HMS Foyle - Jan 26th

[Kieran Hatton]

I was fortunate to get the oppurtunity to dive the Foyle yesterday as a guest of Plymouth Sound BSAC.

Laying in 50m she makes a good shallow gas dive to get back in the swing things. The shot was in on one of the forward boilers; this was a new wreck to me and laying quite flat on the sea bed getting the lay of the land took a few mins. Forward of the boilers not much remains [she struck a mine on the bow] and has settled well into the seabed. A couple of admrialty boilers stick out obviously as well as one of the engines and propshaft leading off to the stern. There is no evidence of the prop on the end of this shaft though the rudder can be made out. On the seabed just to the side of the forward boiler is a 12 pound gun. While this wreck has certainly been worked hard over the years there is still a lot of detail worth looking at.
Loads of life on the wreck including some monster congers and a good smattering of scallops around and about; she is a popular local target for angling boats so there is quite a bit of lost fishing gear on the wreck.

Vis was a darkish 5-6m, but this rapidly decreases if folk kick the bottom up as it is quite siilty.
Water temp, 9 degrees

HMS Foyle, built 1902, 225 feet long.
She struck a mine in the Dover Straights in March 1917 blowing off the bow and killing 27 crew, she sank just outside Plymouth while under tow to Devonport.

There is a wealth of information on the Southwest Mafia Wreck Report

Well thats 2011 up and running for me, fingers crossed for a good one!

HMS Foyle


Kieran