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North of Scotland Expedition 1999

« | The Ship | The Divers | The Journey | Saturday - Oban | Sunday - Skye | Monday - Stornoway | Tuesday - Scabster | Wednesday - Scapa Flow | Thursday - Scapa Flow | Friday - Scapa Flow | Saturday - Macduff | Sunday - Firth of Forth | »

The expedition schedule was to leave Oban on Saturday 29th May and steam up the West Coast of Scotland, round the top by way of the Orkney islands, then back down the East Coast to arrive in the Firth of Forth by Sunday 6th June.

The Ship

‘Jane R’ is a converted 73ft herring drifter which now operates as a live-aboard charter boat based in Oban and Scarborough.

The Divers

We were also joined by two divers from Scotland, James and Ellie.

Click images to see more photographs.

The Journey

An early start on the Friday morning saw most people arriving at the Firth of Forth mid-afternoon. The arrangement was to park the cars (courtesy of Clare Peddie, the Scottish regional coach) at the Firth of Forth, then pile all the gear into a transit van, passengers in a minibus and drive over to Oban. Everything went fairly smoothly (apart from the non-arrival of two divers – won’t mention their names but the expression "Keeping up with the Jones" comes to mind).

After a few pints in the local inn, we set off about 19:30 and finally arrived in Oban about 01:00.


Saturday 29th May – Oban to Skye

First dive of the holiday was on the Rondo. Halfway up the sound of Mull is a rocky promontory with a lighthouse on the end of it. Sure enough someone failed to avoid it and there is a large wreck lying down the side of the rock face. The stern is in 5 metres just below the lighthouse and the bows are down in 50 metres. Visibility was excellent, around 10-15 metres making it a great dive to start the holiday with.

As soon as we cleared the Sound of Mull, we picked up a strong North Easterly breeze making it difficult to dive. We headed of up the Sound of Sleat and went round the Eastern (sheltered) side of Skye. That night we anchored up in Kyle of Lochalsh.

Sunday 30th May – Skye to Outer Hebrides

During the Second World War HMS Port Napier was commissioned as a minelayer. When fully laden with mines a fire broke out on board and despite valiant efforts to put it out, it quickly got out of control. Fearing that the ship could easily take out half the town with it when it went up, it was quickly towed away into the Kyle of Lochalsh. This is where it now lies in 18 metres of water and makes a pleasant scenic dive. The ship is lying on its starboard side with lots of open areas to swim through.

Sunday was a glorious day, bright sunshine, flat sea and the scenery stupendous as we made our way up the Sound of Raasay.

The Nordhuk is a more modern wreck that went down in 1976. It is now completely smashed to pieces by winter storms and lies in 15-20 metres of water. We’re told the stern section is more intact in 28 metres, but no one found it. The visibility was excellent (15 metres) on a rocky seabed.

After that we continued steaming across the Minch, through the Shiant Islands and on to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides. We landed and then disaster struck – despite scouring the town not a single drinking establishment could be found despite the best local knowledge ("Yeer nay gwanna feend ennaweer oon a Soondy"). Thirsty and dejected we made our way back to the boat for some bevies aboard.

Monday 31st May – Stornaway to Scrabster

The plan was to dive on the Majorka, an old steamboat built in 1882 and sunk in 1917, now sitting in 50 metres and standing 4m proud. But it was not to be.

Just before we arrived from Brighton Gordon had taken delivering of a brand new cooker, now carefully installed in his redesigned galley. An early start was needed and Anton had volunteered to get up to help drive the boat. With Anton at the helm we left Stornoway. The wind steadily increased from the SouthWest and the boat started to pitch and roll, until a particularly large wave caught Anton off guard. Suddenly everyone was awakened to a mighty crash – plates were everywhere, everything went flying and Gordon’s new cooker lay in a heap upon the floor. So if you need your kitchen trashed Anton’s your man.

"Mayday, Mayday, Jane R, Jane R, fire on board, fire on board". Not really, but we did have quite a bit a smoke on board when Adam decided to dry out his brand new £50 a pair jeans over the engine. He now knows that the exhaust manifold is not a good drying rail, particularly if you prefer to wear jeans without scorch marks all down them. He wasn’t allowed to forget this in a hurry and for the next few days had to endure a stream of jeans related comments.

