Cornwall's Second Most Popular Shore Dive
By Mark Milburn on 5 October 2008
Five German U-Boats
At the end of WWI the captured German navy wasn’t all scuttled at Scapa Flow. The rest of the fleet was dispersed between the Allied Forces. The Royal Navy had a surplus of ships and had no need for the war battered remnants. A lot were to be used as target practice but 5 of the German U-Boats escaped being shot at one last time.
As they were moored up in Falmouth Bay awaiting their time, a storm brewed up. They broke their moorings and blew up onto the rocks at Pendennis Point. A few years later they were heavily salvaged, but some large parts do remain.
The Steps
Pendennis Point seperates Falmouth harbour from the sea. ‘The Steps’ as it is commonly called, is the training ground for most of the local dive schools, including Truro College, making it the second most popular shore dive after Porthkerris. At a maximum depth of 10m on the highest spring tide it is ideal for training, or for testing out new kit, with enough life and metal to keep most divers interested. At low tide there isn’t a lot of water. In fact, on a low spring tide part of one of the submarines breaks the surface.
Driving around the one way system on Pendennis point, the first landmark on the left is the dockyard, then a little further on there is a car park. A few hundred metres more just before the road becomes two way, there is a layby on the left. Park there, it’s free. A photo of the layby is within the text above.
The path to the steps is just to the left of the layby. The path splits into two. It is possible to enter the water from the left hand path and steps, but it is far easier and much more sensible to enter from the worn right hand path and steps. There are quite a few steps down, but for most of the way there is a heavy duty handrail, especially usefull on the way back up.
Finding the Pieces
Everyone leans against the wall to put their fins on, then in you go. The reef shelves slowly down to the sand; the best diving and the biggest piece of wreckage is heading south easterly back towards the point. Every year there seems to be more and more kelp – it can make navigation a little tricky. Following the reef there is a series of sandy bottomed gullies. It is within these gullies some of the U-boat remains can be found. The largest piece is found in a gully just a 100m straight out from the second set of steps; the shallowest part is about 4m deep, and that’s on the biggest spring tide. I have included a photo from the surface just above the shallowest point of the wreck, to give you an idea of its location in relationship of the second set of steps. Usually covered in kelp it can be hard to spot the rest of the wreck, but there is a large part of the bottom of the hull. Some is covered in sand and there are odd spars sticking out.
A little further northwards there is another gully, this time with fairly sheer sides. It winds its way along until it reaches a small cave at the end. There are the remains of an old motobike inside the cave; the sand covers and uncovers it at different times. I have also included a photo from the surface at the end of the gully by the cave entrance. It is near the stone wall which can easily be spotted from the surface.
Fish and More metal
Wrasse are prevalent all over the site as are pollack. Dogfish can sometimes be found lying at the bottom of the gullies or on the sand, so can common pipefish. Lobsters sit in the odd cracks in the rocks, if you can be bothered to fight your way through the kelp. Starfish, snakelock anemones and the odd crab can be spotted under the kelp too.
Wreckage can be found anywhere – there were 5 U-boats after all. I have seen hatches and all different shapes and sizes of scrap metal. I have been told there are two boilers out on the sand more likely to be pressure storage cylinders. I don’t proclaim to know a lot about submarines, but I wouldn’t have thought they would have had boilers, but what do I know.
Contact
Author: Mark Milburn
Email: info@travel-dive.com
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