'Deep Into Northern Ireland'

Looking for a holiday with a little more depth, Qualified mixed gas divers may well insist they are somewhat uncatered for, Leigh Bishop explains why its even worth taking a Trimix course if only to experience the secrets of Donegal.
Feature thanks to Deep Blue Diving more info click here >>
For some many years I had heard of an awesome shipwreck off the Northern Irish coastline called the Justicia. When I finally got round to diving this wreck I was astounded by true value of what I had been told about this massive Ocean liner.

Diver on the wreck of RMS Justicia 230ft depth
one of the magnificent wrecks off North Ireland.
By clicking the image you are able to download a
larger scale version although I apologies for the
large 100k file size. Shaving this particular type of
image down further would have resulted in much
greater definition loss with the software I use. Its
worth it though please have a look for yourself.

Ten years ago if somebody told you that by 2001 there would be holidays catering for technical divers you wouldn't have believed them, if they told you they would be in British waters you may have indeed simply laughed! Back then other than the commercial field the knowledge and use of mixed gas was sourced by the few in order to overcome obstacles in deep exploration, in other words the end goal was always there the gas being the eventual answer to achieve it. A decade on and things may appear quite the reverse; Trimix divers may well be faced with the dilemma of what to do with and how to get the very best from their qualification. Headline deep wreck explorations may well glamorize the Trimix qualification but where can the trimix diver turn without the hassle of a fully blown team expedition.

. Deep wreck diving holidays begin at Girvan, Scotland Loyal Watcher being loaded with dive equipment.

Quite possibly the answer lies off 'Northern Ireland. County Donegal on the northwest tip of Ireland represents Europe's uttermost coastline jaggedly driving its way into the Atlantic. It is this stretch of shoreline that boasts 2000ft cliffs, where place names such as Bloody Foreland are redolent of its harsh nature but its also here that perhaps the best wreck diving can be found in Europe. Only recently have the true secrets that lie off this coastline come to light, laying dormant since the onset of UK trimix diving, known by a handful, whom choosing the whispered world would tease to the splendor of deep wrecks on offer. Like most things in life the best kept secrets never last and the quality of deep wreck diving off Donegal is fast becoming the focus of conversation across the technical community. If this place once existed in the abstract today its entire perspective has naturally fallen into place, as if it was always waiting for the deep wreckers. If your looking for some extended range wreck diving that you will never forget, the word is Donegal represents your ultimate home destination. From huge liners to battleships the variety is here, a magnificent catalogue of wrecks stooped in history, but it's not just this that makes the wreck diving here special it's the awesome visibility. Just when you thought it couldn't get better believe me it does having been compared to Truk Lagoon between 30 and 40 meters visibility is not uncommon in the off shore waters where the big wrecks lie. The great majority of the wrecks also lie in a sensible depth range of between 40 - 70m in fact there's no real need to consider any deeper wrecks out here which in turn relieves the pressure of big decompression penalties, making your stay more of a holiday.
I quickly turned my head in embarrassment as my latest mobile ring tone stopped conversation at the delicatessen, the caller id indicating my long term diving pal Chris Hutchison "guess what" he asked " I've booked a charter vessel for a weeks diving off Northern Ireland! Interested?" you bet I was interested! like Chris for many years I too had heard the rumor's of this awesome diving. We had booked our charter through Deep Blue diving a UK based company that offers a high standard of service for sport divers and serious technical divers alike. Deep Blues managing director Richy Stevenson had long since known of the potential Donegal has to offer and was delighted when an independent group chartered his liveaboard vessel 'Loyal Watcher' to dive the wrecks within the region. From the success of that first charter the company decided to allocate the liveaboard vessel a period of the season calendar to Donegal alone. Loyal watcher is ideally suited to the task in hand an ex Royal Navy fleet tender with a range of more than 4,000km that comfortably accommodates 12 heavily equipped divers. The vessel has been converted with the needs of serious wreck divers in mind and carries adequate supplies of oxygen and Helium for the diving in question. Unlike conventional liveaboard vessels Loyal Watcher is not based solely in a single location, the crew themselves live aboard, and the vessel may well visit several different locations throughout Europe during a single season. The company carefully plans the charters well in advance so that the time and distance the vessel will have to travel in between customers charters is accounted for thus guaranteeing your respected service wherever you may be. Stevenson himself claims that of all the locations Loyal Watcher will visit the waters off Donegal really is the highlight of the season. He went on to say that very often is the case that club divers acquire their Trimix certification with a view to experiencing deeper wrecks although are unable to finance a charter alone. With this in mind the company runs specific 'Deep Blue weeks' where individuals can book a space and meet other like-minded technical divers in the same position.

Loyal Watcher on her way out of Lough Swilly on route to the wrecks off the North Irish Coast line. During our entire stay we never had to calculate slack water once we simply turned up threw in the shot and went diving, this made a great change, relieving the mad rush of having to be ready and waiting for slack.

