Duo-Divers

Looking up at the side of the wreck you can see that plates, in this case' have fallen away or in some instances blasted to get at more valuable metal within enclosed spaces.

I - And after lots of investigation into various oils I opted for high quality Danish Oil rather than Tung oil or similar

Huzzah, I do like finding a tosheroon, in this case where tide and rock formation have caused a build up of lost fishing weights. You can rapidly find a huge amount of weights if you are scouring a virgin area as there tends to be quite a few of these on any length of reef

A Plaice (Pleuronectes platessa), relatively common around Beadnell due to the mixed ground.

B - At first I thought it was a fence post but then I saw the tree nails and the penny dropped it was part of an old wooden ship!

Dropping into the main gully one of the first things that you notice is the rust stained sand, then larger 'lumps' and as you head inshore the gully tightens to an end and you have sections of the steel rubbing strip and what is now apparently the bows of the ship.

The geology of the site comprises of small steep sided gullies, fissured into the reef

The lower mounting position where the pin would fit with a wrist mounted compass to give some sort of scale

The propellor, don't go past as there is nothing else to see!

A shot showing part of a shoal of Saithe (Pollachius virens) hovering above the kelp line wiating for the tide to turn!

A shot of the sea-bed in about twenty five meters off the Harcarrs, its all flat rock, small gravel beds and short drop offs.

Everywhere that you look the bottom isn't bedrock, it is formed from sections of ship.

Large sections of plate have fallen away leaving coourful ribs, spars anmd superstructure all over

A 'scaling shot' of the largest diameter section, you can only see the top of this pieces poking out from the sand

This site is home to a multitude of Common Hermit Crabs (pagurus bernhardus)

You can now look along the prop-shaft tunnel

Kelp (Family laminariales) does tend to be quite a long lived plant with the stem above say the first twenty centimeters quite a safe place for a plant to grow without the risk of sea-urchins 'browsing' you away. In this case a sponge encases the stem, making an eco-system up in the water column!

Same guy and those orange dry-gloves didn't half reflect the light!

A scenic of the bow, due to the previous salvage operation it has 'snapped' and fallen away from centre to left of the photograph

A Common Hermit Crab (Pagurus bernhardus) this one is in a winkle shell and was quite happy trying to stare me down, cheeky little blighter!

And here is the business end of a Seven Armed Starfish (Luida ciliaris) a bit of a prehistoric throw-back this monster!

A view from the distance, you can 'always' see the boiler but not the woodwork, or not usually the the woodwork of the hull.