This is a great small wreck which lies at the bottom of the Outer Breakwater in Balaclava Bay in 6 m, The wreck of the Dredger is a popular dive for recreational divers and trainees of all levels. The sea bed is sandy, making the visiblity around the site normally good and it’s alongs worth a good look between to rocks to see a variety of sea life.
Following the wall east you will find other wreckage as depth increase down to 15 m until you get the the South Entrance where the wreck of the HMS Hood lies.
HMS Hood which was deliberately sunk as a block ship at the start of WW2.
Please note that divers not permitted to dive on the HMS Hood.
This wreck lies south of Weymouth Harbour and is rarely visited by divers. The Hartlepool was a 5,500 ton steam powered merchant ship built in 1932, powered by a 1 x 4 cyl. quadruple expansion steam engine, single shaft, 1 screw, cruiser stern, 2 single boilers & 1 auxiliary boiler, 8 corrugated furnaces and was sunk by torpedo by German E-Boat.
The bow was salvaged and the rest of the vessels remains on the sea bed and is well broken up as heavy explosives cleared the wreckage to keep approaches into Weymouth harbour clear of obstruction.
The wreck lies in at 12 m. The site site acts as a nursery for fish and conger eels.
This domed feature rises up at 40 degrees, 5 m off the sandy sea bed max depth 12 m. The upper parts are covered with varieties of seaweed.
Ringstead Ledges a very scenic dive, where the ridges run parallel with the shoreline, these ledges are 5 m high in places, depth is 6 - 14 m, simply head south to go deeper.
Bat’s Head Reef a stunning dive site which is not found in any dive guide. The site is located where the a white cliff juts out into the sea, with a small door at is base, large enough to Kayak through. Caution when navigating around this site as their are exposed rocks, some just below the waterline....
The dive site starts at 5 m which steeps sharply down to 16 m. All along this area are steep gulleys, some in excess of 7 m high, with swim throughs...previous divers stated ’Like diving in a fish tank’...
Durdle Door is the jewel of the Jurassic Coast and is just as spectacular below the waterline, which consists of a large reef leading to a submerged cave. depth 6-16 m plus.
The Countess of Erne sank next to the north-east breakwater on 16 September 1935 after breaking her moorings. Built in Dublin in 1868 as an iron hulled paddle ...
She now lies upright listing to her starboard side at 8 m to the deck and 16 m to sea bed..
Things for interest :- Toilet, rudder and swim through the hatches…
A fair amount remains of the Spaniard which is a a 1894-ton steamship. Like many of the harbour wrecks, the Enecuri dragged anchor and struck the breakwater. In this case, it was a force 9 wind on 29 December, 1900. The crew all jumped ashore, but the captain came to grief the next day when he reboarded to collect his dog, and the ship slid down the breakwater.
The bow is tight against the rocks, and the stern angled a little out into the silt. The bow is pretty much intact, with railings, bollards and hawse-pipes, the hull then collapsing at the forward hold and disappearing below the banked silt.
The impressive bow section stands over 5m from the seabed, the light and visibility can be quite good above the bow, but both can easily disappear once a diver hits the silt further aft.
Located close against the southern breakwater of Portland Harbour, we have the wrecks of a Landing Craft, a Bombardon unit and a VIC (Victualling Inshore Craft) lighter, close enough together that there is usually a line between them to make the whole lot easy to cover in one long dive.
There is normally a rope which runs off the landing craft to the bombardon unit at a depth 16 m.
This is a very underrated dive and is a very beautiful scenic dive with a 6 m ledge...
The dive starts at 10 m where once undersized scallops where thrown back into the sea by passing dive charter boats, and now you have better than average sized scallops. The ledge itself contours the line of a Portland running North to South and is the home for a wide variety of fish, crabs & lobster....
At the base at 16 m sloping further down to 20 plus metre are more scallops....
This is a very scenic dive where reef runs parallel with the shoreline and extend as far as Bat’s Head depth range 10 - 14 m, simply head south you go deeper.
There is another deeper reef available further south at 18 - 20 m.
Mupe Rocks is a very picturesque dive site, which has large boulders size of a small house, with patches of sand between. Loads of marine life which due to a depth between 8 - 20 m makes it fantastic for photography....
Black Hawk a US liberty ship sunk in 1944 with the stern at about 42m and the bow section towed towards Worbarrow bay to aid with salvage and now at about 18m. It was the bow section that we were diving. It is a very well scattered wreck as the bow section has been blown apart to allow for a pipe line to run through the bay, leaving the wreck now to two halves approximately 120 metre apart, with the biggest section to the north.
