UK Diving Trips
Portland Marina

Enjoy and discover the underwater wonders and delights that lie beneath the waves of the Jurassic Coast which surrounds Portland, Weymouth and beyond.....

The Jurassic coast offers a wide opportunity for diving, with fantastic underwater scenery and colourful reefs which include rare Pink Fan Coral, there is estimated to have been 1000 or more shipwrecks dating back to the Elizabethan period to the more recent, which lie beneath the waves, with the advancement in technology you are able to record and photograph your every movement.

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.

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:

Baygitano 3/5/25 21 metres. Ropes off 9.30am Full
Moidart 4/5/25 32 metres. Ropes off 8am Full
Gibel Hammam 5/5/25 33 metres Ropes off 9am Full
Baygitano 2/8/25 21 metres Ropes off 9.30am Full
M2 3/8 /25 34 metres Ropes off 8am Full
Binnendijk 16/8/25  28 Metres 4 Spaces
M2 17/8/25 34 metres Ropes off 7am 2 Spaces

If you are interested in joining us on any of the dates please get in touch.