A week's holiday diving in Northern Ireland begins at Girvan on the Scottish west coast, as part of the service the crossing is all-inclusive so there are no extra burdens of ferry bookings as such. The small fishing port of Girvan is however tidal, which means the charter can only leave for Ireland at certain times, although as Richy says, simply put, as soon as the last diver is aboard with high water the boat leaves. The 110-mile journey across the North Channel takes almost 12 hours. We traveled through the night thus missing the sights of Rathlin Island, Mull of Kintyre and Malin Head along the way although traveling through the night meant we arrived at our first dive site soon after we crawled out of bed. Another added advantage of diving these waters is there are very little tidal constrictions.

'Empire Heritage'
Stevenson himself works on the charter through the season and was more than willing to advise us of the wrecks on offer, their condition and exactly where to go to get the best from our bottom time. The plan was to stick to the tourist route and decide midweek whether we wanted to be more adventurous and locate some new unexplored wrecks, which let me tell you are in no shortage here. Our first taste on what was to come was the 'Empire Heritage' a 12,000-ton oil tanker sunk during WW2 a wreck that has recently been described as the British Isles answer to the Thistlegorm! At the time of lost he ship was carrying government stores which included Sherman tanks and trucks, which now lie, scattered over the wreck not unlike a child's toys. The visibility here is outstanding easily 40meters and the wreck seemed to come into view almost immediately after entering the water.

Empire Heritage lies partially twisted and upside down over a white sandy seabed of approx. 65 meters, there's no reeling off the shotline on this wreck, instead navigation is made simply by obvious sections of the wreck. The very stern is quite literally upside down, a huge four bladed prop towers from above intact and solid to its shaft assembly. There are six doubled ended scotch boilers which can clearly be seen from a distance of the prop itself, as the diver swims in their immediate direction they will note that the wreck twists back on and virtually uprights itself. Two large triple expansion engines represent a point where the wrecks construction begins to break down and thus peter out.

Two huge Derek's tower above the central section of the wreck, the seabed is 227ft.

A short swim beyond a point of these exposed boilers the visiting diver will never forget the site of several Sherman tanks, some upside down and on top of others while all intact their guns are left pointing in all directions. Over the clear white seabed bucket dump trucks appear jumbled as if tossed in disrespect, those upright remain loaded with tire's while others spill their load across the sand. The wreck then for the first time becomes somewhat shipshape with deck fittings, derricks and winches clearly identifiable then peering over hatch combings again more tanks and supplies lie stacked within deep holds. Lots of broken steel girders mark the way to the fo'c'sle and thus the bow which itself lies completely over to its port and fairly smashed, and the large anchor? a clear landmark for navigation. When the sun actually broke through the soft corals that lightly cover the wreck transformed her into an impressive sight although the water temp was less aspiring with 9ºc on the bottom and an acceptable 13 for the decompression.

One of the logistical disadvantages of diving these waters and perhaps the answer to little diving activity at these amazing wrecks is the lack of marinas, harbor's and dive center's. With few shops accessible the charter has to be pretty much self-sufficient. Each evening Loyal Watcher would anchor in the bay of Portsalon, the vessels small inflatable acting as a ferry to and from the nearest Guinness sales point!
'Stories of Hidden Gold!'
The 14,892-ton white star liner 'Laurentic' lies in 40meters depth just 1½ mile from the entrance to Lough Swilly. Not only did the site provide a great opportunity to dive when things became a little rough the wreck also became a popular playground for a 2nd dive to end a great day. The wreck of Laurentic lies generally upright on a reef although numerous salvage attempts to recover a cargo of gold is clearly obvious, as the wreck first appears fairly well blown apart. Each hull has fallen out across the stone & gravel reef and six huge boilers form the highest point of the wreck, one of which has rolled to starboard although still remains in line as such. The diver will find three engines of interest one of piston design the others turbine, their prop shafts being broken in strategic sections and exposed which in turn aids way to the very stern, the props themselves having long since been salvaged. The ships ribbed construction is fairly obvious although there is a huge amount of steelwork, flanges and pipes present in which amongst remain four six inch guns at various locations. Each gun a seldom reminder of her wartime activity as are boxes of ammunition that litter the wreck. Laurentic's inshore location provides a much more emerald green water although visibility still remains excellent, well over 20m!
During our entire stay on no occasion was there need for a torch, even at depths of 70m! Ambient light alone was impressively sufficient.

Laurentic is also home to a wide range of marine life, Pollock, pout and cookoo wrasse swim aimlessly around bollards while lobster and crab have found home to several ceramic toilets. Interestingly enough as with other wrecks in the location the bow provides the most impressive section of wreck, cut clean off aft of her fo'c'sle it remains lying to port and completely intact. Remember not all of Laurentic's gold was recovered a teasing thought as one pokes around this interesting wreck! Each day as I swam with my camera I was quite jealous of my colleagues making the most of the wreck with their DPV's, even at 170m in length they each managed to circumnavigate the wreck several times although I did move hastily from their path on more than one occasion!

Laurentics fabulous intact bow click to see a larger image, depth here is only 140ft.

