Plymouth deep diving

Many people I speak to within the diving community are bewildered as to why anyone would want to dive to depths greater than 50m, some would say that 30m is plenty deep enough. I will try to show the attraction, but also the inherent difficulty and challenge, of this type of diving.

A team of ten divers met up outside the Mountbatten Centre in Plymouth on a sunny morning in late-June. All were ready for the frenzy of activity that heralds the start of a technical dive trip, and all hands set about loading the dive boat Seeker, skippered by Steve Wright. A veritable mountain of equipment found its way on board and Seeker swallowed it all - there was even room left for the divers!

Once loaded and after a bit of time spent fettling equipment, it was time to catch up with old friends on the way to the dive site. The common bond was a passion for deep wrecks.

The first dive was the wreck of a steamship called the Claverley. She was sunk by U38 in 1917 and lies a few miles east of the Eddystone lighthouse in 68m. Apparently she turned turtle but remained floating at the surface after being torpedoed and drifted for some time before the Royal Navy finished her off as she became a hazard to shipping.

Steve put the shot into her and the team readied themselves to enter the water on his signal. First on the wreck, I checked myself over then made sure that the shot was secure - everybody would need to return to the shotline for the ascent. With buddy Chris Simons, I explored the wreck in good but dark vis. We made our way forward until we came to the upright bow. This has significance since the reports of her sinking definitely say she sank upside down - she must have righted herself before coming to rest, or this part of her must have. Would that have been possible? If not, is the wreck really the Claverly?

This touches on one of the fascinations of wreck diving, that of the true identity of the ship being dived. In this instance, the wreck ticks all the boxes in terms of size, number of boilers and position, but positive ID remains elusive for the Claverley. My information is that no bell, makers plate or other item that can give conclusive proof has ever been raised from the wreck, and odd inconsistencies add further doubt. Shallow wrecks are often dived so frequently that doubts are cleared up as the less-hostile environment allows more intensive study of the wreck site. The Claverley, in almost 70m, is only dived a handful of times each year. Some wreck aficionados think the wreck dived as the Claverley is actually one called the Birgitte.

After just over 30 minutes we started our ascent. This would take us another 90-plus minutes, with the final 6m stop of just less than an hour using Steve's deco station. This is a ‘lazy shot’ deco station - at the start of the dive it is deployed and attached at about 25m to the main shot-line, once the last diver has passed this point and joined the ‘lazy’ it is released from the main shot and allowed to drift with the tide. Using this system ensures that all divers remain together, so if any issues occur they can be managed by the team. It also makes Steve's job of monitoring and then recovering the divers much more straightforward. Of course, it is essential that all divers return to the shotline at the end of their dive.

On return to Plymouth kit is dismantled, cylinders removed for refilling and scrubbers emptied then repacked. Technical dive days tend to be long - long cruise out to the site, long dive and a long cruise back, followed by maintenance and planning for the following day. Fortunately, we were just in time for last food orders and at last we were able to relax over a pub meal and a well-earned pint. The time was spent discussing the day’s activities, arguing over wreck identities, decompression theory, which is the best rebreather, what is the best mix and, of course, opinion on the latest must-have gadgets (Technical divers by their very nature are gear freaks and gadget nerds!).

We were planning to dive a wreck called the Silver Laurel the next day. We would be losing some of our crew - my long-time buddy Dan Stevenson, main cameraman for the Deep Wreck Mysteries TV series, could only manage one day and Steve Chaplin and Megan Clarke had a date with a dive boat in Weymouth. But others would take their place and we met up the following morning, swapping one Stevenson for another.

Rich Stevenson had taken some space on the boat to conduct the final stage of a MOD 3 (hypoxic) trimix course. It was good to catch up with Rich again, he had done my original Inspiration training back in 2002 and we had shared a number of trips together since. He brought with him three guys who I had not met before who were in the later stages of the course. As usual common interest quickly gelled into friendship of three motivated and committed divers - MOD 3 is a serious course and Rich would certainly put them through some difficult tasks and drills during the course of the trip.

The Silver Laurel is one of the largest wrecks diveable from Plymouth. She was built in 1939 as a 6.142-ton steam freighter, and was heading for Hull carrying mixed cargo. She was torpedoed by U-486 on 18 December 1944. The Silver Laurel now lies in 67m just over 20 miles from Plymouth.

Steve put the shot into the stern section of the wreck and the echo sounder showed us that it was huge, standing some ten metres proud of the seabed. The shotline was right by the massive phosphor-bronze prop, and exploring the wreck was fascinating, I was able to watch Matt Outram and Ian Smith as they entered part of the wreck through a hatch and moved forward beneath the ribs of steel still holding the wreck together.

It is easy to see how time causes wrecks to slowly disintegrate. The previous day's World War One casualty Claverley had been underwater for 92 years, Silver Laurel for only 65 years, and time, ship construction methods and material of construction have all affected how these wrecks now appear. One thing is clear, as time goes by all wrecks deteriorate, they will end up as a flat array of plates with a few more-substantial parts standing proud, but in time all will be swallowed up and covered over. Deeper wrecks tend not to be so affected by storms and other environmental conditions which can quickly start to break up shallower wrecks, The Scylla, for instance, is already deteriorating - the hanger has collapsed and rails at the stern are breaking up, yet it has been underwater for only five years. Deep wrecks seem to remain intact for longer.

Again, this dive was very dark, but the visibility on the wreck was probably in excess of ten metres. The cause of the darkness on this occasion was obvious on our return up the shot line - at about 13m the visibility reduced to little more than one metre. This was not apparent on the descent as you would quickly pass through this layer. It coincided with a marked thermocline, a good 16 degrees C in the shallows but only 11 degrees C below about 20m. It would have certainly stopped the light penetrating much deeper.

The next morning we were surprised by the change in the weather, the forecast fine weather was replaced by blustery 20mph easterly winds. We had planned to dive a wreck called the Edam, but Steve suggested a closer wreck to minimise travel over an uncomfortable sea, the Eastpoint, about one hour nearer than the Edam. Nobody took much persuading, so the Eastpoint it was.

The Eastpoint was 5234 tons and 118 metres long, and she was torpedoed by U48 in 1917. There is little more information available about this wreck. Steve would put the shot in on the stern section, which has most interest. When we entered the water I was surprised by its clarity - this held promise for the dive. Sure enough when I landed on the wreck there was some ambient light and vis approaching 15 metres. I watched Chris Simons attach his strobe to the shotline, then we travelled forward on the wreck past the engines and via spectacular swim-throughs. The wreck was festooned with colourful marine life.

Returning and dropping to the seabed on the port side of the ship, a dangerous curtain of old fishing nets hung from the deck and reached the seabed, ready to tangle anyone or thing that ventured too close. Today in excellent visibility, a wide berth could easily be taken. I was able to get a good view of the impressively large, intact prop completely covered with plumose anemones before moving up to the deck, where I bumped into Rich and his charges inspecting a gun with its barrel pointing impotently towards the surface.

A return to the shotline was followed by our ascent and decompression, so that just over two hours from when we entered the water we were back on deck comparing experiences and enjoying a mug of tea.

It is difficult to put your finger on what it is about deep diving, I suspect different deep divers will give different answers in any case. For some, it is the diving challenge like mountains to climbers, others it is the archaeology and history, yet more will say the deep offshore dives get the best visibility and the most-intact and atmospheric wrecks. I hope this article gives clues to its fascination.

Sport Diver verdict
Plymouth has diving for all levels of qualification, but if you are into the deep stuff, you are in for a treat.