Shetland
After an excellent week in Scapa last september the DIR-UK team had booked a trip to Shetland on Valkyrie. With tales of excellent visbility and almost un-dived wrecks we were very hopeful for a good week. The trip north to Shetland started off feeling better than Scapa -- good roads exist all the way to Aberdeen and as we reached the ferry for an overnight crossing everyone was in good humour. The group had two trucks going up with the 7 of us split between them. The ferry ride was un-eventful but sleeping in a chair was not that easy and we all ended up a little uncomfortable and tired the next morning. We had no diving to do on saturday as it was changeover day for the boat so we sorted kit but tried to leave Hazel and Helen in peace.
Sunday and first diving day beckoned. We were off to dive the wreck of what was believed to be the Leonatus. The Leonatus was torpedoed by UC 40 whilst on route from Loch Ewe to Lerwick with a cargo of coal on 12/12/1917. She now lies in two halves in 60m of water (52m to the deck) with a considerable amount of wreck left to explore. Clare and I were on our RB80’s and we were joined by Joe Hesketh who was OC. We worked out some suitable gas reserves and went diving. The wreck came into view at around 40m, the visbibility was stunning. We set off and found ourselves heading towards the stern. Reaching the enormous rudder and prop was a superb sight and we counted four blades -- answering a question which Hazel had wanted to know. The prop was big enough for us to swim through the blades. We start moving up the wreck with the aim of getting to the bow.
Clare is leading the way at the moment -- we knew the bell hadn’t been recovered from the wreck and Hazel had explained that there would have been two bells on a wreck of this size and one would have been by the anchor winch. As we get to that area I hearing Clare yelling in excitement (rather squeaking due to the helium we were breathing) and Joe and I move rapidly next to her. Clouds of silt are billowing up from the wreck as Clare pulls out a bell. Immediately both Clare and I turn to Joe and ask him if he has gas -- being on RB’s we knew we didn’t really have a time-limit but our OC buddy definitely did! He checks gas and gives us an ok. At this point we crack on -- I ask Joe to help retrieve my lift bag from my storage pak, which he does. Clare is busy freeing the bell and looking for attachment points. It’s clear that there isn’t an attachment point on the bell so I swim over the top of Clare and pull the mesh bag I know she’s carrying out of her pocket. We manage to get the bell into the bag and begin securing it with bolt snaps and the lift bag. I fill the lift bag but as my argon bottle starts to run out I ask Joe to step in. Clare secures a 4.5′ SMB as well and fills that as well. As that fills we see the bell lift off and begin it’s ride to the surface.
The three of us are all visibly really excited. We check gas, swim a metre or two away from the cloud of silt caused by extracting the bell and then thumb the dive. Back on the boat the whole group is buzzing with excitement. What a start to the week!
Day two was to be the Glen Isla. The 1263 ton steam ship Glen Isla foundered and sank following a collision with SS Glenelg. She was an iron cargo vessel built by W.B. Thompson, Dundee in 1878. We jumped in and found a quite well together wreck in excellent viz. Clare led and took the team under two of the decks towards the bow. Unfortunately I had a deep mix in the RB from the day before so was breathing a bottom stage through the RB. I also wanted both O2 and 50% on deco so I ended up with a 3 stage dive. Clare took just a 50% stage and it made us quite different in size!
A really nice dive -- we were able to cover it twice over. John and Andy were busy filming so we have some good footage of the wreck as well:
Day Three -- Gwladmena. his wreck was quite shallow -- no more than 40m but not quite as intact as the Glen Isla the day before. Photo opportunites abounded though as it was the one wreck this week that my camera would travel in on due to depth.
Again John and Andy did a great bit of video work:
Next up we tried to find a new wreck! Hazel had info that the Dovre was in a bay up to the north so complete with lots of scooters we set off with a mission to find a new wreck. It was a very shallow dive and my team never found it. Luckily John and Andy did.
Next big dive was my second favourite of the week -- Anglo Dane. This wreck had been hit amidships and had been blown in 1/2. We were diving on what remains of the stern. We went hunting around inside the wreck and found some fascinating parts of the engine room. The real difference to the south coast diving was the wrecks hadn’t been stripped so are much better to look at underwater.
Final dive of the week was on a fishing vessel called the Valkyrie. Hazel was very keen for us to find the bell of this wreck -- as of course the diveboat shares the same name. The wreck had some interesting history -- it had sunk in good weather very near a lighthouse in shallow water -- possibly not an accident? It was shallow enough to salvage but unfortunately as it was towed into deeper water it sank again and was this time was un-salvageable. We dropped down into fantastic vis. You really could make out the stern from the bow. Huge nets are draped over the wreck at the stern and bridge and it was quite hard work in places to wriggle past it and look for the bell. We searched the entire wreck and concluded no bell. That said it was a lovely dive and the spectacular vis made for a lovely dive.