Practice and preparation
Peter provided a detailed presentation of the story of HMT Apley for our members at the Leamington & Warwick clubhouse at the end of April , asking for suitably qualified members to help find the wreck . As with any of these wreck search ventures , there was no guarantee Apley would be found , let alone identified . Nevertheless , 11 signed up and the 12 strong team was confirmed .
I ’ d pointed Peter in the direction of the BSAC ’ s then Wrecks and Cultural Heritage Advisor , Jane Maddocks , who was full of enthusiasm for the proposal . She in turn referred us to Alison Mayor , who Peter met at the Go Diving Show in Warwickshire . She provided a plethora of positive advice and guidance and pointed Peter at the BSAC ’ s Jubilee Fund who , after careful consideration of the aims and objectives of the Project , generously awarded us £ 1,590 towards financing the logistics .
Peter had also spoken to an excellent and knowledgeable charter skipper – David Wendes from Lymington – and persuaded him to operate for us from Haslar Marina in Portsmouth for the planned weekend of the diving in June . Andark Diving at Southampton agreed to open late on the Saturday for air fills . The dominoes of detailed planning and prep were falling nicely into place .
Now many of those who put their eager hands up had not been involved in wreck survey and identification . So , it was decided to set aside several weekend days at the beloved Stoney Cove to both develop and practice survey techniques whilst incrementally building depth resistance . This built the necessary confidence in the use of measuring devices – mostly across the wreck of the Stanegarth – and depth familiarisation with many dropping into the turgid pit at 35m . It also gave those using
Practice session on Stoney Cove ’ s Stanegarth
twin 12s for the first time , time to become proficient with these rigs in moderately dim conditions . By the time the dive weekend came to a close , the team were ready .
The dives
We all arrived at the excellent accommodation at Haslar Marina on the Friday evening . On the Saturday morning we trollied our gear to the charter boat which was berthed at probably the furthest point in the marina from where we were . Exercise at 7.30am on a weekend is something I no longer aspire to but needs must , I suppose . The weather was amazing with flat calm waters as we chuffed out of Portsmouth harbour on a sparkling sea , past the lonesome and dilapidated Bembridge Martello forts .
Saturday : SS Highland Brigade and SS Luis . Depths were 26 and 20 metres respectively . While the weather was perfect topside , the story below the surface was quite different . Visibility was a dim to dark 1 to 2 metres on both wrecks , caused by a very soupy thick plankton bloom . At 26m it was 2000 lumen lamp country and even then , it was tricky to discern any part of the Highland Brigade other than the boilers , where Dave Wendes had expertly placed the shot . The SS Luis was minimally brighter at 20m .
If I extrapolate the amount of life we encountered in the poor visibility on both these wrecks to the full size of the sites , it ’ s clear that they are teeming with shoals of bib . The wreckage also provided feeding grounds for large and colourful wrasse , and was home to various crustaceans . On both wrecks we encountered several big old conger eels .
In good visibility , these wrecks would be a sheer delight . As it was , we still enjoyed our gloomy dives . On the Luis , my buddy and I found ourselves in the hold that must have contained the anti-personnel munitions , as the seabed was covered in literally thousands of lead shot – all a uniform 12mm diameter . These were destined for the Western Front , packed around high explosive shell heads to be fired at the German trenches and timed
Surveying drills on the Stanegarth
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