On the northern section there are large bits of deck and hull plates scatted on the sea bed with winch gears and bollards to identify making a fantastic home for numerous fish, lobsters and conger eels ..
This is a very enjoyable all level dive.
Depth 18 m.
Steam Trawler built 1918 by Fullerton & Co, Paisley. Built as Strath class auxilliary patrol vessel. 215 tons, 123x22ft. Armed. Triple-expansion engine. Armed with a 12 pounder gun. During thick fog on the 16th January 1920, she drove straight onto the rocks, north of Blacknor Point, Portland. All crew were rescued by means of a long rope strung from the stem of the ship to a large rock by local fishermen. A few days later, an attempt was made to tow her off the rocks but she sank immediately.
This steam trawler is well broken up along with at least another two other wrecks.
Wrecks at 18 m
British Inventor was another casualty of WW2, this British stream driven oil tanker was mined in June 1940.
All that remains is the well scattered wreckage of the bow section and is now completely broken up. Great dive to explore on the Lulworth Banks.
This site is nicknamed by divers as the Scallop Wreck.
Depth 18 - 21 m
This is a another very underrated dive site south of Bally Bay, which is truly beautiful and full of colour, with a prolific marina life living in the very rocky ledges and reef which contours Portland below the waterline.
Crabs, lobsters and even scallops can be found here, which where are returned back into the sea by returning boats grading the catch can be found here…
Depth 12 - 30m
Lulworth Banks is a very large reef covering 4 m2, varying in depth to a max of 22 m. Scallops, lobsters, and various flat fish our often seen here.
Due south of Durdle Door their is large drop off which starts at 14 - 22 m
Baygitano was a 3,073grt, defensively-armed British Merchant Ship. On the 18th March 1918 when 1½ miles SW from Lyme Regis she was torpedoed without warning by UC-77 and sunk.
One of my all time favourite dive sites, at 20 m it makes a fantastic all level dive.
This is a nice broken wreck, were the visibly on this site can be amazing, thou it’s restricted by the vast amounts of marina life ‘Fish Soup’ and scallops scattered on the outside of the wreck.
This site gets is names from the vast amounts of crabs and lobsters which were plentifully living off the carpet of mussels which thrived in this location until the winter storm of 2012-13 which changed the site dramatically leaving it barren.
Now life is starting to return with baby mussels starting to reestablish here.
The dive starts at 10 m and drops down over the ledge to 25 m and deeper if you go southeast.
Another interesting dive site lying north of here is the wreck of the Sudon in 14 m
This is site were the sea bed step down from 10 - 30 m, simply head east to go deeper. At is site like Pulpit, it is abundant with a varied marine life, including the returning Crawfish which we have a no take policy.
Located at the southwest tip Portland Bill, this is a fantastic dive site with an abundance of marina life, due to the fast free flowing currents the run past this point most of the day…
Dive starts at 12 m then drops rapidly down to 25 m then to 35 m plus.
Diving the The Ledge on the east side of Portland opposite Freshwater Bay is a cracking dive with abundance of marina life, lobsters, crabs, bass and I have even found a shark patrolling the ledges (good job we have a bigger boat).....
Depth on the ledge is 20 - 28 m.
SS BINNENDIJK is a shipwreck of the Dutch cargo ship located at the south coast of Great Britain, which lies at a depth of 28 meters.
Diving site intended for persons with advanced level of training. It is necessary to be particularly careful due to poor visibility. It was built in 1921, had a length of 126.9 m, width of 16.6 m and height of 11.9 meters. The ship sunk on 8 October 1939 as a result of hitting a mine placed by German U-26. It transported a cargo of tyres and coils of copper wire.
The wreck has been heavily salvaged but the boilers are still intact. The hull lies on sand, and the rest parts lie on the rocky bottom. The area is characterized by many sea organisms, among others crabs, and sea eels.
The Railway Line wreck located 3 Nm south of Worbarrow Bay in 27 m…
This wreck site is still a mystery, as you dive down you will notice there is a tightly packed cargo of railway lines which remain undisturbed and an Admiralty Anchor lying precariously on the top…
The wreck is lying on the sand with a deep scour around it…
So the mystery continues…..
Golden Sunset LT 1194 was a hired drifter built 1913, steel construction with a gross weight of 85 tons. Steam powered, screw-driven 3 cylinder triple expansion engine with one boiler.
