I wasn’t going to do a report of my dive today. Just a last quick dive on the Moldavia before I go away with the kids, booked by Mark Emery but when he couldn’t come Mark Powell said he fancied a fun dive.

Mark phoned me last night to check the forecast as it looked dodgy but Steve said come on down. So I picked Mark up in Guildford and we hit Brighton bright and early. Conditions looked good. Erm…. “That is because the wind is coming off the land” said Steve. “It will be different out at sea”. And it was – oh boy it was….. I don’t feel seasick (or at least I haven’t yet) but felt sorry for those who went green.

When we got to the site I didn’t need much encouragement to kit up though and Mark and I hit the water first as we had the longest possible runtime. I managed to get hung up on the trail line from the shot but Mark sorted this out and we descended.

Down, down, down and – there is the wreck. Hang on – we are only at 20 meters – the Mol is at least 40 to the deck….

WOW!!! Welcome to the channel’s version of the red sea – with a better wreck!

I’ve dived the Moldavia man times before but this time we could see the whole thing stretched out in front of us – and there is enough light to enjoy it all without a torch.. This is why I wanted to do UK trimix diving - better viz and better wrecks deeper but this is the first ‘WOW’ one I had done.

Mark was leading and found a neat but very long swim through which we entered and made our way along – past a toilet which made me think of the Thistlegorm…. To get back into open water we had to swim up vertically through a hole in the roof where I exited – dumping from the front dump of my wing – to find Mark sitting there taking the mick out of my vertical trim at this point. I responded in the appropriate manner!

Past the gun and down towards the bow where I amused Mark by swimming right out beyond the end of the wreck….. in order to turn back and do my ‘gaze and soak up the atmosphere’ bit. I had figured the Mol to be very broken down but the bow is still very intact and is massive – very impressive moment indeed.

Then in through another swim through – right by the bow. This, again, offered us a rather long penetration but I was reaching minimum gas and indicated to Mark that I would prefer to take an earlier exit a short way in.

Out on to the deck and we are surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of fish which we attack with our light beams as they are getting in the way of the wreck. I’ve lent Mark a Heser light for this dive as his primary had died and I turn to find he has deployed one of his back ups and is comparing the beams of the two. The sign he gave seemed to indicate that his is broken – which was odd as it appeared to be on ;o)

The Moldavia was a 9,505-ton liner generally employed on the London-Australia run before the war. In 1915, she was converted into an armed merchant cruiser. In May 1918, while carrying troops from Halifax, Nova Scotia to London, she was steaming down the east of the channel near Brighton and Littlehampton, escorted by a number of naval ships. On the early morning of May 23, the faint sound of ships' engines was heard and a submarine moved to investigate. In the faint dawn glow, he spotted the convoy and moved closer, slipping astern of the convoy, and remained on the surface until the last possible minute. Finally, he dived and lined up the cross hairs of his periscope before firing at the Moldavia.

She was struck amidships, but the damage did not initially seem serious, so the Moldavia continued steaming on her course. The crew were mustered to battle stations and all ten guns were manned, but there was no one to shoot at. She steamed on for another fifteen minutes and then slowly started to settle in the water. The escort ships immediately responded to the attack by laying depth charges and, finally satisfied that the U-boat was put down, returned to help the survivors. There had been a large complement of soldiers in the compartment behind the torpedo impact, and fifty-six died immediately. It only took twenty minutes for the liner to sink beneath the waves.

Today, the Moldavia lies approximately in the middle of the channel in up to 50 meters (165 feet) of water. She lies on her port side with her highest point starting at 28 meters (92 feet). She is an amazing sight to behold with some of her guns pointing towards the surface. Due to her location and the strong tides that wash over her, visibility is often in excess of 20 meters (amazing by UK standards); sitting on the stern, a diver can see one-third of the entire wreck. There were in excess of 1,000 portholes on this ship and many are still firmly stuck in place.

We make it back to the stern – that’s two and a half times the whole wreck in one dive – pretty much half of one length done inside as well. It’s time to go.

