wreck

Log This Dive

ELMCREST (POSSIBLY)

The Elmcrest wreck, sitting at 54 metres, is a serious dive for those with the training to get there. We’re talking about a significant piece of history here, a steamship torpedoed in 1940. When you descend, the sheer scale of her hull, 115 metres long, slowly emerges from the gloom. It’s a vast, dark shape, often swathed in a shifting tapestry of current-borne plankton. We love the fact that she’s relatively intact for a wreck of her age and depth. You can often make out the triple expansion engine, a hulking mass of metal that speaks volumes about the power that once drove her. Around the superstructure, conger eels find perfect ambush points, and if you bring a good torch, you'll pick out plumose anemones clinging to every surface, waving gently in the surge. This isn't a quick dip; it’s a commitment, a journey into the past, best suited for experienced technical divers comfortable with deeper, colder water and the strong currents that often sweep through this part of the Channel. Dive it on a slack tide, if you can time it right, and the visibility really improves.