Duo-Divers

A good old RAF roundal...used everywhere apart from the pacific in WW2 (apparently they looked too much like the Japanese 'meatball')

Every little helps....... these guys set up shop in 1879 so that is the earliest date for the mystery wreck

A view into the propellor shaft, simply taking a bearing along the shaft and follow over the sand and you will reach the other part of the wreck

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.

Looking along the wreckage of the Mistley, you can see the ribs or joints on the bottom.

The barrels just 'go off' into the gloom, wow!

Again I think that this one is a Sand Goby (Pomatoschistus minutus), in itself not particularly rare, however this one was tiny and appeared to the eye to have a translucent quality seen in immature fish.

I really delayed polishing and you will see that at this stage the trunions were still to be machined from the blank.......

A common Hermit crab (Pagurus bernhardus), this one was far too small for the shell in which he had set up shop!

Debris all around and most unidentifiable, in this case it's a 'wheel type thingie'......

You can get all manner of brass raging agents, I went with a vinegar fume bath and I am more than happy with the results.

The tosheroon just after I have started scratting, you can see some scrap iron in the foreground, no interest to me!

A very large, well the largest that I have ever seen Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris), she was out and about for a full day so I guess that she was replete having eaten crab and either was enjoying a post-paradial sun bathing session or had a full stomach meaning she couldn't get in and out of her hole with ease!

Despite the apparent lack of food there are large shoals of Perch

Usually the top of this boiler is the first thing you see when descending, you can make out the access hole for fuel and the steam pipes

Spot the seal!

Heading down the boulder slope for the starting point, good vis but don't go straight to the bottom, you will go round and round in a pit!

More identifiable bits, the steam powered windlass that was mounted near the bow, the main steel mast in lying to the left (North) up and onto a reef and there are bits of bollard and the like adjacent.

And of course there is more life, including the Velvet swimming Crab (Necora puber) which are almost everywhere and are voracious predators catching fish!