Damage , possibly inflicted by trawlers , has shifted the wheels on top of each other
Diving the Brakenholme
The first dive on the Brakenholm was undertaken by a small team of divers who were completing the end of a discovery week on the South Coast . We are all experienced divers with a mix of wreck identification and photography skills .
On this occasion , we were diving an anomaly that doesn ’ t stand up a great deal and is confined to a small area of the seabed – hardly the Titanic , but worth a dive to see what it was
We are used to descending the shot line and landing on the engine or boiler , as these are the high points and best persevered , but the Brakenholm is different .
The shot was on the sand just to one side of the mark . Descending and landing on sand is always a disappointment , however in this case it was very different . The visibility was as good as it gets – about 5m – so we looked round and were gobsmacked to see train wheels .
Like excited puppies , we rushed over and then spent the next 40 minutes swimming up one side , around the remains of the boiler , back down to where the foot plate was . All the time , we were looking at the wheels , boilers and components , trying to make sense of what we could see .
All the time , the goal of the dive was to identify the ship , so Cathy and I began to focus on getting the photographs of the key features . This included the boiler – which had had the front plate removed and pipes strewn over the seabed – plus the collection of wheels and anything else that could be identified .
A diver illuminates the smaller wheels
More engine components , possibly from the water system
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