Just spent the last two days diving on Skin Deeper out of Weymouth. We dived the Avalanche on Wednesday. She was a three masted steel sailing ship and lies on a silty sea bed in 51m. She is very broken and at her highest point is about 6m proud of the sea bed. The wreck site is covered in bottles of all different shapes and sizes and masses of broken crockery all part of her cargo. She sank in 1877 after being involved in a collision with the boat Forest with the loss of all aboard. The wreck is covered in shoals of Pollack and numerous Lobsters that seemed to get bigger and bigger with each one we came across. Visibility was poor at 3-4m and very dark.
Today we dived the wreck of the Salsette one of the UK's most famous wreck dives and it did not disappoint. She was a P&O liner that once held the Blue Ribbon for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic but now lies on her port side in 46m. The shot line was just behind the the bow her anchors are still in place so we started here and then headed along her port railings down to the stern. Like the Avalanche she was covered in shoaling Pollack and some large Bass. We reached the stern after 25 minutes where her rudder casts a huge shadow the starboard prop is missing. We then finned up along the hull following a line of pristine port holes. The vis today was 6-8m. The Salsette sank in 1917 after being struck by a torpedo.
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