Forward of the engine room the bottom of the split is piled with shells where it cuts through the magazine for one of the main gun turrets. The unusual construction of the Kléber immediately becomes apparent with the rotting edges of thick beams of teak showing from beneath a thin metal shell. In fact the hull of the Kléber was built entirely of teak, then skinned in metal and 102mm of steel armour bolted on to provide the main armour belt along the sides of the hull, resulting in a total displacement of 7730 tons. Pretty big for what is essentially a wooden ship.
Forward of the engine room the bottom of the split is piled with shells where it cuts through the magazine for one of the main gun turrets.
Debris from the bow slopes down to the seabed at 44 metres. Even on a wooden ship I would expect the bows to be fairly tough and in better condition than most of the hull, yet the bows of the Kléber are tattered remnants splayed out across the seabed. Maybe this is damage from the fateful mine which sank the Kléber in June 1917.
The forward extent of the wreckage is marked by a pile of anchor chain and a pair of anchors still in their hawse pipes. Following the port side of the wreck back along the seabed, a third anchor lies just out from the bow slightly separated from its hawse pipe. This is almost touching the muzzle end of a pair of the 164mm main guns. The turret is understandably upside down, half poking out from beneath the wreck.
Unlike the hull, the gun turrets were built from steel and are pretty much intact. Various parts of turret mechanism can be seen through the circular base of the turret. Just behind the turret, one of the ten 47mm secondary guns lies partly buried on the seabed, next to the remains of a winch.
The circular armoured structure behind this is not another gun turret, but is in fact the armoured conning tower from which the captain would have directed the ship during combat.
The next main gun turret lies skewed further from the centre line of the ship with the guns pointing out almost perpendicular across the sand.
The side of the hull here is split open. Maybe from the skewing of the wrecks structure as it collapsed, or maybe as a consequence of salvage of the ships armour belt for non-radioactive steel and machinery areas for non-ferrous metal. The Kléber was fitted with 4 torpedo tubes which could well have been fitted amiidships, but I could find no sign of them.
Ducking beneath the split, it is possible to swim up through the inside of the ship to the remains of the engine room. The three steam engines are still in place under the keel, side by side with no bulkheads between them. It is easy to understand how readily the Kléber sank. The open interior structure leaves some interesting swim throughs between the engines.
The hull is completely open behind the engines, the three propeller shafts neatly broken from their respective crank shafts. It is orderly damage like this that leads me to think this part of the hall was opened up deliberately for salvage.
Following the shafts aft and looking beneath them, more of the Kléber's boilers can be seen partly obscured by wreckage. It is about here that I would expect the next main gun turret to be buried beneath the wreck, though I could find no sign of it.
Further aft the final main gun turret lies on one side, having burst through the hull which has collapsed over it. A square box structure crossing the ship from the base of the turret is the magazine shaft, with another pile of 164mm shells from the corresponding magazine just behind it. A pile of smaller shells is from one of the two 65mm secondary guns.
The stern is marked by a small kedge anchor. There are no signs of propellers or rudders. The Kléber would have had 3 nice bronze propellers, a tasty morsel for salvage.