5 metres inside the hull here is supported by an intact boiler that blocks the way further through. There is also a small donkey boiler amongst the debris inside this section.
If you don't want to retrace your route to get out you can dip down below the edge of these hull plates and pop out beside the second boiler that stands upright beside the hull. Amongst the debris here are some large lumps of coal, possibly for the ships Boers, but more likely remains of the cargo.
The other end of the arched hull plates behind the boilers protects the remains of the engine. From here towards the stern the hull is fairly featureless until you get to a section of prop shaft poking out from under the plates.
A few metres further on a chunky section of the stern rises a couple of metres above the seabed with the iron propeller still attached. Two blades stick up about 1.5 metres and the other two blades are buried in the sand. Like the bows these are covered in soft corals and anemones.
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