Would you believe that one of my most memorable dives of 1999 was in a 2 metre deep swimming pool? Suppose I told you that this swimming pool was on the superstructure of an 12,000 ton container ship at a depth of 50 metres.
I was diving the wreck of the Murree, a container freighter that sank halfway between Start Point and Aldernay. With the wreck sitting upright on a 70 metre seabed and the superstructure rising to 38 metres, the Murree spans the border between deep air diving and trimix.
True to our skipper's intention, the shot was nicely placed in the middle of the port bridge wing at just over 40 metres. Taking a minute or two to settle down, I noticed that the deck was carpeted in brittle stars with a scattering of dwarf plumose anemones. On vertical surfaces the anemones prevailed to give the wreck a mottled orange and white colour. A good covering for just 10 years underwater.
Moving towards the stern and downwards, the superstructure narrows with a cut-out for one of the ship's boats. The boat is long gone, davits hanging out from the otherwise featureless sides of the wreck.
Halfway down the steps leading to this deck an open hatchway leads beneath the wheelhouse. The cabin stretches across the ship, partially silted with many loose cables dangling from the ceiling. Out of the main current anemones growing on the cables are longer and more delicate. Windows at the front are broken providing a reasonable amount of ambient lighting. On the way in a side door leads to a bathroom.
Back outside and continuing towards the stern, a huge mast looms out of the gloom in front of me. More exposed to the current, it is covered in magnificent long white plumose anemones.
As I stop to take a few pictures, my buddy descends to the stern railing at just short of 60 metres. It was from this deck that the crew and their families were winched to safety by the RAF rescue helicopters.
I ascend one level through the framework of a sun canopy at the stern of the superstructure. It is here that we find one of the more amusing points of our dive, the ships swimming pool. Having found it, I just had to dive it, a quick 2 metres down to the bottom.
Forward of the pool we ascend through another railing for a sun canopy. Here an oblique box on the deck marks the ventilator hatches for the engine room. Peering inside the sheer size of the interior defeats the beam of my dive light.
Descending through the opening we pass ladders and catwalks surrounding odd bits of machinery. Level with the main deck outside, we can just make out the top of the engine below us.
Back on deck the starboard side of the superstructure has a good array of nets draped across it. Nevertheless, the railings for the sun canopy hold the netting well clear of the deck. The funnel has collapsed to the side, resting in place over the cut-out for the starboard boat. The supporting structure is open, showing another possible route down to the engine room.
From the starboard bridge wing a door leads invitingly into the wheelhouse with a clear view across to the corresponding door on the port side. Inside cables hang from the ceiling festooned with yet more anemones and closely packed white sponge.
There is plenty of light entering the wheelhouse through the large front windows. Looking down to the cargo deck below, the outline of one of the huge cargo masts can be seen collapsed back and almost touching the front of the superstructure.