A Long Weekend in Plymouth, The James Egan Layne

By Mark Milburn on 24 September 2008

Long before the Scylla was sunk as an artificial reef off Whitsand bay, there was another attraction, the James Egan Layne. The WWII liberty ship was sunk in March 1945 by a torpedo from U1195 and although some salvage was undertaken, the war finished soon after and apart from the later salvage of the propellor, propshaft, condensor and some brass shell cases, JEL lies fairly intact.

JEL has been a favourite of divers for years, the combination of its shallow depth, the amount of cargo on it and the pure size of it makes it the most likely wreck in any U.K. divers logbook.

An old favourite

It was early afternoon and luckily there were no boats near, JEL has become the second dive after diving the Scylla in the morning. We entered the water near the buoy tied at the bow, and descended the 6m to the top of the wreck. This is also the best place to finish any dive as it is just the right depth for a deco or safety stop. Heading straight to the bottom I swam down the port side over various pieces of wreckage, the hull scattered with Dead Mans Fingers and Anemones, Hydroids and Sea Squirts. Nothing of major interest until you get close to where the stern used to be, before the torpedo ripped a big hole in the engine room and left the stern lying quite a distance from the rest of the wreck. As you swim around the corner you enter the wreck itself through the what would have been a hole if the stern hadn’t have fallen off. Within the wreck itself there is still a lot of the cargo, spoked agricultural wheels, train wheels, cable reels, cauldrons and loads of lumps of metal that you would have to find the original manifest to try and work out what they were. Various winch parts and engine parts are found at various intervals along the inside, as well as a large winch or two. Parts of the triple-expansion engines are lying exposed including some of the connecting rods. Although there is some life in and around the wreck, including Bib, Pollack, Wrasse, the odd Spider Crab and of course Dead Mans Fingers, there is a lot more wreckage and cargo to see then anything else. There are various dark places you can enter, some of which are a little tight, all of which are very tempting, I am not sure what these are, some may be the fuel tanks or parts of the cargo holds that havent succumbed to the salt water. Most of the deck plating has rusted away, but the skeleton of its structure is still in place for most of the length of the wreck, this part of the wreck is lying in around 12m. Most of the diving within the wreck will be under this structure, at least you get the feeling of wreck penetration but with plenty of light.

Too much for one dive

There is so much to see on this 441’ long wreck that one dive is not enough to explore it properly, it would take several dives. I probably still havent seen half of what the James Egan Layne has to offer. Diving the wreck you will only reach a maximum depth of around 20m, this means each dive can be a long one of you want, so a few dives will give you a good knowledge of its layout. But you will always want to come back. Usually diveable at most states of the tide, covered in boats in the afternoon, at weekends especially.

The visibility? Who knows?

Contact

Author: Mark Milburn
Email: info@travel-dive.com

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