Into the Deep

These sunken treasures lie in wait in murky shrouds, on seabeds all over the world, creating wonderful playgrounds for wreck divers, and habitats for sea life. 

One of the largest, most accessible wrecks in the world, the SS President Coolidge is a wreck diver’s dream. This massive luxury liner, built in 1931 converted into a Second World War troop ship is more than 600ft long and divers can explore it on both shallow and deep dives.

This 330-foot Russian frigate brought deliberately from Cuba and sunk off the coast of Cayman Brac in Sept. 1996 to form an artificial reef is an absolute pleasure to dive.  Snappers, nudibranchs and moray eels have taken up residence in the ship, which storms have now broken in two.

10 minutes from Larnaca, Zenobia the 10,000 ton ferry sunk on its maiden voyage in 1980 .  This Swedish Roll-on/Roll-off ferry was carrying more than 120 vehicles, including articulated lorries, when she sank in 130ft of water. There is plenty of sea life from Sea bream, grouper and even barracuda but most memorable is the huge ferry that has an almost eerie ‘ghost ship’ feel to it. 

This 1912 German freighter turned Italian cargo ship scuttled just off the coast of Sudan, to avoid capture by the British. At the time it was sunk the ship went down with a huge loot of cargo- 360,000 aircraft bombs, Fiat cars and its lifeboats are strewn. Put simply, the wreck has sufficient features and associated marine life to keep any diver busy for days on end. There is the propeller, the cars inside the hold, the cavernous space of the engine room, the ghostly remains of the galley, and the intact railings covered in bright red sponges.

The Blackjack, a B17 military bomber aircraft made by Boeing. The flying fortress that now lies about 45 meters deep and the sandy sea bed just off the coast of Papua New Guinea after a bombing mission in Japan.

 

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