Enjoy and discover the underwater wonders and delights that lie beneath the waves of the Jurassic Coast which surrounds Portland, Weymouth and beyond.....
The St Dunstan wreck
The St Dunstan at 29m sea bed, originally built as a bucket dredger was torpedoed on 23rd September 1917 whilst in temporary service as a minesweeper. Although a relatively old wreck there is still very much to see and there is always plenty of fish on the wreck. Due to her position, tides and visibility are often very good. She makes an excellent site for training and divers wanting to progress deeper. An excellent wreck tour can be found here
https://divernet.com/world-dives/wreck-tour-40-the-st-dunstan/
The Moidart
The wreck of the Moidart is a collier lying in 32-40m of water, mainly intact and upright on a silty seabed. The bows and foc'sle are intact, while the wreck breaks up around the engine area. The stern is intact but lies on its port side, containing various artifacts like portholes, the ship's clock, bottles, and jars with Edinburgh makers' names. The stern section reaches a depth of 42m, while the forward section can be explored within a 35m depth limit.
MV ALEX VAN OPSTAL
is a Belgian passenger liner. It was built in 1937, had a length of 128 m, width of 17.4 m and height of 8.05 meters. It reached a speed of 15 knots. The ship sunk on 15 September 1939 as a result of hitting a mine.
The wreck lies facing north and is in two parts, with it bow detached from the main wreck and the stern section being well damaged.
The wreck lies on a sand and gravel seabed at a depth of 28 m.
AEOLIAN SKY
On 3 November 1979 she collided with the German coaster Anna Knueppell in fog, during a storm. At the time of sinking she lay 9 metres below the surface but salvage work, and explosives used to reduce the risk of her becoming a hazard to navigation, have lowered this to 18 metres.
Her bows were blown off during this activity and lie separate from the main body of the wreck. A large wreck with a mass of wreckage, including its cargo including Landrover parts.
Depth 32m.
Gibel Hamam
A relatively small wreck, with the bows, and stern standing clear of the seabed and the midships area broken. The bow is upright on a silty seabed in general depths of 30-36m and the stern lies over with a fairly heavy list to starboard slightly deeper.
From the bow, the diver can swim over the anchor winches and drop into the foc'sle through the openings in the rear. This area has given up one or two interesting items buried in the silty floor. In the front of the foc'sle is a hatch leading down further into the bows. Access is possible, but watch out for the resident conger eel! This steamship was torpedoed by a German Submarine UB-104 on 14 September 1918. It lies at around 33 metres.
Baygitano
The Baygitano wreck is a well-flattened steamer located approximately 1.5 miles south of the Cobb at Lyme Regis. The wreck features the standing boilers, engine, and bow section, with other parts of the structure dispersed across the seabed. Divers can explore various sections of the wreck such as the boilers, engine, main wreckage, stern area, prop-shaft tunnel, and gunwall with good visibility conditions of around 10m during the summer months. The wreck lies at a uniform depth of 21m at high water and can be dived at all states of the tide, offering a chance to investigate the remains of this sunken vessel with various interesting features to discover.
M2 submarine
The M2
The 90-metre-long M2 submarine sits upright on a relatively flat seabed at a maximum depth of 31m around the bow and 35m at the stern. She is totally intact, apart from losing her twin three-bladed, 1.78-metre diameter propellers to salvage operators, and still looks like a proper submarine. There are some visible signs of corrosion on the outer surface but otherwise the M2 is in pretty good shape considering her age.
The M2 was one of four M-class submarines fitted with a battleship-sized 12-inch gun as main armament. The idea was to launch surprise attacks, i.e. locate the enemy, quickly surface, fire off a few rounds and then submerge. The M2 was commissioned after the end of World War One on 14 February 1920. After four years of active service as a ‘test’ submarine, she was transferred to dry dock for a major refit. The Admiralty had devised an ingenious plan to turn her into the Navy’s first-ever Submarine Aircraft Carrier. The conversion took three whole years to complete. Her big gun was removed and a special hangar built in front of the conning tower. This was large enough to house a custom-designed Parnall Peto seaplane. The single-engine, two-seater biplane had folding wings (nine-metre wingspan) which allowed it to fit snugly inside the watertight compartment. Upon surfacing, the plane would be brought out from the hangar and positioned on a track in front of a compressed air-catapult system. This gave the plane enough propulsion to ‘lift off’ from the foredeck. On landing, a crane fitted above the hangar entrance winched the aircraft back on board.
Dates:
Aeolian Sky 12/04/26 28 Metres. Ropes off 11.15am Portland Marina 8 Spaces left
Alex Van Opstal 23/05/26 28 Metres. Ropes off 9.30am Portland Marina 2 Spaces left
Binnendijk 24/05/26 28 Metres. Ropes off 10.50am Portland Marina 2 Spaces left
Baygitano 20/06/26 21 Metres. Ropes off 9.30am Departing from West Bay 4 Spaces left
M2 21/06 /26 34 Metres. Ropes off 7am Departing from West Bay 6 Spaces left
Aeolian Sky 08/08/26 28 Metres. Ropes off 10.30am Portland Marina 9 Spaces left
More dates to follow.
If you are interested in joining us on any of the dates please get in touch.
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