LEARNINGCURVE
Landing Craft
POSITION : 50 ° 39,725 ’ N 01 ° 36,433 ’ W
US Landing Craft LCT-809 was damaged in Operation Neptune in June 1944 , then lost when being towed from Southampton to Poole , about 0.5 nautical miles due west of the Needles lighthouse in September that year . The hydrographic record log makes for interesting reading and provides clues to her condition : September 1945 – sunk ; a long time ago so quite old ; May 1946
dispersed – maybe not so ship shape then ; March 1969 – not found ; May 1969 – Salvage company reports she is only 2-3ft high well broken in strong tides – difficult to dive ; October 1976 – wreck appears to be part of a steamship and not a landing craft ( interesting – more than one wreck or just very poor visibility ?) – September 1987 – broken-up lying in a a pronounced hollow .
Fortunately , the last survey used DGPS to confirm an accurate position , but the seabed around her was going to make her difficult to find on the sounder . Anyway , we trusted the numbers , confirmed why she was difficult to find on the sounder due to the surrounding seabed topography and had a great dive piecing together a mental map of the site , looking for clues to confirm she was a landing craft and not a steamship ! She is in a strong tidal flow , which means her remains are covered in life .
Wall off New Ditch Point
BETWEEN 50 ° 39,587 ’ N 01 ° 32,964 ’ W AND 50 ° 39,653 ’ N 01 ° 32,648 ’ W
Having a few scenic dives up your sleeve augments the diving itinerary somewhat in particularly tidal waters ; knowing how to read a chart can help point you in the right direction to find them . Scouring the chart for locations where adjacent bathymetry contour lines become co-incident is one indication that there might be an underwater wall or cliff . So it proved 400m off New Ditch Point , where a 400m wall runs more or less parallel with the direction of the tide . We shotted the westerly edge of the wall and worked our way over some boulders to pick up a wall that was 2-3m shear and overhung in places , covered in life with a minimum depth of around 10-12m and maximum depth 15-17m on the sand at the bottom .
As I write this article , Storm Alex is battering all of the sites written about in this article . It will probably mark the end of the main 2020 diving season . However , I ’ m thankful that the club here made the effort to get out on the boat this year . I hope and pray that as this Covid situation drags on into winter that you can all stay safe and maybe find a bit of time to plan your Covid secure everyday diving expeditions for next year . It ’ s likely to be with us for a while . �
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