We battered our way across the Minch and round Cape Wrath where we hoped to pick up some shelter from the lee of the land. Not so – the wind increased still further and we decided to seek shelter in Loch Eriboll where we were able to stop for lunch.

We still hoped to dive if the wind let up, since there a number of sheltered inlets along this stretch of coast. But the wind kept up its howling so we crashed on and put into Scrabster (Thurso) for the night.

No diving, so to cheer ourselves up we cadged a lift from the local hotel, who had their own minibus and kindly offered to run us into Thurso, where we treated ourselves to a meal in the local Chinese restaurant.

Tuesday 1st June – Scrabster to Orkney

The weather forecast was promising strong winds from the NorthEast. This would rule out diving along the East Coast, but one place we could dive was in the sheltered waters of Scapa Flow in the Orkneys. So that’s where we headed. Scapa Flow is a huge natural harbour that has been used by the British Admiralty for many years as the home base for their northern fleets.

At the end of the Great War (1914-18) Germany surrendered and her entire high seas fleet of 74 ships was interned in Scapa Flow waiting for the armistice to be signed. Failure to reach an agreement by the armistice deadline would signal the resumption of hostilities. The ships had all been rendered inactive and were manned by skeleton German crews, so were totally ineffective as a fighting force. Fearing that an armistice agreement would not be reached and not wanting the ships to fall into the hands of the British the Germans made provisional plans to scuttle the fleet if agreement was not reached by the deadline. When the deadline came and went the German commander sent out the order and the entire fleet of battleships, cruisers and destroyers was sunk in Scapa Flow. Of course ‘unbeknown’ to the German commander the armistice deadline had been extended, but by then it was too late and the scuttled fleet was "left to rot" in Scapa Flow.

Between the wars the price of scrap metal rose considerably and large numbers of the ships were raised and towed away to be scrapped. Today there remain 3 great battleships (26,000 tons), 4 cruisers (5,000 tons), a destroyer and innumerable other vessels that for various reasons have ended their lives here. This is where we were to be diving for the next few days.

The first dive was on the Brummer – a fast mine laying cruiser, that could achieve 28 knots and spent much of her war years harrying the shipping between Great Britain and Norway. Today she’s in 30-35 metres and is typical of many of the WW1 wrecks. Lying fairly intact at 90 degrees to the vertical, massive guns on the decks and lots of deep dark holes to peer into.

The Karlsruhe saw action in 1917 in the conquest of the Baltic Islands. Another of the fast cruisers but unlike the Brummer this one has been extensively salvaged. The entire rear section has been blown apart, opening up large parts of the interior, which is scattered all over the seabed.

Wednesday 2nd June – Scapa Flow

The first battleship we dived was the Markgraf, which saw action in the battle of Jutland where she was hit many times by the British, but managed to survive. The pride of the German high seas fleet it is difficult to comprehend the sheer size of these ships – 575 feet long and a width of 97ft. The main armour plating is 14 inches thick and together with their awesome firepower of ten 12-inch guns, fourteen 5.9-inch guns, six 3.45-inch guns and four anti-aircraft guns she was a formidable fighting machine.

All the battleships turned turtle as they sank and the Markgraf now lies upside-down with the superstructure buried in the silty seabed. It’s about 25 metres to the upturned hull and 40-45 metres to the gunwales. A deep, dark but nonetheless awe inspiring dive.

Unfortunately for Tim this was also his last dive. One thing divers avoid like the plague is the possibility of getting a cold in the middle of a dive trip. For Tim it was too late and despite the best offerings of the local chemist was unable to shake it off by the end of the trip.

Second dive of the day was on the Dresden. Another of the light cruisers used as a minelayer during the war. She is largely intact and sits in 34 metres of water resting on her port side.

Highlight of the trip for Anton was the opportunity to dive with seals around the Barrel of Butter, a rocky island in the centre of flow. If you’re lucky these playful and inquisitive creatures will often come right up to you underwater and you can almost reach out and touch them as they glide past.

