The City of London
AKA the Ikeda
A bit about the wreck(s). Commonly thought to be two wrecks on one site, lying seven miles off Shoreham, the history isn't clear due to the mix up with which wrecks are located here. The main location is a wreck lying upside down at a maximum depth of 27 metres. There is a large amount of wreckage with various plates for fish to hide under. Her boilers are also quite clearly seen, as can a large part of the upside down hull. A very interesting dive.
We had had very calm weather all week and so we were hoping for good visibility.... We weren't disappointed. This was undoubtedly the best visibility of the year and probably one of the best dives.
As we were descending down the line we could see the wreck long before we hit the bottom. When we hit the bottom we were immediately engulfed by shoals of pollack and pouting.
There is plenty of wreckage to see and explore and simply looking under the steel plates would reveal lots of crabs, lobsters, a few huge ling. There is still large pieces to explore including a big piece of hull turned upside down. We also saw the boilers, capstans and a few other large pieces.
Unfortunately, as we had had such poor visibility over the last few weeks no one brought an underwater camera. For once we could have got some good shots. Ah well. Perhaps we can make do with the usual topside photographs
I really enjoyed this dive and it will certainly go into my top 10 UK dives |
