Somali

[GaryRE]

Got a chance to dive the Somalia May 25th/26th, I know its at 30m but thats all, how good is it ? What should I expect?

Should I jump at it?

Gary

[GaryRE]

Apologies ............ Somali

Gary

[GLOC]

Changed for you

[ray]

Hi.
Yes!.

Like I did over 30 years ago.

Cargo all over the place, Ponds cold cream, Colgate's toothpaste, Fire extinguishers the cone shaped ones you pumped at the back, shoes, to many articles of cargo to list .

Downside, open the cold cream and for a Milli second it smelt of cold cream then it smelt disgusting, same with the tooth paste a quick whiff of mint then it smelt disgusting as well.
You could always tell when divers had been on the wreck the beach at Beadnell smelt as the items were thrown away!.
6 ton of lead piping in 3 coils, now I wonder who got that .

It was extensively salvaged for its steel a few years back and is a pale comparison of its former history, but still well worth diving, if you hunt around the back of the boat the gun is lying on its side, you could say it is the Geordie Thistlegorm and the dive operators have made a good living out of it .
Oh! and my mate got the captains cap badge on our first dive.

[Scubee]

I have one or two small articles. The ponds cold cream stunk, but the little bottles are rather nice.

I have dived it about 3 times, i think, and really like it.

Wrecks don't have to be deep to be nice

[GaryRE]

Sounds good, my only other real wreck dive was on the Zenobia last November. Did some fairly safe penetration around the bridge/galley/cargo decks etc, all within sight of daylight. Is the Somali still pretty intact & can you do some cautious penetration bearing in mind the vis & light?

[Gram43]

Originally Posted by GaryRE

Sounds good, my only other real wreck dive was on the Zenobia last November. Did some fairly safe penetration around the bridge/galley/cargo decks etc, all within sight of daylight. Is the Somali still pretty intact & can you do some cautious penetration bearing in mind the vis & light?

I've dived the Somali many times and about 12 to 18 months ago the wreck was blasted again for salvage and the main shotline that was on the boilers, wasn't!!

If you rummage around well enough you are sure to bring up something. Toy lead soldiers were supposed to have been part of the cargo but I've never seen or heard of anyone finding any. Its a slack water dive which may mean early morning or an afternoon job and depth will range from around 27 to about 32 metres, great for nitrox. No penetration and its too well broken up.

There's still plenty of mangled metal and all sorts of crap as its well and truly picked over. Its probably the best dive the Farnes has to offer to the standard divers. However, there are plenty of other good and lesser dived wrecks if you know of them and if the skippers are prepared to take you to them.

Hope the weather improves for you..............Graham

[GaryRE]

Its planned for a slack water/neap tide dive, just done nitrox course so will probably dive nitrox.

Cheers all

Gary

[Ron Young]

Gary

It will probably keep you happy, but as the others say, don't expect too much because it has been salvaged professionally about six times over the past 25 years or so. The first divers found some of the 100 tons of lead soldiers, but they were positioned where she blew up and were spread all around the area. The interesting thing is, the bows were blown off and are still missing which would make a nice project. Only trouble is the seabed is magnetic.

Cheers Ron

[ray]

Originally Posted by Ron Young

Gary

It will probably keep you happy, but as the others say, don't expect too much because it has been salvaged professionally about six times over the past 25 years or so. The first divers found some of the 100 tons of lead soldiers, but they were positioned where she blew up and were spread all around the area. The interesting thing is, the bows were blown off and are still missing which would make a nice project. Only trouble is the seabed is magnetic.

Cheers Ron

Hmmm.
I do not go with the lead soldier bit.
Bearing in mind it was war time and there would have been spy's all over the docks, when these heavy boxes of were being loaded, I bet it was gold or silver in them, and the dockers were told they contained lead soldiers!, why on earth would anybody want to ship lead soldiers in war time.

When the front end blew off further South, with bits of the ship falling on Beadnell village, I bet the cargo was deposited on the sea bed somewhere near the remains of the bow. I no Ron disagree's with this but I am still convinced.

Ryan who used to work in Divers Warehouse in Bradford once told me how he had dived a reef somewhere between Beadnell and Newton, but he couldn't remember where as it was just a throwaway dive, when he came across a pile of what he said looked like black lead ingots, well silver goes black in salt water!.