Shallow Wrecks (under 20 m)

Skipper Albert Heywood was bringing the steam trawler Daily Mail home to Fleetwood, her hold packed with fish, when she ran onto Crammag Head on a foggy night in May 1931. She had been built for the Boston Deep Sea Fishing & Ice Company. Her SOS brought a second trawler, the Tranquil, which took off all 14 men. Salvors made a start on her, but bad weather battered the hull further until refloating her no longer made economic sense. What is left of the Daily Mail is strewn among big boulders and rocks in the shallows of Portencorkie Bay.

The Glenann went back to an old name before she took her last one: launched at Belfast as Theme, she became Volante and then Cultra, was Theme once more, and was renamed Glenann when the Antrim Iron Ore Company of Belfast bought her. Steam-driven and built of iron, she was bound from Belfast to Glasgow with empty holds to collect a cargo when fog put her ashore near Kilmory, on Arran's southern shore. The sea was calm, her crew got to land unaided, and as she lay almost undamaged along the beach there was hope of refloating her. Before the tug Strongbow could do so the weather turned, waves broke over her and flooded her holds, and within days she was plainly a total loss. Much of her has been salvaged since, but her propeller, rudder, shaft and pieces of frame and plating remain on the sand off Torrylinn beach.

The disaster was raised in the House of Commons. On 28 January 1894, the three-masted iron-clad barque Port Yarrock -- carrying refined copper ore worth GBP 100,000 from the US to Cobh -- was driven onto Kilcummin strand in Brandon Bay after dragging her anchors for over a week in a disabled state. All 20 British and Scandinavian crew perished; seven bodies were never recovered. The Court of Inquiry blamed the managing owner, Robert John Rowat, for allowing the ship to sail short-handed and for failing to send instructions to move her to safety. An anchor and centenary memorial stone placed in 1994 stand on shore above Kilcummin strand. Very shallow shore exploration in the Maharees area.

A severe gale was blowing on the night of November 17th, 1993, when the big factory ship Borodinskoye Polye went hard aground on Unicorn Reef, close to Lerwick. Lerwick's lifeboat, the Soldian, put out quickly with Coxswain Peter Thomson in command, and pilot vessels and a Coastguard helicopter joined her. Seventy-four crew had to be taken off a ship that was rolling on the rocks in dreadful conditions. Every one of them was brought to safety, through the work of Thomson, his lifeboat crew and the men of the helicopter. Afterwards, questions were asked about whether similar vessels working in the area were fit for sea. Because the ship had substantial quantities of oil aboard, an expensive operation followed to stop it harming the environment. Her remains, largely underwater and spread across the reef, still lie in shallow water at Unicorn Reef, where the grounding happened.

The Penola began life in France as the fishing schooner Alcyon, built by E. Bonne of Kerity in 1908, and later became a private yacht named Navaho. In 1934 John Rymill of Penola Station, South Australia, bought her for his expedition to Graham Land in Antarctica; her hull was strengthened, twin diesel engines were fitted and she took the name of his home. After the expedition, which was based on the Falkland Islands, she came back to Britain and was bought by the Vyner family, who used her to carry grain between Isle Martin in Loch Broom and Liverpool. Sailing up the Clyde, she collided with another vessel off Toward Point and, taking in water, was beached just west of the light, while her crew reached land in their lifeboat. She settled upright but later broke up, and engine parts and a section of keel have been found in shallow water close by.

In Scapa Flow's eastern approaches the third Churchill Barrier crosses East Weddell Sound, and the Gartmore lies a short swim off its northern shore in three to five metres of water — shallow enough to snorkel, close enough to walk in. She was already thirty-five years old and on her third name when the Admiralty bought her: launched on the Tyne as the Bedford in 1879, she became the Castilla, then the Gartmore, and on 14 September 1914 she was run into the sound and scuttled to help close an eastern approach the war had just exposed. She did not stay whole. Swimming west off the barrier you meet a large winch gear and a section of ladder, then the rudder and a single blade of a part-buried propeller; beyond them a long run of hull plating still encasing the propeller shaft lies north–south and comparatively intact, and further west again the crankshaft sits exposed on rock and sand. The remains are well dispersed rather than wrecked in one piece, but for a cargo steamer of 1845 tons there is a great deal of her left to find.

