S.S. Runswick and the Quies

By Mark Milburn on 27 September 2008

At your leisure

Low water slack was going to be around 5pm. You do need slack water to dive the Quies, the currents that run around there can be pretty quick. If you look at the charts they are the fastest currents on the north coast, something like 5.5 knots at mid-water springs. So we had all the time in the world to get ready.

I had gone through all my cylinders over the last 2 days and only had a single 12L with 210 bar in it! So I strapped a 3L pony to it and hoped I had enough for a decent dive.

We arrived at Rock, on the Camel estuary at around 4pm, to see a couple of Mid-Cornwall BSAC’s rhibs being towed off after diving. We took our time and eventually got the RIB going on the calm sea.

Easy to find

This has got to be one of the easiest dive sites to find. Several hundred metres offshore from Trevose lighthouse there is a series of small islands, the smallest of which only just breaks the surface, called the Quies. On the north side of the Quies, between the first and smallest rock and the next rock lies the Runswick.

The Dive

Sharky dropped us in at the centre of the second island, in around 13m of water, from the surface you could see the bottom. We made a free descent down the side of the rock. Findinf the wreck from there is easy, all you do is swim along the bottom of the rocks and you will be on the stern of the Runswick. The wreck is well broken, parts of the stern are scattered over the sea bed as you head north from the rocks. We were heading east to find the bulk of the wreck. As this is a relatively shallow wreck it is covered in various kinds of red seaweeds, the shallower parts are covered in kelp.

All over the site there are loads of Jewel Anemones of different colours, Starfish, Spider Crabs, Bryozoans called Bugula Turbinata (just like Christmas Tree Worms), Cup Corals, Dahlia Anemones and Sea Squirts. The whole area is abundant with life, mainly due to the strong currents that affect the area. There were shoals of Pollack, several large Wrasse and one little Tompot Blenny.

This was the best visibility I had encountered on the Runswick, possibly as far as 20m, I rarely lost sight of the other divers. The boilers are slightly confusing, one is the correct way up and the other is on its end above it, it looked like it had dislodged on impact and fallen forward. Further forward of the boilers there are rocks covered in the anchor chains where the bow would have been. These are at the base of the rock closest to shore. It was time to do a stop near the top in 6m for a few minutes.

72 minutes later and a maximum depth of 19.7m, I followed my DSMB to the surface.

*Excellent! *

Contact

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

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