City of Brisbane
Some background to the wreck. It was sunk one and a half miles south-southwest of Newhaven on 14 August 1918. Originally Built in 1918 by Swan Hunter & Wigham of Newcastle upon Tyne and owned by Ellerman Lines. This steel steamship was on a voyage from London to Buenos Aires. She was 137m long and had a three-cylinder triple-expansion engine. The City of Brisbane had left London and was making her way down the Channel when one of the lookouts suddenly shouted that he could see the wake of a torpedo. Within moments the Brisbane had been struck and the whole of the ship's port side imploded, leaving the engine room wide open to the sea.
Within minutes, the stern of the vessel was on the sea bed, and the master hurriedly ordered the crew to the lifeboats. All hands managed to get clear of the vessel. Thirty minutes later they watched the ship sink. A torpedo fired from UB-57 had inflicted the deadly blow.
The Dive After a fantastic weather all week, and reports coming into the dive centre, we were expecting a good day's diving with good visibility, we weren't disappointed. It was up to 10m in places! and was probably the best this year.
With such good visibility it would also be good for photographs. As you may know my camera is still flooded and I haven't got a replacement yet, nevertheless my understudy - David did manage to get some good photographs. We saw large shoals of Pout and Pollack with a few sea bass thrown in. We also saw a few huge spider crabs and some large lobsters, a huge lobster was brought up to show people before being returned to the sea. It was so big I couldn't get may hands around its head !! I have dived the Brisbane many times but it has usually been a fairly dark dive. With such good visibility and light, it was easy to make out some of the features of the wreck. We saw a few large capstans, ventilation funnels, obviously the boilers, along with detailed sections of the superstructure. It was very easy to see the sides of the ship as it rose out of the sea. I know this is one of the "standard" South Coast dives but it really is worth diving several times as there is plenty to see.
The second dive was the gulleys. The tide was obviously turning and so this was a fairly strong drift. The visibility was still very good and it was a light and pleasant dive. There is plenty to see on such reefs though there are not as many shoaling fish as you can find on the wrecks. We were still able to see some tiny pout which appeared to be in small shoals - it is likely that this is a breeding area for these fish. We also saw a cuttle fish which is very unusual at this time of year. We also saw a small angler fish which is the first time I have ever seen one. They are a bit like a stonefish you would see in the Red Sea and as you can guess they are well camouflaged. All in all a very pleasant days diving.
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