The scuttling of the Empire Seaman in 1940 significantly contributed to the wartime defences in Scapa Flow, serving as a blockship to protect the naval base. Originally built in 1922 as the SS Morea for a German company, she was captured by the British in 1940 and repurposed. Her loss as a blockship marked a strategic move in the region's defence efforts during World War II. Today, the wreck lies in East Weddel Sound, with machinery and structural remnants still visible. Although extensively salvaged, notable features like the propeller shaft and sections of the mast remain. The wreck lies beside the Barrier, with parts visible above water at low tide.

Somewhere in six metres of water off Hook Head, walrus tusks may still lie among the wreckage. The SV Royal Arthur ran aground in 1850 carrying this unusual cargo, and while tusks have been found over the years, some are thought to remain hidden in the scattered debris on the west side of the peninsula. A unique combination of historical curiosity and natural spectacle.

The firing charge failed. Clio (II) had been brought to one of Scapa Flow's eastern approaches on 27 February 1915 to be sunk across it as a blockship; her anchors were let go in preparation, the charge did not fire, and she dragged east and settled in the channel where she blocked nothing. The Admiralty report survives, but she was marked only on the drawing of the blockships as sunk, never added to the chart, and afterwards vanished from the record — she is still routinely confused with Clio (I), scuttled in Water Sound the previous April. The 70-metre iron hull, built at Kinghorn in 1873, lies in about seven metres on sand and rock. The stern is scattered across a skerry, though shaft, rudder and a large winch are identifiable. The bow is the best of her: three metres proud, listing to port, with anchor chain still running from the starboard hawse pipe.

Workman, Clark & Co. Ltd. of Belfast launched this steamship in 1904 as the Matatua, and in 1928 she took the name Ilsenstein. She had been sold for scrap by 1939, but the Admiralty requisitioned her instead and, during 1940, sank her deliberately in Skerry Sound, Scapa Flow, as a blockship in place of the SS Cape Ortegal. A survey in 2013 found much of her hull buried in sand. She lies north to south beside Barrier 2, only partly exposed: the bow rises prominently from the seabed, while sand has largely covered the stern. A large triple expansion engine and several boilers can still be picked out among the remains, despite the years.

Dredging work in 1990 uncovered the Swash Channel Wreck outside Poole Harbour: an armed merchantman of the early 17th century, thought to be a Dutch vessel some 40 metres long, which had run aground on a sandbank. She is now an important archaeological site, with about 40% of her port side surviving. Lying in the English Channel off Dorset, she is protected for her historical importance. Part of her is still buried, and the uncovered sections are open to erosion and to wood-boring organisms. Bournemouth University and Wessex Archaeology have studied her in depth, and the finds include ornate carvings, ceramics and personal belongings that shed light on how she was built and on life aboard.

Ordered by John Kelly Limited of Belfast and launched by Scott & Sons of Bowling in 1917, the 632-ton Claremorris was taken straight into Royal Navy service and handed back to her owners at the end of 1918. In peacetime she traded regularly between Northern Ireland and the coasts of south-west Scotland and northern England. Bound from Dundalk to Ardrossan in December 1924, she was driven ashore by heavy seas below Corsewall Point and wedged between rocks at March Point. Her lamp trimmer, James Thomson, climbed down to the rocks to fetch help and was swept away; his body came ashore days later and was taken home to Northern Ireland. Alerted by her horn, a farmer and his neighbours got a line aboard, and the ten other crew reached land. Her remains in Redstone Cove are heavily broken and cemented into the rocky seabed, engine room seaward and bow in the shallows.

The SS Almeria was surveyed as part of the Scapa Flow 2013 Marine Archaeology Survey, revealing her condition and features. Originally built by Laing James & Sons Ltd. in Sunderland, she was a British steamship with a length of 89.3 metres and a beam of 11.6 metres. Initially launched as SS Patapsco, she underwent several name changes and ownership transfers before being purchased by the Admiralty in 1914. Intended as an accommodation ship, she was scuttled as a blockship in Skerry Sound in 1915. Today, the Almeria lies partially broken in Scapa Flow, with her stern section intermingling with the wrecks of SS Ilsenstein and SS Emerald Wings. Notable features include her propeller, triple expansion engine, and boilers. Although broken, sections of the hull remain upright, with the stern standing about 4 metres above the seabed.