I call deco and, having discussed Mark’s views on deep stops, am toying with the idea of calling it slightly shallower than I normally would for his comfort. When we get to 36 metres I pause and realise that I can still see the wreck. That decides it for me – decoing in sight of the wreck after leaving it is to surreal for diving in the UK so I take us up to 33

My deco doesn’t break Mark – although it does bend his computer – and we surface with the sort of post dive grin I haven’t had since leaving Mexico behind. What a fantastic dive. Now we just have to get on the boat.  I figured that having to equalize my ears regularly on the 6 metre hang was we were moved around a great deal meant that the exit would be interesting – but I hadn’t figured on this.

Nauticat is a fair way away and isn’t moving towards us - doesn’t appear to be lifting divers either. I notice a trawler heading towards us and get a little bit concerned. I then realise that it isn’t a trawler – it is a container ship and it is a long way away – but closing fast on the position that Nauticat is in.  Steve is clearly and rightly protecting divers and we will be on our own until he is free to move. We turn and find Spartacat keeping watch on us – turns out that Steve is hanging by two of Spartacat’s divers and they are returning the favour.  Steve has to radio the ship to change course - wouldn’t want to get much closer than this.

Back on the boat for choccy biscuits for those of us who don’t feed the fish on the way home. Days like this is what we dive for…. What a wonderful hobby

The Merchant Royal is a large British cargo ship of 5000 tons lying South of Portland sunk as the result of a collision. Standing 11M high with her centre castle area largely intact she is still a recognisable ship with her bows broken off and amid ship and stern listing starboard. It is possible to go below seabed depth and reach 60M where there are apparently copper ingots that were missed by the salvage men. More realistic max depth is 56m to the seabed.

The Merchant Royal was a British Cargo Steamer, formerly known as the Goodwood. She was 5,008 tons, 416ft long and had a beam of 55ft. She was built in 1920 by J Redhead & Sons at Sunderland and was fitted with a huge Doxford triple-expansion three-cylinder steam engine. On the 3rd July 1946, carrying her cargo of steel and wood, she collided with another vessel and sank. Attempts to rescue her by tugs despatched from Portland were in vain. Settled on the bottom with a heavy list to starboard, her upper samson post came within within 18 metres of the surface on low water springs until demolition in 1969. She lies in about 57 metres of water with her bows blown off but her mid section and stern are upright, listing heavily to starboard. She stands approximately 15 metres tall and visibility is usually excellent.

Al and I decided to make the most of the conditions, which were pretty nice, to scooter the wreck. My stress levels which were already rising slightly at the prospect of my first multi gas scooter dive went into orbit when we were given the shout to kit up and I realised that my argon reg was not only not fitted to the cylinder but was at home in the shed (after removing it for a trip to Ireland). I resigned myself to not diving but then realised that I had a spare stage reg that I could attack and make do. Within two minutes work with a spanner and a donated blanking plug from Greg, I had a workable set up (albeit with a very large gauge for an argon bottle) and carried on kitting up. 

On reflection, I should have asked for our team to move down the running order as I was now very hot and bothered and breathing heavily. But we kept our slot and jumped in – thankful of the cold water. I was leading and enjoying the fact that we did not have to use the shot – just scootering forward to keep it in sight and descend. 

I got to about 30 metres and realised that I had quite a fuzzy head – given that I was diving 18/45 it was unlikely to be nitrogen narcosis and was more likely to be caused by CO2 from my rushing around on the surface. I carried on the descent concentrating on keeping my breathing relaxed and, at the bottom, signalled to Al that we should keep it slow and steady. I’ve been affected before and it usually clears quite quickly and after a while I felt a bit better so we both went on the trigger and went off around the wreck. 

We came across Brian and John Kendall in the water, John appeared to be videoing a large lobster. We headed up towards the bow and Al who was one at this point came off the trigger saying ‘woah’ I looked up and instantly did the same – the wreck at this point was intact and loomed up ahead of us in very dramatic style. 

We headed round the bow and came off the trigger again to hang and look at it (always a favourite part of the dive for me) but this time we started moving backwards instantly as fast as we had been moving forwards – the current had picked up big time but whilst on the scooters we hadn’t really noticed. I realised that I was still not 100 per cent and turned to Al to thumb the dive but his thumb was already up – time to go. Deco was uneventful apart from the fact that current and tide combination meant that Graeme the skipper had a hard job keeping all the teams in sight on deco – almost 1.5 miles from the wreck when finished.

