Dave consults the group. We can either dive with another boat on the wreck, or change plan and get a nearby wreck in to ourselves. Knowing that I had already dived the salvage tug Witte Zee, he suggests the armed trawler Warwick Deeping.Its funny how supposedly unpredictable events seem to end up happening with a sense of irony. One of the attractions of the area to the south of the Isle of Wight is that it is probably the least dived stretch of our English Channel coast. I had been thinking about this for several days, then as dive boat Wight Spirit motors out of Lymington and west along the Solent, skipper Dave Wendes has been making pretty much the same point.
Our target is the wreck of the Molina, a 1122 ton Norwegian steamship torpedoed by UB35 on 22 January 1918. I busy myself reading Dave's wreck file and quizzing him on specific details, making some notes of my own before the dive. The general disposition of the wreck and what to look for and photograph so I didn't miss anything important.
We round the needles lighthouse and change course towards the south-east. About a mile on it looks like another boat half a mile off the starboard bow is heading for the same wreck. All that sea, all those wrecks, so few dive boats, and the only other dive boat in sight on a bright and sunny Sunday afternoon is heading for the same dive site. Maybe Loki, the Norse god of mischief, is also the god of diving.
Dave consults the group. We can either dive with another boat on the wreck, or change plan and get a nearby wreck in to ourselves. Knowing that I had already dived the salvage tug Witte Zee, he suggests the armed trawler Warwick Deeping.
Its at 34 metres, pretty much the same depth, so dive plans don't need to change. None of us have dived it before and the promise of guns and depth charges is luring.
Sometimes on a new wreck it takes me a while to get a feel for where I am. This isn't a problem on the Warwick Deeping as the shot is across the remains of the superstructure and just below is the greenhouse like structure of an obvious engine room ventilation hatch. But it does take me a while to work out that the canted pillars with cups on top and pistons on the side are depth charge catapults.
The Warwick Deeping was a steam trawler taken over by the Admiralty in the Second World War for anti-submarine duties. Through the dive I find depth charges lined up beside the superstructure and scattered about the ship.
Overall the wreck is in pretty good condition, having been sunk by gunfire from German destroyers on the night of 11 October 1940, and also testimony to the strength of the original trawler hull designed to fair storms in the worst of weather.
Other armaments include the pedestal and mount for an anti-aircraft gun fallen beside the superstructure and a complete 4 inch gun lying on one side across the bow.
Its an ideal dive for the usual mix of club experience. Small enough that a quick tour can be achieved within a no-stop dive, yet plenty of detail to interest those who want to stay longer.
For a second dive we head inshore to the War Knight. A massive 7951 ton steamship sunk on 25 March 1918. The wreck has since been extensively salvaged and broken further by storms. Nevertheless the outline of the ship is still obvious on the seabed and the point of interest for me remains reasonably intact, a pair of steam turbines geared to the propeller shaft.
Turbine driven merchant ships are unusual, turbines being more powerful but less fuel efficient than more conventional reciprocating steam engines. I would guess that in the War Knight's case, being built in wartime as an armed merchantman, efficiency was sacrificed for speed.
The sinking of the War Knight was a confusion of errors that only loosely involves a U-boat at the very end.
Steaming in a convoy with 16 other ships, an order from the lead ship to change course was confused and the War Knight turned directly into the side of the tanker O.B. Jennings. Naphtha oil streamed from the side of the Jennings and poured over the War Knight, bursting into flames.
Both ships were abandoned by their crews and taken in tow. Off the needles the War Knight then struck a mine laid by UC17, eventually sinking in 12 metres just outside Freshwater Bay. The O.B. Jennings was towed to Sandown, where the Royal Navy used a torpedo to sink it and extinguish the fire. The Jennings was subsequently salvaged and joined a westbound convoy, only to be torpedoed and sunk 100 miles out from New York.
Other points of interest on the War Knight are 3 large boilers forward of the turbines, Then the intact chain locker at the bow, with anchor winch and hawse pipes lying to either side. In the other direction the intact propeller shaft leads through a thrust bearing and tunnel to the stern, where the rudder can be found just clear of the wreck.
The next morning's wreck is something of a mystery. A couple of miles south of the Needles, it is most likely the Clyde, a small 307 ton 1880s vintage steamship carrying lead ore. The Clyde struck the breakwater at Portland while leaving harbour and subsequently sank off the Isle of Wight on 25 May 1902. Dave's reasoning behind this identification is from a bell recovered a few years ago with 5 indistinguishable letters where the ships name should be, and the 2 cylinder compound steam engine and single boiler correspond to the machinery fitted to the Clyde.