The loss of the Wendela had significant financial implications for the Danish East India Company, which was already struggling in its early years. The Wendela, a Danish East Indiaman, was carrying a valuable cargo, including silver bars and coins, from Copenhagen to Tranquebar in 1737 when she disappeared. Her loss was first indicated by debris and bodies found along the coast of Unst, and she was confirmed wrecked at East Fetlar. The wreck site, scattered among rocks, contained remnants of her cargo, including coins and metal. Despite salvage efforts, much of her treasure remained unrecovered. In 1971, a modern investigation found debris and a few silver coins, but the site remains largely unexplored. The Wendela's remains are scattered, and the exact amount of treasure still on the seabed is unknown.

A long insurance dispute between the parties involved is the reason the Captayannis was never salvaged, even though much of her hull stands clear of the water in a shallow part of the Clyde. The Greek-registered motor ship, built in Denmark as the Norden, had brought sugar from Lourenco Marques and lay at anchor off the Tail of the Bank when a severe gale set her dragging. Before her engines could take her clear she was driven across the anchor chain of the BP tanker British Light, which tore open her port side. Flooding brought a list and a total loss of power, and she grounded on a sandbank between Greenock and Helensburgh; her crew, the captain among them, were taken off without injury. She rests on her port side, substantially intact, her starboard flank rising above the surface and heavily marked by seabirds.

Members of Irvine Sub-Aqua Club settled a long confusion over the Marjorie Seed in 1987, when they found a maker's plate on the nearby Ahdeek, which had been taken for her, and a bell inscribed Westhampton on her own remains. Westhampton was the name she was launched under at Sunderland; she later sailed as Elli, Amphion and Baron Cathcart before the Seed Shipping Company of Newcastle bought her. Bound from Rothesay Dock for Huelva with coal and coke, she struck Lady Isle at its north eastern point in clear, calm weather, and no adequate explanation of the error was ever given. Hopes of refloating her ended after a week of south westerly gales, and a later inspection found her port side holed, keel buckled and stern post broken. Salvors stripped her over the following years, and her broken plates and girders now lie scattered over rock and shingle.

Scott & Company of Bowling launched the Garnet in 1889 for the fleet of William Robertson, and with her triple expansion steam engine she traded around the British Isles. On 2nd April 1890 she went onto the rocks in thick fog near Cardrain Farm, west of the Mull of Galloway. When Captain Johnstone and a Lloyd's agent reached her she was damaged and partly under water, and the man from the Glasgow Salvage Association judged her beyond saving. She was put up for auction by mid-April. Her remains are still at Carrickamickie Point, scattered on a rocky bottom in a gully about 10 metres deep among kelp and big boulders.

In 1947 Dublin badly needed food. That winter was the worst anyone could remember, with weeks of freezing weather, snowstorms and drifts. On 4 March the Norwegian motor vessel Bolivar was crossing the Irish Sea, carrying grain and supplies from Uruguay that the city sorely lacked, when a blinding snowstorm came down and she ran onto the Kish Bank sandbank. Efforts to get her off failed, she broke in two, and all of her crew were rescued. Her engine room was salvaged, and in 1948 explosives were used to disperse part of the wreck because she endangered shipping. What remains lies in 4-10 metres of water in two sections about 150 metres apart, and as the sands of the Kish Bank move they cover some parts and uncover others.

Seawater had got into the Braer's diesel fuel, and when her engines failed in 1993 the tanker went ashore at Garths Ness, Shetland. Oshima Shipbuilding Company had built her in 1975, and she had 85,000 tonnes of crude oil on board; the damage to the coast turned out less severe than feared, because strong winds and heavy seas broke the oil up. At Garths Ness she has since been broken up and flattened in less than 10 metres of water, and hardly anything of her can now be recognised.

