Duo-Divers

A pretty little light, one of the guys thought 'deck light' but with a solid back and close to another two broken lights I would think a bulkhead light of some description, date late victorian to pre WWI

Rust, rust, rust......after every storm the coating of plants and cruid is 'bashed' away leaving bare metal which rusts and in colonised by the sea only for the process to repeat, eventually leaving noting behind but the larger structural pieces of steel.

A grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) the reason loads of divers visit the islands, against a back drop of The Hopper

An arty fary half and half shot

Starboard side and the wreck is slowly disappearing on a flooding tide...

Oh and of course our old friend the blue fiend or common lobster (Hommarus gammarus) loads live ion the rough ground but mainly smaller 'wiggies'

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.

A 'fresh' Greenland Shark (Somniosus microcephalus) that was washed up at Embleton. Great was my joy at being able to tell the guys at St Andrews University that this specimen had washed up and it was sweetened by adding that we had already toild Newcastle University of the stranding

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

and closer.....

Eat my camera set-up!!

How on earth this lobster (Hommarus gammarus) managed to get both claws through a single hole in the pot I have no idea!

'Arty-farty' alert!

I was trying to show how much sand had been scoured out of the iste, you can see here that there is a section of shale wall that's maybe fifty centimeters high where there was no weed hence it was covered prior to the last storms.

A hatch with the actual cut-out still 'envisionable', is there such a word? There should be!

A view of the bottom plus another piece of large debris, again WTF?

I have never seen this particular species of Starfish (Echioderm) here in the North East although they are common in warm water further south or on the West Coast. Apparently this species is quite ancient.....

Another Spiny Spider Crab (Maja squinado) common enough down south on on the West Coast of Scotland but not so many around the Farne Islands. It can be a bit disconcerting when they stand up suddenly out of the dirt......

In some areas the broken bottom comprises of large stones covered in life, strange that there is a centre section almost devoid of filters feeders.....

A colour shot of another breech assembly

More s'cenic stuff 'showing the hull rent where the engine room has been blasted open.

The mast going off into 'the gloom'

Sometimes you will find 'odd' weights as you work along the site

This one was probably killed by a dolphin, we get quite a few white sided dolphins in the area and despite the popular public conception about friendly dolphins they actively kill porpoises so you rarely if ever see dolphins and porpoise in close proximity

Tubes from the broken up boiler.......

A Lions Mane Jellyfish (Cyanea capillata), when they are about deco stops are always interesting!

Towards the end of summer the kelp does get eaten away, once the critters or urchins have broken through the tough outer skin they rapidly get stuck into the softer internal flesh