Diving the HMS M2
Having written back in Jan about the trials of owning a rebreather, I was finally glad about a month ago to get everything back in a fully working and tested condition, all I needed now was to go diving! As with last year, work continues to drive my stress levels to new heights and thus the responsibility for organising this trip largely fell to my lovely girlfriend to sort accommodation and drive me around as she could then leave and go enjoy Dorset and Devon when I was sat on a boat. She, as normal, did this excellently and now all dive trips will need a hot tub!
Anyway, diving. Saturday was to be the protected wreck of HMS M2 - now this is a 30odd metre deep, fairly small wreck so would historically have been dived by BSAC sport divers on a single tank (maybe with a pony cylinder) but given how UK diving seems to be increasingly limited to people who can be bothered, the boat consisted of hard bitten rebreather and technical twinset divers all out for a jolly and to see if their kit worked. Some mild banter about AP divers, surprise at seeing another SF2 on the boat and away we went. Conditions sunny but with enough wind to ensure you knew damn well you were on a boat. Rocking side to side whilst trying to get kitted up with 2 stage cylinders (might as well practise) was fairly unpleasant, but eventually resolved and down I went. The M2 is notoriously murky but today we had a reasonable 3m of viz with decent ambient light from the topside sunshine.
The M2 is, as the designation suggests, an M class submarine, one of 3 built during WW1 (the 4th was never completed). All were mounted with 12 inch anti ship guns (that's bloody huge for a submarine). The M1 sank in 1925 (and remains a wish list dive for me at 70m) and the M2 and M3 became experimental craft. The M2 was converted to having a small hanger for a Parnall Peto sea plane with a hydraulic launcher to get it airborne. Diving it now, the hanger and launching gear are one of the major wreck attractions. You can also see the chains and rails that the plane would have run along. Although not strictly a war grave, she is a protected wreck with all that means in law and 60 men went down with her, so pause a moment to remember.
Image showing the hanger and plane on HMS M2
My dive started on the conning tower, around to the hanger then to the bow. Around along the port side to the stern then under where the props would have been but now just a drive shaft and hydroplanes. Back along the top pretty much, to explore inside the hanger and take a leisurely swim around the launching gear and rails.
Chains for the launcher
The hydraulic launcher
Random swimming around on both sides as the current from the spring tides and associated murk in the water picked up I decided that was enough deco and it was time to go. Back up onto the conning tower, couldn't find the shot line so put my DSMB up.
Conning tower
The CCR means I only had about 4 minutes of deco at this depth, so slowly up. A few minutes hanging in the sea spunk then all the way up and on the boat. Lovely, overall not a bad day's dive on a very popular wreck.