The inquiry held at Stranraer after the Princess Royal was lost cleared her master, Captain McChlery, but the Privy Council for Trade disagreed with its finding. It faulted him for steaming at 14 knots through thick fog near the land and for relying on a newly adjusted compass, and although he kept his master's certificate he was made to bear the cost of his own defence. An iron paddle steamer built by Tod & MacGregor of Glasgow in 1841, she was bound from Liverpool to Greenock in 1856 when she struck Craig Laggan Rocks south of Corsewall Point in fog. Everyone aboard got ashore, and the steamer Herald carried them on to Greenock. Salvors recovered most of her general cargo, but weeks of bad weather broke her in two and she was declared a total wreck. Parts of her paddle box frames remain on the east side of the rocks.

The SS Emerald Wings is notable for her mast and bow sections, which remain visible above the waterline at all tides in Skerry Sound, Scapa Flow. Originally built in 1920 as the SS Depute Pierre Goujon for the French government, she changed hands several times before being renamed Emerald Wings in 1936. In 1940, she was requisitioned by the British Admiralty and scuttled as a blockship. Today, her remains are scattered across the seabed, with features like her boilers, triple expansion engine, and propeller shaft still identifiable. Her anchor, winch and sections of her stern also survive.

Few wrecks carry the emotional weight of the Rohilla. This Harland & Wolff-built liner had been requisitioned as a hospital ship just weeks into the First World War and was steaming south from Scotland to collect wounded soldiers from France when a northeast gale drove her onto Whitby Rock in the early hours of 30 October 1914. With shore lights blacked out for wartime, her crew never saw the reef. What followed was a three-day rescue drama that gripped the nation — lifeboats launching repeatedly into mountainous seas, spectators lining the cliffs, and 83 lives lost despite extraordinary courage from the rescuers. Most of the dead were doctors and nurses. The site is a war grave. At low spring tides, structural remains break the surface — a stark reminder visible to anyone walking the coastal path above.

Forget the trawler wreckage for a moment. What makes this site extraordinary is what lies alongside it -- an interconnected cavern system beneath the Hook Head promontory, lit by shafts of sunlight streaming through blowholes above. The site is shallow and reached from the shore, and tidal currents run there. Easily combined with the nearby SV Royal Arthur site.

The Scapa Flow 2013 Marine Archaeology Survey, funded by Historic Scotland, recorded the Aorangi by side-scan sonar as a hull roughly 109 metres long, bow to the southeast, with four boilers rising about 4 metres from the seabed as her highest point. She was a steel steamship of 117 metres, built at Glasgow by John Elder & Co in 1883 for the New Zealand Shipping Company, and later passed to the Union Steamship Company. In 1915 the Admiralty took her for use as a blockship and scuttled her in Kirk Sound against the stern of the Numidian. When the sound was reopened in 1920 she was refloated and shifted to where she now lies. Recorded on the remains are a steering arm and rudder post at the stern, sections of fallen mast with a crow's nest, a donkey boiler and wooden decking at the bow; her engine and propeller shaft are gone.

Lying in 9 to 12 metres of water off Bracklesham Bay, HMS A1 holds a unique place in British naval history: she was the very first submarine designed and built in this country for the Royal Navy. Constructed by Vickers in 1903, she had already survived one sinking — a collision with SS Berwick Castle in 1904 that killed eleven crew before she was raised — when she was repurposed as an unmanned torpedo target. In August 1911, operating on automatic pilot, she sank for good off Selsey Bill. Tidal currents slowly dragged her five miles along the seabed to her present position. The hull is virtually intact, with the bow standing proud while the stern disappears beneath a sandbank.

Beneath the sheltered waters of Bantry Bay lies one of the most archaeologically significant wrecks in Ireland -- a French frigate scuttled during the failed 1796-97 expedition to support Irish rebellion against British rule. La Surveillante went down on 2 January 1797 after her crew chose scuttling over capture by the Royal Navy. Lost for nearly two centuries, the wreck was identified in 1981 during marine surveys following the Whiddy Island oil terminal disaster, and confirmed in 1997 when the ship's bell was located. Preservation is exceptional: the wreck survives from the orlop deck down to the copper-sheathed keelson, with the entire site contained within just 50 by 25 metres. A nationally protected monument (NMS Wreck Number W08507), diving requires prior permission from authorities.

