At least 20 wrecks in one day. Sort of...

[frosty the snowman]

As you know the weather has been a tad unsettled lately and I take full responsibility for that. That's because it happens to be my week off work so there was never any chance of decent diving weather. But I'm not that easily put off so I decided that even if I wasn't able to get in the water, I could still visit (or at least get close to) some wreck sites. So today I walked from Prawle point to Garra rock near Salcombe.

It was so windy that I nearly got blown off my feet (and over the edge of a 100ft cliff) but that made it all the more interesting because although I've dived along that bit of coast many times, it's not often that I've been there in the sort of conditions that caused many of the wrecks to end up there in the first place which certainly brought their stories to life.

So here's a view looking east towards Start point.



In the foreground is Landing cove where the Gossamer struck in 1868 and beyond that the last resting places of the Western Lass (1916), the Yvette (1978), The Marie Theresa (1872) and the Theckla (1891).

As I climbed up past the coastguard station on Prawle point I could see the remains of the most modern wreck on this bit of coast, the 9700 ton Demetrios which struck on December 18th 1992. It was pretty exciting at the time but all that now remains are a few twisted hull plates just visible here.





There are at least 8 other wrecks on Prawle point including the De Boot (1738), HMS Crocodile (1784), the Heye-P (1979), the Louis Yvonne (1935), The Bona (1907), the Ida (1930) and the Maria (1892). Offshore there is the excelent Riversdale (1917) which is well worth a dive.

Heading west towards gammon head I passed the graves of the Glad tidings (1882), the Lalla Rookh (1873) and just off the point of Gammon head shown below, the paddle steamer Reliance (1888), another good dive.



Moving west further towards Garra rock I passed the site of the bronze age sword wreck (bronze age!) and at Garra rock itself the Pauline (1877) and the Meirion (1879).

I'll be back to do another coast walk tomorrow with a couple of dive guides in the rucksack. I might leave the rebreather at home though..

[stevechesh]

Some nice piccies there Frosty. As it happens, i've been "working" on this area for a few months now, and have a bit of info on some of the stuff out there:


The Meirion



The Maria

[stevechesh]

The Gossamer

[frosty the snowman]

Brilliant work Steve! I feel a little light reading coming on!