Loyal watchers fast on board compressor made light work of cylinder filling each day even with two dives and I did find that the ultra long filling whips saved the painstaking task of dragging twin sets to the fill point. Boarding the vessel after each dive I simply retired to my chosen bench where my equipment remained until the next. Climbing the ladder was also made easy as the crew, including the engineer and Greg your friendly chief, are always on standby to recover side mounted decompression cylinders, cameras and of course those dam scooters! Watchers accommodation comprises of 3 double birth cabins and a single 8 birth for the 'lads only' all with duvets and private reading lights, although a single shower on board did occasionally see an arguing queue!
'Awesome Audacious'
Located a distance of 20 miles from the Lough although still in view of Malin Head lies the wreck of 'HMS Audacious' a 23000-ton dreadnought battleship sunk in 1914 after sticking a mine. Her loss was a total embarrassment to the admiralty, the mighty Grand fleet in the nearby Lough Swilly rendered helpless as Titanic's passing sister 'Olympic' cast line and made all attempts to bring her to safety!

Diving on HMS Audacious at a depth of 215ft click here to see loads more about this wreck.

Like most battleships Audacious lies totally upside down although don't let this put you off because she is still a tremendous dive. The wreck stands proud 12-13m over again a sandy seabed of just 63m and with over 30m of visibility navigation is simple her stern being totally obvious with her triple screws shadowing the seabed against an intact rudder. From here as the divers heads south towards the bow across her keel they swim over an exposed engine room where turbine engines clearly show those close fitting blades of construction. Dropping down to the seabed her smaller barbettes and guns can be seen, as can huge 13.5inch projectiles that scatter the sand. This all seems ultimately impressing but not until you reach the forward twin gun turrets which although upside down are just an awesome reminder to turn of the century engineering.

As with most of these wrecks a visit to Audacious will require another and then yet another, without a scooter a swim along her entire length simply provides too much to take in. The bow is just as impressive with two extremely large anchors still within their hawsers and much machinery and portholes just lying there to see.
'Justicia'
Having doubled up on dives to these great wrecks, the week now growing old meant just three days left, but the best was yet to come. Our next dive would be so impressive that everything else that lay unexplored and close by including virgin liners and dozens of U-boats would have to wait for another year. The 'Justicia' a gigantic 32,234-ton white star liner in a depth of 70m was possibly the most impressive wreck any of us had dived since the Britannic project of 98! This wreck is worth taking a trimix qualification to see even if you never use trimix again! Blessed in almost 40m of viz with bright rays of sunshine this 230m long giant has to be the answer to wreck diving in the British Isle's.

Justicia was the 3rd largest liner sunk during the WW1 conflict and my top ten list of wreck dives had just been changed. Even 'RMS Lusitania' had taken a drop down the ranks to make way. Justicia lies fairly broken and listing to port some 21 miles north west of Malin head, infact on the very northern edge to the lost U-boats of 'Operation Deadlight'. Her bow just has to be seen to be believed intact with her safety rail still affixed she really throws out that Titanic feel accompanied by a huge housed anchor on the starboard side. As the diver swims over and down the foredeck they will see all her deck winch's anchor chains and capstans fitted to an intact deck as if the day she was lost. The bow is broken from the main wreckage and the diver is able to view within the decks below to see untouched hand lamps and machinery that once drove those huge capstans above.

Justicia's bow is truly an amazing sight as all will agree who have dived this wreck she rests on a clean seabed of 231ft.

Making your way from the fo'c'sle towards amidships 12 huge boilers can be seen in the distance, many donkey boilers lay beyond even further while a service tunnel runs the great length of the ship broken a strategic points and easily large enough for a tech diver to penetrate through if desired.

Divers make their way across the break between the boilers of Justicia

The bridge itself rests to port and her size though broken can easily be mistaken for the starboard hull! You will probably see more portholes windows and ventilation systems on this wreck than any others put together and like everything here they represent themselves on a large scale. During my 3 dives I personally never made it to the very stern with so much to photograph forded, my friends however again aboard scooters had the time of their lives easily circumnavigating the entire wreck. Their reports suggest, as expected, her port prop lies under the wreck, the center prop showing only its very blade end tips showing above the white sand while the starboard prop rises impressively high above the remaining wreckage.

We chose Deep Blue Diving for our charter whom accommodate up to 12 trimix divers with comfort and came away with a fabulous and memorable weeks diving with a vow to return soon. If you so wish Deep Blue can offer a variety of courses during your stay even up to trimix and rebreather diver. You can also book MV Salutay, which being another liveaboard vessel has worked the waters of Rathlin Island and Donegal for too many years to mention. Salutay's skipper Alan Wright himself an experienced trimix diver is an authority on local wrecks and can accommodate 8 fully kitted trimix divers.

Divers aboard Loyal Watcher prepare dive gear on route to the wreck of Justicia.

For more information contact either
Richard Stevenson click here >>
Deep Blue Diving www.deepbluediving.co.uk


Tel 01752 491490
Or alternatively
Salutay Diving www.salutay.com
Alan or Iris on 028 9181208

Technical diver training click here >>
About Technical Diving click here >>

©Leigh Bishop Jan 2002