Hollywood came calling for this wreck. The MV Ranga, a 1,586-tonne container ship, was driven onto the rocks at Dunmore Head near Coumeenole Beach on the Dingle Peninsula on 11 March 1982 after losing power in a severe storm -- on her maiden voyage under her new name. All fifteen crew were rescued, some by breeches buoy rigged by Dingle Fire Brigade, the rest by RAF helicopter. Captain Miguel Angel Diaz Madariaga was the last to leave. The ship split in two. In 1991, the stern section with superstructure was hauled away for the filming of Far and Away starring Tom Cruise.

Ayrshire Dockyard Co Ltd built the steel steamer Arran III in 1926 for Clyde Cargo Steamers Ltd, and for years she was a regular caller at the harbours and island piers of the Firth of Clyde. She was coming from Ardrishaig, loaded with empty beer bottles, when a south-easterly gale drove her onto Sgeir Leathann near Barmore Island. A tug was sent to help, but she had been badly holed, and as the tide came in she slid off into deeper water and her crew had to leave her. Much of her was salvaged afterwards. What remains lies broken on her port side on the rocky bottom, the stern at 12 metres and the bow at 5 metres; parts of the stern, the keel and the main ribs survive, along with some of her cargo.

R Dunston Ltd built the steel motor fishing vessel Grayfish in 1960, and she was run by the Huxley Fishing Co Ltd of Lowestoft. By 1973 she had found work in the Shetlands as a standby vessel for the oil rigs. Her radar was faulty when she made for Lerwick on 21 December that year, and thick fog closed in, leaving her crew all but blind. Without realising it the skipper strayed off course, and she struck an offshore reef. Luck was with them: she fetched up near Point of Pundsta, just fifty yards out, close enough for coast rescue teams from Lerwick and Sandwick to reach her with little trouble and land all five men safely. There were hopes at first of refloating her, but heavy weather soon reduced the Grayfish to a total wreck. Her remains lie broken among the rocks on the North Sea shore there, some of them above the low-water mark and some below it.

Blown up to disperse her fuel oil, the wreck of Switha stood above the surface off Herwit Rock, at the south-east corner of Inchkeith, for years before she broke up and disappeared beneath the water around 2001. She had been a steam-powered fisheries patrol vessel driven by a triple-expansion engine, transferred to the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland in 1971, renamed Switha and based at Leith. Returning there at the end of a sixteen-day patrol, she met a Force 9 gale and a heavy swell on her approach to the dock gates and ran hard aground. A Coastguard helicopter lifted thirteen of the twenty-five men aboard; tugs could not move her and pumps could not keep pace with the water flooding her holed hull. Scattered metal remains in the shallows off the rocks, showing at exceptionally low spring tides.

Twenty-seven men left the stranded Paulina in two lifeboats, one under her master, Captain Rosales, and the other under the first mate. The mate brought his thirteen men ashore in Dally Bay at first light, while the captain's boat drifted for eight hours until the steamer Cairo picked them up. A Spanish steamer of 2,672 tons gross, built at Middlesbrough by Raylton Dixon and Company in 1909, she had been carrying iron ore from Santander to Troon when dense fog closed in off Black Head and she ran ashore at the north end of the bay. Lloyd's agent at Stranraer reported her hull buckling over the following days, and she seems to have been given up as a total loss. Salvage later removed much of her; what remains lies scattered among rocks and sand, her engine and boilers still standing clear of the seabed.

The loss of the steamship Oswald in 1894 was a significant maritime disaster along the Galloway coast, part of a devastating storm that wrecked multiple vessels. The Oswald, a Whitby-registered iron steamship built in 1890, was travelling from Londonderry to Cardiff when she was driven ashore by the storm. Her reduced draught, as she was in ballast, rendered her propeller and rudder ineffective, leading to her being uncontrollable in the severe weather. The wreck was discovered near Port Gill, identified by debris bearing her name. Today, the remains lie in shallow water in the Solway Firth, with only part of the boiler still visible above the seabed. The site experiences strong tidal currents, which can affect conditions around the wreck.

The Strathtay, a steam trawler built by Hall Russell and Co Ltd in 1891, was lost with all nine crew members during a severe storm in February 1900. Departing from Aberdeen on 9th February, she headed towards the fishing grounds off Shetland. Tragically, none of her crew survived the storm, and no confirmed sightings of the vessel were made after her departure. A trawler was seen from Sumburgh Lighthouse attempting to anchor during the storm, but distress flares were the last signs before she vanished. The wreck, now scattered on a rocky seabed, includes her engine, anchor, and a spare propeller. The remains lie in the North Sea, near the southern tip of Scatness, in a condition described as scattered.

