UKDIVING
to explode above the heads of the soldiers such that the deadly lead balls would inflict many injuries . It was a useful find for me , as packing a load into each of my BC pockets compensated for a weight I ’ d forgotten to add to my belt !
Sunday : From the chart , it looked like the wreck of HMT Apley would lie at around 37m at low water slack . I felt it only fair to warn the others that as this was at least 10m deeper than the dim diving we ’ d done the day before , it was likely to be very dark down there . At 20m down the shot I put my torch on . This lamp chucks out 2000 lumens and it was clear that there was a LOT of plankton swirling about . I ’ d warned my buddy to stick to me like glue and keep up on the descent – which he did , bless him .
At 30m it was pitch black . At 37m where we hit the wreck it was , if possible , blacker still and the vis was a marvellous 0.5m at best . We filmed as much as our lamps would reveal . I have to say that having reflected through all my diving experiences across 44 years , this was the darkest I ’ ve ever done and that includes night dives . It was darker than the tumbling Cleddau River drift dive I did in Wales in 1983 and even the 40m “ Pottery Wreck ” off Eastbourne . Those were bright sunlight in comparison .
At one point I realised that the wreckage was actually upside down and we had entered the upturned hull . That put my air consumption up a tad and I quickly turned us around to crawl out through the silt . By the time we ’ d finished , we had decompression of eight minutes at 9m , then 18 minutes at 3m . I was quite comfortable with that , as we both had twin 12s and plenty of air . It was a relief to rise out of the deep dark to dim greenish gloom at around 20m !
Those with cameras did manage to film a few key and defining features , despite the deep darkness . And there were some fleeting glimpses of large bib and some close-up spider crabs . Each that I encountered looked a little lost and bewildered , flitting fearfully away from the beams of our clouded lamps .
Conclusions
Well – we have compared video footage and stills to the engineering plans of trawlers of Apley ’ s class and one buddy pair actually managed a quick measure across the upturned hull , which corresponds with the plan dimensions of the class of trawler that Apley was . Some of the defining attributes are
■ The staggered bilge keels running in parallel curves down the upturned hull
■ Evenly spaced bulkhead structures identical to the spacing of the original fish holding tanks
The bilge keel and ( right ) as seen on the wreck
The distinctive curved trawl winch
Postscript : The fate of UC-71
■ The hull measurement taken and the prominent curved trawl winch cable stay structures , positioned port and starboard at the bow and stern of the vessel
From these , we are certain we found HMT Apley . We had discovered and recorded an important maritime find attached to one of the most brutal conflicts in human history and have registered her with the Nautical Archaeology Society ( NAS ) and the Maritime Archaeology Trust ( MAT ) to update their Forgotten Wrecks of WW1 Project .
A team of divers from the University of Dundee recently solved the mystery of the sinking of UC-71 . En-route from Germany to Britain on 20 February 1919 to surrender the submarine to the British navy , the commander and crew decided to scuttle UC- 71 to keep her from British hands . The sub sits at 22m on the shallow banks of the Heligoland archipelago , in the North Sea . �
Plumose anemones on the Apley
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UC-71 archival image