Scapa Diary Day 4 - SMS Dresden, Karlsruhe and F2

By Jane Wilkinson on 25 September 2008

As I set out on the twenty-minute walk from the campsite to the harbour the sky looked a bit grim. The air was filled with a fine rain that made everything have a misty appearance; it certainly was not the fine weather that we had been promised. However with three good dives planned for the day there was plenty to look forward to.

Not so deep

The first dive on the agenda was SMS Dresden, so after sorting out fills we were on our way. She is a light cruiser of around about 5530 tons and part of the German fleet. Once it was realised that the German ships were being scuttled she was taken in tow by the Clousin, the idea being to beach her on the island of Cava. However, with her decks already awash the Dresden continued to take on water until she finally sank so quickly nothing could be done. It is around 16-18m to her starboard side which is uppermost and then 34m to the seabed, so she is quite within the capability of the majority of divers.

We descended the shot that was just behind the bridge and then moved forward. The size of the ship seemed absolutely enormous. Hanging suspended in the water just looking down and along the huge deck made you feel very small. Enormous holes lay gaping open and fish constantly darted in and out disappearing into the darkness below. Sea Squirts and the varieties of sea stars that we had seen so much of on these dives were dotted amongst the wreckage and occasionally ghostly patches of deadmens fingers would appear out of the gloom. You would need several dives on this huge ship to really explore it properly. Like most of these large wrecks you can choose to charge round them in order to complete a whole circuit of the ship or poke about in a smaller area in the hope that you will come back another day to explore another part. Whilst I love a good wreck my interest lies in what is growing and living on the wreck rather than the structure itself therefore I rarely get to see a whole wreck of this size in one dive.

With my no deco time nearly up I decided to begin a slow ascent up thinking about the huge mass of twisted and broken wreckage that lay beneath me as I hung suspended in the green! I was also looking forward to the lovely hot homemade soup that I knew awaited us for lunch!

Guns on the Karlsruhe

The second dive of the day was the Khurlsruhe;this was the second time we had dived it. Again we descended going the same way that we had before towards the bow but this time I spotted the guns. really getting my eye in now! These two guns lie almost on top of each other having come away from the wrecks superstructure. Also this time I seemed to find a number of places which were nice little swim throughs and holes that were interesting and large enough to drop into without disappearing into the dark depths of the wreck below. Coming up and round the bow to the port side and dropping slightly I could see the railings had become festooned with plumose anemones growing thickly, practically on top of each other in such a way that they looked like garlands strung along the side of the ship. Snapping off a few pictures and looking at the time on my computer I realised that once again this was the end of the dive for me and started a slow ascent back to the surface.

The F2

The third dive of the day was the F2. A rope leads from this to the YC21 a salvage barge about 100m away but we never made it, (as it transpired we were to do that on our last day). The F2 was originally a German WW2 escort vessel that was converted to a torpedo recovery vessel at the start of the Second World War. She sank at her mooring in 1946 and lies on her port side in about 16m, so makes an excellent second dive. The area from behind the bridge to the stern has been totally wrecked by blasting and little is recognisable in the tangled mass of wreckage that remains. After dropping down the shot we worked our way along and under the bow as I was looking for congers. We didn’t find any but came across some very bold female wrasse who were quite happy to swim in circles round us, but their speed defeated my attempts to take photographs of them. From here we went up and onto the deck of the bow where there are a few things including a 4.1inch gun. My buddy decided to perch on the end of the barrel, only to find out later that there had been a conger hiding in it mere moments earlier when others from our group had passed by! For a while I watched the small groups of young bib darting around the bow and could see the huge anchor chains still snaking out of the hull onto the seabed below until once again it was time to ascend and join the others back on board.

Making our way back to Stromness a warning came over the radio. This was to the effect that those of a ‘more delicate nature’ may wish to avert their eyes when entering the harbour at Stromness because the group of Yorkshire Divers who were on the Invincible were going to line up and give us a view of their less attractive side! Needless to say cameras where at the ready as Invincible came into sight.

Contact

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

Article Comments