It has been a really top class year for wreck diving off the North coast with at least 7 new wrecks been dived between the two local boats Rosguill (Veronica, Saint Germain, Santa Amalia and now HMS Hurst Castle) and DiveNorth (Englishman). And we can’t really forget the classic raid done by the Dark Star boys on the Empress of Britain.
For the last number of years, we have talked about the Hurst Castle which was reported to have sunk in an area north of Tory Island. The Rosguill had searched the area a number of times over the past number of years to no avail. In the past number of weeks Michael the skipper of Rosguill had come across some updated positions which looked to be in the general area were the Hurst Castle was reported to have sunk. With the weather being poor over the last few weeks, it looked extremely likely that the search for the Hurst Castle would have to wait another year at least. Saturday was the last official day of the Rosguill’s season with the boat coming out of the water early this week. While talking with Michael early last week, the only possible day to head out and check out the new marks was Yesterday, Sunday but with the weather forecasting gales, the possibility of getting out was slim. We decided to hold off making a final decision until as late as possible on Saturday night.
At around 8:00 armed with the latest forecast from Windguru, we made the call to head out at least see if we could locate the wreck. It called for an early 5:00 am start from Dublin to get up the road in time for the departure of Rosguill. I was met at the pontoon in Mevagh Boat Yard by Kevin and Eoin and a very excited skipper…On the way out, Michael received another phone call with more possible wreck locations all within the same search area. Expectations were high at finding at least something as we headed out into the westerly swells.
We arrived on-site at around 12 pm and started to search each mark, one at a time. We had pinned most of our hopes on finding it within a large cluster of marks to the north end of the search area. One by one, we ticked off the marks as flat seabed. While travelling between two of the marks, Michael’s keen eye spotted a large shoal of fish and a very faint raise in the seabed. We done a few quick passes of the area gain and found figured it was a 0.5 m to 1.0 m high wreck, no more than 40 m long. We marked it down and moved on as this wasn’t what we were looking for. We searched for about 3 hrs in total finding no more possible wrecks. Moral on the boat was very low as it had been a long day, with no sign of the Hurst Castle.
Seeing as we were on-site and had all the dive gear setup, we decided to get in and at least try and ID the small wreck we had located earlier I our search. We believed it to be a small wooden fishing boat given its size and profile. As we had missed slack now by about 2 hrs, it was really a day for the scooter to get down the shot. As I descended, I wasn’t overly excited as I half expecting to find rock waiting to greet me at the bottom. Was the shot weight came into view on the bottom, I seen it had snagged onto a large piece of metal plate. This wasn’t a wooden fishing boat for sure… Following the time honored tradition of going left at the bottom of shot (The only guaranteed way of finding the bow on any wreck Note: This has to be updated annually), I scootered over the sand and came across the main wreck after about 15 m. The first item that came into view was the large gun mount for a 4” gun and then just beyond it was the very unmistakable sight of a Squid Anti-submarine Mortar sitting perfect upright on intake on the seabed. At this point, I think the boat on the surface nearly heard me shouting for joy… This was the HMS Hurst Castle…
I scootered up around what remains of the bow, with the starboard anchor still in place. I then scootered down the starboard size and found a large pile of 4” shells and further on piles of what looked to me like torpedoes (these are likely Hedgehog Anti-submarine Projectiles) and a number of wooden ammunition boxes.
The wreck itself is very narrow, only about 10-11 m wide at most. As I moved astern, I came across the large engines and what looked like condensers. Behind this, was just random wreckage, with no sign of the stern where the torpedo is reported to have struck. I could see a number of circular gun mounts lying randomly around the wreck.
Following the skippers strick instructions to not 'Do NOT do the Dog on it' I done another lap of the wreck to confirm its layout in my headed back towards the shot. After about 27 mins on the bottom, it was time to head back up and start my do my 2hrs of deco. The wreck is well broken up and only comes up about 3 m to 4 m off the seabed. It is sitting nearly upright, and is no more than 50 m long. A lot of the superstructure has been dragged off by fishing trawlers, with a very large debris field off the port side.
When Michael, our faithful skipper was told that we had dived the Hurst Castle, he done his now fames gig around the deck of Rosguill. It is great to see how much it meant to him to find one of the last remaining undiscovered HMS's off the North coast. The plan would have to be to return to this wreck next summer and hopefully take some video / photographs and to perhaps place a fitting tribute on her in memory of the men who lost their lives.
Thanks again for Michael (
www.rosguill.com), Kevin and Eoin for a great days diving and a really unforgettable end to the years wreck diving for me.
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