Duo-Divers

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

Football sea squirts (Diazona violacea), again lots of these very simple animals inhabit the outside of the hull of SS Rondo.

I had to add one shot of wreckage that could be identified, so you have the stern of SS Rondo which of course you recognised despite the dirty water!

A Spiny Spider Crab (Maja squinado) common enough down south on on the West Coast of Scotland but not so many around the Farne Islands.

Looking north from the Haven out to sea and the Inner Farnes, it was really bad, really, really bad!

A close up inside the mantle of a Lions Mane Jellyfish (Cyanea capillata) in this case it was obviously on the way out with no stingers and a large hole where something had tried to eat it. This allowed me to get quite close and get some nice shots of the structure around the mantle. By the start of October the beaches up here are covered in dead jellies, sad and potentially dangerous for children.

Scenic showing the vis, spot the trash in this photo!

A sea lemon (Archidoris pseudoargus) you see quite a few of these and the trick is to approach slowly so they are unawre of your presence and leave their flowery gills out and in the water. Once again I was unsucessful!

A very large, well the largest that I have ever seen Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris), she was sitting on-top of a rock pretending to be weed but had the 'wrong' colouration, the skin texture was right though!

I also had the cascabel end engraved, a nice touch I thought.

Harbour Crab (Liocarcinus depurator), quite a common critter but usually very skitterish and keen to be out of the way.

A pile of coins! From a modern 20p piece to some very old stuff it collects and stays there until such a time as the sand is moved by a storm

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!

This is the top of the sternpost

Debris all around and most unidentifiable, in this case it's a section of hull plating.

An atmospheric (arty-farty) shot showing one of the large overhangs on the North side of this site.

Looking up inside the conning tower to one of the range finder 'holes', the brass gearing is still in place.

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

A pair of brittle stars (Ophiura ophiura) these critters are actually quite rapid and much faster than other types of starfish

A bit of a clincher regarding the dating of a wreck.

I think it was 1858 when sailing ships were compelled to carry a red port lamp and 1837 for steam ships.

If you find any glass from lights then you can date the sinking from after these dates.