wreck

Log This Dive

VIRGINIA ROSE

The Virginia Rose offers a completely different vibe to the German High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow. This isn’t about colossal dreadnoughts and their wartime stories. Instead, we have a fishing vessel, relatively small at just over 20 metres, but with a surprising amount of character for its size. She went down in 1981, not far from Wick, while under tow. The warp tangled, she rolled, and down she went. Six crew rescued, thankfully, but it left us with a fantastic dive. Lying at a maximum depth of 54 metres, often deeper depending on the tide, the Virginia Rose is for experienced cold-water wreck divers comfortable with technical profiles. We love the way she sits upright, almost perfectly intact on the seabed. You can see the trawler’s stern, the gantry still in place, the wheelhouse surprisingly well-preserved. It’s a proper snapshot of a working boat, frozen in time. Inside, if you’re properly equipped and trained for penetration, the wheelhouse offers a glimpse of controls and instruments. Outside, the decks are now a textured carpet of plumose anemones, and you’ll often find wrasse poking around the shadows. The visibility can be excellent here, making the descent into the deep blue a real treat, but always be prepared for the chill. This is Scapa Flow, after all.