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HMS JANUS

The HMS Janus, sitting at 35 metres, is a real favourite of ours in the Bay of Naples. It’s not just a wreck; it’s a piece of history ripped apart. Torpedoed by a German dive-bomber off Anzio in 1944, the ship split in two, and you feel that violent end when you descend. The stern section, in particular, is a dramatic sight, rearing up from the seabed. We love the sheer scale of the debris field. Twisted metal plates lie scattered amongst the wreckage, home to some surprisingly robust Mediterranean life. Look for schools of glinting damselfish darting through the fractured hull, and we’ve often spotted conger eels peeking from beneath plates of steel. The bow section is more broken, but gives a real sense of the ship’s size, at over 100 metres long originally. Visibility here can be excellent, particularly outside the busiest summer months. We always suggest trying to hit it on a calm morning; the light filtering down onto the metal is something else. It’s a dive for those who appreciate wrecks with a story, and who are comfortable navigating larger, broken structures.