On Sunday the 15th August I arranged for some of the members of Dive Buddy UK to dive the wreck of the Alunia and the Oceana
We all met up at Eastbourne Marina at 8.00am ready to board our boat for the day "SUSSEX". Me (George) and Paul was joined by Tony, Cel , Mark and Diego.
The weather forecast wasn’t looking to good but the skipper (Mike) thought we should be ok so we headed out of the marina towards the lock and off into the sea. The fist stop would be the Alunia.
The Cunard liner Alaunia was on a return voyage from New York to London on the 19th October 1916 when she struck a mine laid by the German sub UC16 The first thing that grabs you about this wreck is the sheer size of it, at 13,405tons and over 500ft long she is the largest wreck on the Sussex coast. She lies on her port side and stands 10mtrs high in places.
The Alaunia has been extensively salvaged and is well broken from middle to stern. When diving the wreck the bow section is phenomenal, it lays over at an angle of 45 degrees and has her port anchor hanging from its chain, lots of portholes are still in place and the seabed is a feast for scallops.
Further up the wreck large booms and masts lay strewn across the seabed and in the wreckage, more hatches, skylights and portholes lay in the twisted debris. There is no shortage of marine life, with Pollock, Bass, Congers, Crabs, Lobsters & million of pouting all living onboard.
As we all kitted up and checked our gear the usual banter started.
This was Cel and Diego's first real UK wreck dive, so we budded up me and Diego with Cel and Paul this left Tony and Mark. The skipper lined up and the first 2 divers went in and down the shot line, the 4 of us had agreed to go last in giving everyone else a chance to get clear as we knew there could be possible problems with Cel never being deeper than 18m's. It was our time to get into the water as we stepped off the lift one by one into the water. We gathered at the top of the buoy and prepared to descend down the shot line, Diago and me went first then Cel and Paul followed slowly, we got to about 12m and Cel just needed a few seconds to settle himself then down the shot line again we went. we had soon reached 20m so I stopped and shook Cel's hand he'd already been deeper than ever before, this also had the effect of taking his mind of how deep we was, we looked down and could see the dark mass of the wreck below. We reached the wreck the visibility was around 5-8m's the torches was switched on as we started to peer through the hull, I managed to spot a huge conger in one of the holes, the hull had hundreds of small pouting and the occasional Pollock swimming by.
The time went all too quick and we had to surface. The boat came round and picked me and Diego up and then Paul and Cel as we dekitted we chatter excited by what we had seen and the expreance.
The boats make its way back to Eastbourne and we moored up to watch the air show while we were out of the water before going back out to dive the Oceana
The 6.610 ton P & O Liner Oceana was built in 1888, She was 468ft long and had a Beam of 52ft. Whilst en route from London to Bombay with 40 passenger and a complement of 210 crew she was sunk on 16th March 1912 after colliding with the Pisagna, a 2850-ton Germen 4 masted steel barque. The Pisagna herself did not sink but was towed into Dover for repairs. Nine of the Oceana’s crew were drowned when their lifeboat capsized.
This has got to be one of the most interesting wrecks on the south coast; she rests in only 24mtrs of water at low tide and in places stands 10mtrs high.
The wreck rests on an even keel with the bows being upright and mostly intact, as you work your way back towards the stern all the superstructure has collapsed down but the sides of the vessel are still ship shape. As you get towards the engine room you come across an amazing sight, there are 4 boilers sat in pairs slap bang in the middle of the wreck, these huge round lumps of metal still in perfect condition if sunk only yesterday. Around the boilers there are big troughs full of scallop shell, mostly empty now. As you pass the boilers you are met by this huge upright structure which stands some 10mtrs high, it is in fact the ships 7000hp triple expansion engines.
Every diver will find something of interest on this dive, Whether it will be the sea life of crabs, lobsters, scallops or the many species of fish that have made it their home, or portholes that are still in place or maybe even one off the silver bars & gold ingots that were left over from the ships cargo of £747.110 worth of gold and silver ingots when the ship was salvaged.
The Oceana sits on a gravel seabed and usually has good visibility.
Well a few of us made it to the London Dive Chamber last night to complete a 40m dry dive, however after a couple of people not turning up this all changed to a 50m dive. Got to say thanks to the guys that didn't turn up the rest of us enjoyed it even more.
Even though this wasn't a real dive with regards to kitting up and getting wet this was going to be a first for alot of the group including myself down to 50m.
