The steamship Iberian struck the rocks just south-west of Bird Island in Dunmanas Bay, to the north of Mizzen head, in November 1895. The wreck then slipped back and has since broken up on the shelving rocks.
One of the challenges I enjoy when sketching a wreck is to work out how it all fits together, and the Iberian was a real puzzler. The wreck has broken into multiple sections which have then somehow become zig-zagged across the slope from 6 metres down to 36 metres.
With a shelving rocky slope and well broken wreckage, it's not the sort of wreck that shows easily on an echo sounder. We dropped just south-west of the wreck in about 20 metres and headed north-east till we hit the wreck. The first bit of wreckage I found was a section of propeller shaft, resting on a ledge in the rock and actually facing slightly into the shore.
Following the shaft along in what would soon become apparent is a forward direction, the next development is piles and piles of condenser tubing.
Just across and downhill from the tubing, the remains of the engine is lying upside down and spread-eagled, with two pistons lying towards the condenser tubing, the crank obscured by the mounting plate and the third piston pointing the other way.
Continuing down-slope, the slope is crossed by a heavy girder and some partly buried hull plates with another section of propeller shaft restsing inside a more intact section of keel.
A section of frame which would have held the rudder in place lies flat on the seabed before the propeller. The propeller is still attached to the shaft in yet another section of keel. Above the propeller, the rudder post stands clear of the seabed with the remains of the steering quadrant at the top.
Following the edge of the wreckage up slope, a section of hull and keel lies curved out of the seabed, obviously a continuation of an earlier keel section, but with no section of propeller shaft beneath it. Maybe this was originally associated with the first section of shaft.
Back across the engine and along the slope from the area of wreck so far explored, a section of hull lies with ribs exposed suggesting further wreckage along the slope.
A few loose ribs are followed by another section of hull. It suggests further wreckage could be found along the slope, but all I could find was a diminishing trail of scraps of wreckage.
Now moving back across the wreck, the pile of condenser tubing continues up a shallow gully above the engine. This is followed by a section of hull which suggests the wreck continues shallower, but ends against a ridge of rock.
To the right when facing the slope, a boiler rests tilted slightly up and wedged along the slope. Considering the size of the ship, I would have expected it to have been fitted with two boilers, but I was unable to find any trace of a second. I asked the local divers who were on the boat with me about this. None of them had seen any sign of a second boiler either, so maybe there was only the one.
As to how the remains of the Iberian became spread out like this, all I can think is that the wreck became rolled over and progressively snapped into sections while it was aground in shallow water. Exposed on the Atlantic coast like this, a north westerly storm could bring some enormous waves straight in on the wreck site. The individual parts could then have been shifted along the rocks as they slid into their current positions on the slope.