In 1915 she was hired by the Royal Navy as a patrol boat and armoured with a 6 pound gun. 4th January 1918, she collided with armed trawler Touraco off the Shambles Lightship, as she was escorting a convoy and eventually sunk on Lulworth Banks at a depth of 28 m.
Jurassic Divers run a project to rediscover her in 2019, then COVID hit and it’s left unfinished….
MV ALEX VAN OPSTAL is a Belgian passenger liner. It was built in 1937, had a length of 128 m, width of 17.4 m and height of 8.05 meters. It reached a speed of 15 knots. The ship sunk on 15 September 1939 as a result of hitting a mine.
The wreck lies facing north and is in two parts, with it bow detached from the main wreck and the stern section being well damaged.
The wreck lies on a sand and gravel seabed at a depth of 28 m.
The St. Dunstan was originally built as a bucket dredger and was torpedoed on 23rd September 1917 whilst in temporary service as a minesweeper.
The bow is upside down with the stern and the remainder of the hull is twisted back over to starboard. The bucket line and gear is lying on the seabed and like so many other wreck sites there is always plenty of fish on the wreck.
Depth to seabed is 28 m
The Elena R is a steamship weighing 4,576 gross tons and 370ft long was built in Virginina, USA in 1917 and sank on the outside of the Shambles bank after hitting a mine. Parts of the wreck stands 6 metres high in places but the wreck is constantly being buried and uncovered by the ever shifting sands and shell of the bank.
The wreck is fairly well broken and lies with her bow to the south-east but makes a good dive and has become a extended Reef for crabs and lobsters...
Depth 27 m
The 24m-long (79ft) Pin Wreck, named by Divers due to the large pins holding the copper hull to the wooden frame. The anchor standing upright to one end is of a mid 1800s design, so the wreck is thought to be post-1850.
The wreck is located south of Kimmeridge was discovered in 1990.
Maritime archaeologists from Bournemouth University identified it as an Admiralty mooring lighter - a vessel carrying machinery for moving heavy loads.
The Bournemouth team dived into the wood and metal vessel, which lies 27m (88ft) deep, in 2019 after studying objects recovered in the 1990s by former university employee Nigel Bryant.
They included a ceramic fragment attached to a large pulley block marked "Portsmouth Dockyard".
Information from the dive suggested it was a naval mooring lighter from the mid-19th Century.
Researchers found records of two lighters from Portsmouth in the National Archives but there was no mention of their loss.
A breakthrough came in a copy of the Shipping Gazette from 11 September 1903, reporting the sinking of a mooring lighter off St Alban's Head, near Swanage, in rough weather while on tow from Portsmouth to Portland.
Thirty men had to transfer to its tug before it sank.
The wreck itself is upright on a sandy seabed at 28 m, which gives pretty good visibility. She is a very interesting wreck, yet very confusing. A set of machinery midships - a vertical capstan and associated cogs and worm gears plus a steam boiler and water tanks - but no sign of propulsion.
Originally it was suggested that it was some sort of work barge, which along with stories of a recovered military button and single diving boot have further confused wreck identification.
On 3 November 1979 she collided with the German coaster Anna Knueppell in fog, during a storm. At the time of sinking she lay 9 metres below the surface but salvage work, and explosives used to reduce the risk of her becoming a hazard to navigation, have lowered this to 18 metres.
Her bows were blown off during this activity and lie separate from the main body of the wreck. A large wreck with a mass of wreckage, including its cargo including Landrover parts.
Depth 32m.
The M2, built by Vickers in 1918, was 296ft long and sank on the 26th January 1932, with the loss of her full crew of 60.
She originally had a 12-inch gun on her forward deck, but this was removed in 1927 when she was adapted to carry a small folding-wing sea-plane manufactured by Parnell Peto. It is thought that the hangar doors were open when she submerged and this caused her to founder. Still plainly visible is the jib of the winch over the hangar door which was used to lift the aircraft back on to the launching ramp after launching on the sea.
An abortive attempt to salvage the M2 was made soon after the disaster, but the weight of the vessel combined with bad weather beat the lifting vessels just as the M2 was about to break to the surface.
She lies in about 34 metres of water and sits complete and upright. Her hangar doors are wide open and it is possible to look into the stilt interior. Many crabs, pollock, wrasse and congers can be seen on her.
Gibel Hamam, on a voyage from Swansea to France with a cargo of coal, coal steam ship powered by a single 3 cyl. triple expansion engine, single shaft, 1 screw, was sunk by the German submarine UB-104.
