White Star Liner SS Afric

We dived the SS Afric today a White Star Liner 26 miles out from Plymouth. After Sundays dive was cancelled due to the strong winds I was pleased to see a fairly calm Plymouth sound as I dropped down the hill that leads to Fort Bovisand. There were 8 of us on the boat and we loaded quickly so we could get underway, the trip out to the site took around 2.5 hours. On arrival Danny (our skipper) spent a little time to study the layout of the wreck as we wanted the shotline around the stern of the wreck. The shot was dropped and the divers 2 by 2 dropped into the water. I was the last one of the boat and quickly dropped down the line through the different levels of water clarity until I reached the bottom in 75m. On the bottom I had caught up with the 2 pairs of divers who descended before me, one pair had clipped on their reel and were already leaving the line and heading towards the stern. To save time attaching my reel I decided to follow along their line. We quickly came to the stern where her 2 large props sit either side of the rudder that is still turned to port (left) where her crew had tried to avoid the torpedo that sunk her. I swam over the prop shaft and around the back of the rudder then ascended up and over the stern to the deck. The wreck is sitting on her starboard (right) side so swimming over her port side railings you are looking down her wooden deck into the gloom and back towards the seabed. The wreck is in excellent condition but covered in fishing nets and is very similar to the Armenian which I dived on Friday. The pair of divers I was following decided to head back to the shot having not laid my own line I was now stuffed I could either continue and risk not getting back to the shot or cut my dive time short and follow them back, I chose the later as I had already racked up 60 minutes of decompression time. The trip back up the line was uneventful but long. Another cracking dive racked up and one that I will be visiting again soon.