Like the nearby Chadwick, the 1380-ton Norwegian steamship Doris steamed straight into the rocks in fog. This time straight into a gully in the rocks at the back of Neist Point, close to the smaller Ness Point.
The 14 crew and passengers escaped safely in the lifeboat leaving the Doris flooded and jammed in the gully, yet within 2 weeks the wreck had fallen back and disappeared beneath the surface. Now nearly 100 years since it went under, the wreck is well broken up, but the piled remains are pretty much still tight into the rocks.
If you could get easy shore access it would even be possible to shore dive the Doris, but it is a good couple of miles on foot down a steep path to get to the entry point. Even so, Gordon and Aileen from Dive & Sea the Hebrides recounted the tale of a lone diver who had hiked down wearing a wetsuit and set of light weight gear, dived the wreck, and hiked back again. Rather him than me.
A dive on the Doris starts most easily from right in the crack of the gully. A trail of odd girders and scraps of wreckage leads out to the main body of wreckage at a depth of about 10 metres. A huge heap of broken steel ship piled tight between the rocks.
Staying on the south-west side of the gully, the wreckage begins to thin out near a pair of bollards at a depth of 18 metres. The visibility should be good enough to easily follow a trail of scraps of metal out to a winch resting by itself.
Directly down the slope from the winch, a small cylinder, possibly the casing from the condenser, rests on one side followed by the Doris' single main boiler standing on end in about 24 metres. The casing of the boiler has broken open and many of the boiler tubes are broken, so it is possible to swim right through the boiler amongst the wrasse who have made it their home.
Across the slope the next significant part of the wreck is the remains of the rudder post and steering quadrant projecting from the seabed. This is soon followed by a section of shaft still attached to the 4 bladed iron propeller. Off slack water the sea above the stern of the Doris is turbulent and boiling where the current tumbles round the point, so anything that sticks up like the steering quadrant or propeller is covered in big yellow dead men's fingers, anemones and hydroids.
Close to the other end of this section of shaft, the spare propeller lies flat on the seabed, with the tips of 2 blades partly buried under plates of wreckage. The uphill plate is almost touching the rocks at the north side of the gully.
If you have time for a short diversion, the next gully to the north is well worth a look. No wreckage, but a narrow chasm full of delicate plumose anemones.
Back on the Doris, the wreck must have fallen against then tilted away from the north side of the gully as the propeller shaft continues forward from here and there are obvious keel sections resting against the rocks.
Following the propeller shaft forwards, it bends slightly to the left and continues all the way up to 18 metres and the remains of the thrust bearing and engine. There isn't much left; Just the crank shaft and some bits of connecting rod, but no pistons. Here the wreckage is more sheltered from the current, the predominant marine life being kelp.
Surfacing in the gully could give the boat problems picking you up, so rather than end the dive here it is safest to follow the rocks out again at a depth of just a few metres, then surface close to the entrance of the gully where there is more elbow room.
As a parting thought, keep an eye out in the boat and even underwater for minke whales. As I was getting back into the boat Aileen told me they had seen one breaching right next to the boat just as I started my dive. Apparently the turbulent water of Neist Point is a popular feeding place.