CCR Dive report - SS Iolanthe
The Steamship (SS) Iolanthe was an armed steam driven cargo ship that was torpedoed by German U-Boat UC-75 about 10 miles off Portland (UK) early Jan 1918. Having being hit in calm seas, she turned and tried to make for a safe port but took on too much water and was abandoned by the crew who survived. Apparently UC-75 was later sunk near Yorkshire having engaged with a convoy and being attacked by HMS Fairy who also sunk in that action.
At 45m she's a less dived ship, but ideal for me and the SF2 on a cheeky day off work with sunshine and light winds. Diving something approximating 18/45 Trimx (MOD 80m) I had more than enough gas for her and planned to do around 65 minutes total with 30 of that on the wreck.
As BSAC tells us - Plan the dive and dive the plan I eventually did 30 minutes bottom time with a total dive time of 62minutes. Go me.
We had good viz, she's broken up but a number of things are able to discern even for me. The bones of the ship stretch out on both sides of her beam which makes orientation slightly easier. We came down about midships and I headed down the middle of her to the bow. I saw anchor capstans and winding gear before reaching and swimming out to the outside of the bow. I turned back her and wished I'd gotten a better video. Along the ships 'bones' for a bit on the starboard side before realising this wasn't going to get interesting and coming back up onto the boat to see the massive steam boiler where I spent some time seeing the boiler as well as prehistoric sized conger eels what have made the wreckage home. Down towards the stern which annoyingly I didn't fully explore before coming back central to find some smaller boilers. At this point I was looking at an hour total time and I'd promised the skipper 70mins max so put up the dSMB and readied myself for the hangs at 15,12,9m then the long stop at 6m. Did manually drive up my pO2 slightly for the last 5 minutes. Backup computer with a less conservative gradient factor cleared and finally so did my primary. Nice slow ascent up to the surface to sunshine and amazingly (for October) calm seas. Back on board for terrible coffee and a steam back to harbour. All in all an excellent way to spend a day, despite having to get on the road at 6am.
The big steam boiler
The 'bones' of the ship lying to the side
Some nice anchor capstans