A persistent threat to the ships at anchor in the flow, was the possibility of a U-boat entering and being able to torpedo them. To counter this threat the Admiralty arranged for a number of old, damaged and disused ships to be sunk across the various channels to effectively block them. The Gobernador Bories was a 2,300 ton iron steamer, sunk as one of these blockships across the entrance to Burra sound. At slack water she makes an interesting scenic dive with lots of marine life in depths of 15-18 metres.

Thursday 3rd June – Scapa Flow

The plan was to dive the Kronprinz Wilhelm, another of the huge battleships. A ship the size of a football pitch and still Gordon (our worthy skipper) managed to miss it. After much heated debate we decided the wreck we had actually dived was the Markgraf, the same one we had dived yesterday. The clincher being the presence of a vacuum cleaner on it! However these ships are so huge that you could dive them a dozen times and still leave huge sections unexplored.

The F2 was a German 2nd World War escort vessel, similar to a destroyer. She sank at her moorings near Lyness in 1946. Since then she has been extensively salvaged, the rear end is an unrecognisable tangle of pipes, plates and debris, but the bow section is still relatively intact. This was to be our second dive of the day. A small group asked if they could be dropped off nearby to do a rummage dive amongst the old mooring grounds. In the event both pairs drifted towards the F2 and effectively did two dives in one.

Friday 4th June – Scapa to Macduff

Finally a favourable weather forecast – best time to leave Scapa Flow and head off across the Pentland Firth was midday, just enough time for a couple of early morning dives.

First dive of the day was on the real Kronprinz Wilhelm battleship. Not as deep as the Markgraf allowing more time to explore. Salvage over the years has opened up a number of interesting holes to peer into and look around.

This was followed by a dive on the U116. A U-boat that tried to sneak its way into the Flow but didn’t make it. Now fairly broken up in 25-30 metres, but an enjoyable dive nonetheless.

The rest of the day was spent steaming. A long journey but it was alleviated somewhat when we got buzzed by an RAF Nimrod aircraft. Five passes it made, low over the boat before heading off into the North sea. Then half hour later it reappeared and made two more passes across the boat before heading back to land. By late evening we had arrived at the small port of Macduff. Time for a few beers and something to eat before retiring for the night.

Saturday 5th June – Macduff to Firth of Forth

The final leg and lots of steaming to do. We left harbour at 05:00 and starting making our way eastwards along the coast, round Kinnairds Head, round Rattray Head and then south-west towards Peterhead. By early afternoon we’d past Aberdeen and people started looking at the possibility of a final dive en route. We still had a lot of steaming to do to reach Anstruther, so a plan was formulated to put into Montrose, which is much closer. The drivers could then arrange a taxi to pick them up from the dock, drive down to Anstruther and bring the cars back. We could then load up and head home first thing Sunday morning.

Change of plan. A local dive boat reported poor visibility i.e. "less than zero". So Gordon suggested a different wreck, an armed trawler that was shallower and should have better visibility.

Change of plan. With the tide running, the prospect of a deep, dark dive with a struggle to keep on the wreck didn’t sound too inviting. General consensus was to knock the dive on the head and steam straight to Montrose.

Change of plan. If we’re not diving and with the tide running with us we’ll be able to reach Anstruther tonight, pick up the cars, load up and be ready to leave first thing in the morning. So we headed for Anstruther.

Change of plan. The skipper was concerned that there may not be sufficient depth in Anstruther and that we should be better putting into Pittaween. So we headed for Pittaween.

Change of plan. By the time we get Pittaween it will be too late to pick up the cars. Tell you what let’s not make any plans and then we wont have to keep changing them!

We finally made it to Pittaween at 10:00 pm and caught a cab into town to find something to eat. All went fine till we tried to book a cab to take us home, only to be told there would be an hour and a half wait. So a final change of plan. We persuaded the local restaurant owner to drive us out to the farm where our cars were parked, back to the restaurant to pick up passengers and back to the boat.

Sunday 6th June – Firth of Forth to Brighton

A 6:00 am wakeup call and then it was all hands to help with the unloading of the boat and packing the gear into the cars. Most people got away by 7:00 am and we headed for home.

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