Scapa Diary Day 2 - Karlsruhe, Seydlitz and Barge

By Jane Wilkinson on 23 September 2008

The boys on the boat were looking forward to the first dive today because the ship had big guns!

The Karlsruhe

With a slightly earlier start to the day we motored out to the light cruiser The Karlsruhe which was to be our first dive of the day. She lies listing on her starboard side at about 26m, with much of the deck ripped open leaving twisted wreckage and gaping holes of blackness so deep that most torches are unable to penetrate. The shot was about midships which was ideal and gave you the choice of whether to go towards the stern or bow. Looking at the diagrams beforehand each looked like good routes with plenty to see.

With visibility was around 10-12m I think I saw the largest fish I have ever seen in the UK on this dive, it certainly was the largest pollack I have ever seen. In fact all the ballan wrasse also seemed a little larger than those seen the previous day. Another first for me was seeing a lovely ling its supple body seeming to just flow and ripple along the seabed as it disappeared under the hull. The wreck was dotted with urchins, sun stars, cushion stars and the common sea stars. I was also surprised to noticed a few very large cup corals lay dotted here and there on the wreckage their delicate translucent tentacles invisible to many eyes at that depth. As the guns lay up towards the front we worked our way along the bottom of the wreck towards the bow and then returned slightly higher up along the deck. Eventually with my air getting a little low we put up a blob and let the slight current carry us off the wreck.

Homemade soup!

Whilst the day before lunch had been eaten at the museum, today was the start of Helens soup lunches. Nothing could be better during a surface interval than homemade soup on a gloomy day to warm you up in between dives, freshly made in the boats galley each day.

The second dive was the Seydlitz site at around 23m. This is actually just pieces of wreckage strewn about where the battle cruiser was dragged along the seabed during salvage operations. Many of the German ships were salvaged following the war and the need for steel and its price made it worth salvaging. Of particular value is the relatively radiation-free steel used to construct the Fleet. All steel manufactured today has a higher radiation level unlike the steel that has been sitting on the bottom of Scapa Flow. This steel is particularly valuable for the delicate instruments that measure radiation levels themselves particularly in the medical field.

Debris Field

The seabed on this dive was littered with debris which made homes for many creatures. A congers nose appeared out of the end of a pipe but was unwilling to come any further. Having recently seen a conger take a sausage off the end of stick and the speed at which they strike I was not willing to wiggle my fingers in front of its face in order to try and entice it out further. Several different sorts of crabs were striding across the seabed, which also was scattered with scallops, and several long clawed squat lobsters waved their claws in a very threatening manner as I tried to take photographs. Spiky urchins again dotted the pieces of wreckage and those growing over the end of a gun barrel looked very incongruous.

Duck Diving DPV’s

Our entertainment on this second surface interval was in the form of two divers who decided to have a play around with one of the DPVs. Whilst a sedate speed could be attained merely by hanging onto it and cruising around the surface they were then encouraged to try and duck dive and follow it down. This caused much hilarity amongst the watching divers, as duck diving in a drysuit with no weights on is extremely difficult if not in fact impossible for some as was amply demonstrated!

And Finally

Our final dive of the day was an admiralty coal barge. Helen who is Stormdrifts deckie is also a free diver and attached the shot to the front of the coal barge. It is here that several bottles and a gnome are waiting for you when you get to the bottom of the shot line. Being the last down the shot I wondered why the divers were all crowded together at the bottom of the shot. It transpired they were watching a lovely blue lobster which was also keeping its eyes firmly on the divers waving its claws high in a very menacing manner as it strode off eventually being concealed in a dense cloud of silt.

Although this barge lies only at 12m the light and visibility was pretty grim due to the thick layer of silt that lay over everything. However, there was still plenty to see. I don�t think I have been on a dive and seen so many crabs of all different sizes and types. Velvet swimming crabs, small spider crabs, green harbour crabs crawled all over the outside of this wreck while large hermit crabs scuttled around the silty seabed. The latter were so difficult to photograph due to the clouds of silt that the merest water movement seemed to produce that I gave up trying. Dropping down the inside of the barge which was empty I quickly surveyed the bottom and was delighted to find a crab in a large whelk shell about 4-5inches long just strolling around the bottom. Once he got fed up of having his picture taken it was surprising just how fast this little creature could move as he scuttled off kicking up little clouds of silt with his feet.

Eventually returning to the top of the barge we decided to call it a day as we were both a bit cold. The sun had only shown itself briefly a couple of times during the day but we had had some excellent diving.

Contact

Author: Jane Wilkinson
Email: info@travel-dive.com

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