Plans for diving this day were changed when the weather deteriorated and Graeme felt that he would get us a smoother ride out in a different direction than expected. The payback was getting to dive an unidentified wreck which has a great deal of potential for research in future if we are ever to work out how and why she came to rest there.

Fraser had joined us by this stage and we jumped in without scooters – the brief for this dive was to seek some form of identification and scooters would only hinder this aim. John Kendall was to take video and the rest of us would rummage. 

I really enjoyed this dive. We do know from artefacts already recovered (in association with the R.O.W) that the ship is likely to date from 1867 and she was a very large ocean going sail ship loaded to the gunnels with supplies. Fire bricks, pottery, buckles and musket balls, barrels of dynamite, millstones, bottles – many still with corks in – were in abundance. I found a perfect large white china bowl with a Staffordshire stamp but it was buried and removing it would have taken rather too long at 54 metres if I were to be careful enough not to damage it so I left it there for someone with more time.

I was leading and took us over a bit of the wreck which stood perhaps two meters proud. As I did so I noticed the largest conger eel I have ever seen, below me but looking straight at Al and Frase. I heard Fraser squeal (he said it was the helium) and Al laugh at this but noticed that Al changed course as well. 

The viz on this dive was stunning – the rocky bottom ensuring that we could see other teams working on distant areas of the wreck which was clearly large. We never found the anchors although Bob and Greg did – or the bell which has never been found. I, for one, would be very happy to go back to this one. She clearly has a tale to tell.

Conditions on deco were interesting and out came the wetnotes where I asked to pad deco at 6 fearful that we would not be able to do the slow ascent that is normally had built in to the O2 stop. Al and Frase agreed but as it was, conditions were OK up to about 1.5 metres and we were able to complete it without issue.

The USS Illinois (5225 tons) stands in 70 metres of water but stands up to 15 metres proud of the seabed in places. This huge American tanker built in 1912 is an incredible dive and has become a favourite with me already – I’ve heard it rated as the best in the English Channel.

Wey Chieftain skippered by Graham recovered the bell from eth Illinois ten years ago when the shot had fallen through the deck and landed next to it, presumably the bell had fallen through the same hole.    (It got Graham a fantastic reputatiuon as skipper - when he can put you straight on the bell like that!) I was diving with Andy.

On 18 March, 1917, Illinois was returning to Port Arthur in Texas in ballast. She was north-west of Cherbourg and about 20 miles north of Alderney, in the heart of the English Channel and effectively the centre of a war zone. At 7.45am, a German submarine was spotted about three miles away. The ship’s master, HH Iversen, watched it dive and hoped this would be the last they would see of it, but soon UC21 surfaced much closer, and Iversen was under fire.  Shells took out the wireless equipment and penetrated the engine-room, forcing the engineers to shut Illinois down. Iversen ordered his men to the boats. The German commander ordered Iversen’s boat to come alongside the U-boat.

Greg has forgotten his undersuit and socks. Grahame lends him a blue undersuit which makes him look like the missing tellietubby which Andy promptly christens Winkie Wanky - and socks are fashioned from a sheet and a roll of gaffer tape. 

We drop in and my first reaction is that the wreck is much more shallow than I figured as I can see her from 45 metres. I then realise that the viz is excellent and the dive is going to be great!

The decks are at about 57 so there is room for a shallower dive on her but I dropped down at the stern to see a trawler arm which had broken off and then followed the side of the wreck back towards the bow. The holds are huge and clearly worthy of inspection although I didn’t figure that three stages and video camera (not to mention a GUE instructor) would be very forgiving of my doing much more than looking in from outside.

I lead us up towards the bow and we made it there just as the current picked up again. A quick look at the anchor and then a drift dive back along the wreck where we hit 30 minutes on the bottom and it was sadly time to go. I made a mental note to go back as soon as possible although the wrecks’ off shore position makes this harder to do than I would like.  I run the deco and have some fun with Andy by stealing his bottom stage when he is not looking. He gets his own back of course – but it passes time and makes me laugh.  Great day, great dive! Oh yes -  we are in the shipping lance and we have some rather large and close neighbours!