Ore Wreck – Wessex Archaeological Society
Report by Andrew Hubbard
A leisurely 9am start loading the boat, breakfast at the Boathouse, neaps to die for and a hot sunny day promised a perfect diving day only slightly impaired by a stiff breeze and moderate sea. Bryan and Olivia formed the first wave and reported that the shot was dropped right next to the engine of the Ore Wreck, great vis, very little current and huge amounts of life! It was looking better all the time!
Jenny, Stuart and Andrew went in as the second wave (to save their dignity we’ll pass over Stuart’s entanglement in the jockey line and Bryan’s unscheduled tumble overboard trying to untie him, leaving Olivia – the only non boat handler in the party – as the surprised skipper of the boat!) for what I think was the best South Coast dive for years. 6m vis, no current to speak of and huge amounts of life everywhere – massive shoals of Bib and whiting, lots of other large wrasse, loads of lobsters, crabs and congers everywhere we looked, Tompot bennies (of course!), Light Bulb sea squirts, fan worms, Ross Coral and 2 large, friendly cuttlefish to name but some of it. And all in less than 18m of water.
We also found a very large lost boat anchor and a shot weight with a (split) lifting bag attached. We clipped the anchor to our shot to recover later. After an hour it was time to head back up the shot. Once in the boat we found that the shot and anchor had become firmly wedged in the wreck but a quick bounce dive by Bryan soon had everything heading for the surface like a Polaris rocket, followed by Bryan at a more textbook pace. If the diving keeps up like this it will be a very good year.