From Dave's research other less likely possibilities are the Flaxmos which was carrying granite and Spyros which was carrying coal. Both were also built in the 1880s and similarly sized, but there are no traces of granite or coal in the holds, while lead ore could easily be dispersed on the gravel seabed.
Before this identification the wreck has also been referred to as the Reindeer; somewhat confusing as another wreck in the area referred to as the Reindeer turned out to be the armed trawler Albion II, which sank after hitting a mine on 13 January 1916, again identified by the ship's bell.
The dive lives up to the skipper's promise. It is certainly a very pretty wreck. Generally intact with many ribs exposed where hull plates have rotted or fallen away, all covered in dead men's fingers and big shoals of bib patrolling the gaps.
The compound engine is intact and upright. The single boiler is of a correspondingly old design with a dustbin sized steam rerservoir above, the rotted sides again providing home for more bib.
At the bow a pair of traditionally shaped anchors rest inside the ship where the deck has collapsed, the anchor winch having fallen sideways and almost standing on one end. At the stern the propeller is still in place, though just one of the four blades remains. The rudder post is just tacked onto the back, with none of the overhanging stern common on more modern ships.
Whatever the name, at least Dave will know which wreck you are on about if you want to dive it.
For a second dive we again head inshore, this time for a drift along a reef from High Down to Old Pepper Rock. There aren't any wrecks, but this stretch used to be a torpedo test range and in the past divers have found brass remains of torpedo motors. Needless to say on any single dive the chances of finding shiny torpedo parts are negligible.
I find the edge of the reef quite relaxing for a one off dive, but wouldn't be first in line to dive it again. Most of the other divers surface very happy with dinner in their hands. If I was diving it again I would take a macro lens. There is certainly plenty of small marine life encrusting the rocks.
Day three was planned for a deeper dive on the Cuba, an 11420 ton liner torpedoed by U1195 on 6 April 1945. Alas the weather conspired against us. Overnight the wind picked up and there was no way we would be diving that far round the Isle of Wight. With the sea state deteriorating, even prospects of a dive in the Solent don't look that promising.
The target for my final day is the Fenna, a wooden schooner overcome by a storm on 10 March 1881. Dave had actually been planning to dive this wreck when I was on Wight Spirit the previous year, only to be turned back by heavy seas as we passed the Needles, then forced away from our fallback site in Alum Bay as the tide turned.
The sea is still a little bit lumpy from the previous day's bad weather, but overall the sea has calmed down remarkably well and we have no trouble reaching the wreck.
It's a most unusual wreck. The wooden structure of the ship has completely rotted away, leaving nicely stacked cargo spread within the outline of the ship.
Amidships is a big stack of railway line, layered along and across the wreck, several layers deep. Immediately forward and aft of this are stacked panes of glass, surviving remarkably well without the original wooden packing cases.
The other main cargo was cement, carried in small barrels. Again the wood has rotted away, but not before the cement had set into solid blocks which now lie tumbled forward and aft of the glass, and again at the bow.
The only bits of original ship remaining are the anchor winch at the bow and a few heavy planks just showing through the silt. Maybe there is more of the hull buried and preserved, but this is not a likely site for a full scale excavation.
An isolated structure on a muddy seabed at 23 metres and exposed to strong currents, the wreck is an oasis of marine life. Enormous shoals of bib swarm above the cargo, with numerous conger eels and lobsters filling the holes between and below. Its not a big wreck or a long dive, but makes a nice relaxed half hour. Ideal for newly qualified divers.
To wrap things up I dive the wreck of the steel hulled sailing ship Irex, located at a shallow 6 metres just along from the Needles.
The Irex is a classic story of crew and ship battling against the elements for days on end. The Irex began her maiden voyage from the Clyde, bound for Rio on 10 December 1889. Storms continued with only a short respite for new year 1990. On 23 January, storms slacking slightly, the Irex turned back towards England for repairs. Weeks without proper rest, the Needles lighthouse was mistaken for a pilot light and the Irex sailed into the now named Irex rock in Scratchell's bay.
In the subsequent rescue 29 men were hoisted across the sea to the cliff tops by breeches buoy, though the ship's boy froze to death in the rigging.
The remains of the Irex are completely flattened. The steel of the wreck, the cargo of pig iron and the ledges of rock are all covered in a dense red kelp making it difficult to tell just where wreck or cargo ends and the reef continues. Nevertheless I feel my way round it, scratching away to provide a visual check when I am unsure of whether I am handling metal or rock.
Other than the first day we didn't meet any other dive boats, angling boats were few and far between and even the yachts the area is renowned for staid clear of the back of the Isle of Wight. Every dive we had the wreck to ourselves, so maybe we could mitigate our first dive's diversion according to the adage "the exception that proves the rule", and for a wreckaholic such as myself, there is plenty of scope to return.