The bows and stern standing clear of the seabed and the midships area broken. The bow is upright on a silty seabed and the stern lies over with a fairly heavy list to starboard slightly deeper. Depth 32 metres.
The Moidart was steamship which torpedoed by UC77, which blown the ship into two, just aft of the engine room. The she has a raised forecastle, with steps leading up from the main deck. On the port side these steps have fallen to the deck, next to a pair of bollards and a small Admiralty-pattern anchor. The stern section lies further to port side of the main wreck, where a debris trail of wreckage provide a trail to the stern section which lies almost parallel to the main section.
The depth of the seabed is about 33 m.
The Alisa Craig was launched on 6 September, 1906, was built by the Ailsa Shipbuilding Co and operated by Hugh Craig & Co. At 7.10 am on 15 April, 1918, she was torpedoed from UB80, which strike the starboard side of the ship. It ripped out the bottom of the keel and blew the hatch-covers from the holds.
Depth of the seabed is 35 m.
The Pomeranian was built in 1882 by Earle´s Shipbuilding Co, Hull as the Grecian Monarch for the Monarch Line. she 381ft long with a beam of 43.8ft, one funnel, four masts, iron construction, single screw and a speed of 11 knots.
She was passenger accommodation for 40-1st, 60-2nd and 1,000-3rd passengers and was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine UC-77 near Portland Bill on 15th April 1918 with the loss of 55 lives.
The wreck although upright lies in a peculiar fashion, in two main sections. The cabins stand some 7m off the seabed, and the rest of the vessel is flattened apart from the bow and stern which lie with a 45 degree list to starboard.
There are many stories about this wreck having standard diving equipment onboard.
She now lies in a depth of 35 m.
UB-74 - This German submarine, under the control of Commander Steindorff, was very successful but was finally destroyed in May 1918 by the British yacht Lorna. She was initially rammed by the Frogner, which also sunk in the area and then depth charged and sunk with all 35 hands.
She has been extensivley salvaged and is broken up but still makes a very interesting dive in her own right.
Depth 36 m.
The Ethel was a British Steamship built in Stockton-On-Tees in 1898. She weighed over 2300 gross tons, 88m long and was fitted with a triple expansion engine. On September 16th, 1918, en route from Rouen to Barry in ballast, defensively-armed, without warning she was
torpedoed by the German submarine UB-104. Her crew survived.
The wreck was discovered in the late eighties and lies outside the Shambles bank. She is upright, in two parts the bows are detached and are lying on the western side of the main body of the wreck, well collapsed amidships but stands at the bow and stern. The wreck is often attracts much life. Depth 38 m.
A-3 Submarine – This is a protected Historic Wreck site and as a licencee we are allowed take divers to this site, under the conditions of the licence.
This was one of the earlier submarines to enter service with the Royal Navy prior to WW1. This class of vessel however suffered a run of bad luck when firstly the A-1 was hit by steamer whilst exercising in the Solent and sank with all hands. Later in the same area the A-3 was hit by HMS Hazard and sank with all crew members in February 1912. She was eventually recovered back to Devonport and the crew were buried with full honours. Later that same year she was intentionally sunk as a sonar target where she now lies upright.
The vessel is complete except for the outer conning tower. This has been salvaged. Depth 39 m
P-555 – This vessel originally entered service as an American submarine designated as the S24. In 1942 she was loaned to the Royal Navy and re-named the P-555. After the war the design was thought obsolete and she was sunk in 1947 to be used as a sonar training vessel.
She lies complete in a depth of about 33m with the surrounding sea bed at approximately 40m.
HMT Arfon - This is a protected Historic Wreck site and as a licencee we are allowed take divers to this site, under the conditions of the licence.
The wreck comprises the well-preserved remains of HMT Arfon, a trawler requisitioned by the Royal Navy on the outbreak of war that struck a mine and sank on 30th April 1917 with the loss of ten lives. The wreck lies at a depth of 40 m.
On 19 July 1917 SS Salsette sailed from London under the command of Captain Albert Borlase Armitage, bound for Bombay, with passengers, general cargo and pay for the troops in Egypt. As she went around Portland Bill the following day the ship was struck by a torpedo fired from UB 40..
The wreck rests on the port side at 45 degrees on a flat, sandy seabed. Although much of the upper-deck superstructure has collapsed, the hull is still largely intact for the full length of the vessel.
The maximum depth is 45m and the highest point of the wreck is the starboard railings at 32m.