UKDIVING
A team diver lights up the bow of SS Svinta
of the morning . Later that day saw us over a wreck in 80m of water . An unknown and undived wreck , the LiWD team believed it to be the wreck of the SS Express due to its size and being close ( approximately 180m ) to where HMS Grenville , the ship that was believed to have struck her , had reported striking another vessel on the morning of 9 February 1918 .
The evidence that this was the SS Express came in the form of a two-cylinder engine with a single boiler , along with a mixed cargo of many bottles . The approximate size of the wreck matched the SS Express , even with the stern being extensively damaged .
More success , and a night in Fair Isle
That night saw us in Stronsay , not the liveliest of towns , though conveniently the excitement of the day ensured an early night . After all , we had an early start the next morning , to head out for the first of our primary targets . We were looking for HMS Hoste .
The wreck itself seems to have been split in two , with the two sections lying several miles apart . The bigger bit , which we believed to be the bow , was the shallower of the two ( 105m in comparison to 115m ) and had a much taller sonar image .
The viz was incredible and we could easily locate four Yarrow boilers , easily identified due to their Y shape , lying on their sides . A huge number of shells were found towards the bow . Ling and congers along with the usual squidgy suspects littered the wreck .
Back on the decompression trapeze , the divers were able to pass cameras to the surface team via a safety diver . Downloading and watching the videos while the divers were still in the water along with passing the information back to LiWD meant that we had positively identified the ship before the dive team had even surfaced !
Enhanced shot of diver Jen Smith crossing the sand towards the aft section of the wreck
36