The figurehead known on Yell as the White Wife came ashore months after the Bohus was lost, and islanders set her on the headland above the wreck as a memorial; restored and long repainted by East Yell folk, she was later moved to the Old Haa Museum at Burravoe. Built at Alloa in 1892 by Grangemouth Dockyard Co. as the Bertha, the iron barque was serving as a German sail training ship when she left Gothenburg in ballast for Chile in 1924 with a crew made up largely of cadets, plus a stowaway. A navigational error put her far off course, and in a storm she was driven broadside onto the Ness of Queyon and broke up. Local men got a line aboard and brought many ashore, but four died, among them the cadet Josef Anton Eberth after he had saved four shipmates. Iron ribs, winches and an anchor lie scattered in the shallows.

The Cragsman, a small steamship built in 1903, was owned by John Kennedy and Sons Ltd and registered in Glasgow. On a voyage from Glasgow to Liverpool in November 1913, she faced a dire situation. After springing a leak off Portpatrick, the crew was unable to manage the incoming water, leading to the extinguishing of her boiler fire. As she drifted uncontrollably in stormy conditions, the eight crew members abandoned ship and successfully rowed to safety at West Tarbet Bay. The Cragsman, left partially submerged near Crammag Head, was battered by westerly gales and declared a total loss. Today, her remains are scattered across a rocky slope in the Solway Firth. Notable features include her boilers and remnants of her granite cargo, which lie among the wreckage in a scattered condition.

The Admiralty first feared a U-boat, then concluded that a cordite fire had reached HMS Natal's magazine, the same kind of explosion that destroyed other British warships at anchor during the war. On 30 December 1915 the Second Cruiser Squadron's armoured cruiser lay at anchor off Cromarty, wives and children aboard for Captain Eric Back's film show, when fire broke out and her magazines blew up. She capsized almost at once, with heavy loss of life; tugs and warships pulled more than 300 men from the water. Her upturned hull stayed in the firth for the rest of the war, and salvage went on into the late 1970s. Her scattered remains lie in about 15 metres, marked by a buoy.

The explosion of HMS Princess Irene on 27 May 1915 occurred during World War I. The disaster, which claimed 352 lives, highlighted the dangers of handling explosives and prompted investigations into potential sabotage, although no evidence of foul play was found. The ship, originally an ocean liner built by William Denny and Brothers Ltd in 1914, was converted into an auxiliary minelayer for the Royal Navy. While being loaded with mines in the Medway Estuary, she exploded, scattering debris over a wide area and causing additional casualties onshore. Today, the wreck of the Princess Irene lies scattered on the seabed of the North Sea, near Sheerness, Kent.

Her masts still break the surface. In the channel between Bere Island and the mainland at Castletownbere, the MV Bardini Reefer sits almost complete in just 15 metres of water -- masts protruding above the waterline, making the wreck impossible to miss. This 3,976 GRT Panamanian factory fishing vessel caught fire while at anchor in Bantry Bay and burned for three days before sinking on 15 December 1982. All crew were rescued by local boats. Gentle currents in the sheltered harbour have encouraged dense marine growth on the superstructure.

Captain Tolson and 18 men rowed 12 miles to Killiney Bay. Every one of them made it. On 13 January 1876, their ship -- the 478 GRT iron merchant steamer SS Vesper, laden with 620 tons of coal and sugar bound from Glasgow to Dunkirk -- had run aground on the Kish Bank and broken in two. Built by Courlay Bros of Dundee in 1865 for Huntley & Berner of Glasgow, the Vesper now lies at an estimated 10-15 metres on the shallow bank, approximately 11 kilometres off the Dublin coast. A protected archaeological site with LIVE status, the wreck provides a welcome oasis of marine life on the otherwise featureless sandy bank.

Blennies peer out from every crevice of the Nellie, a Dutch trawler that foundered at the Sovereign Islands near Kinsale in the 1960s. Accounts of her loss do not agree: one puts it down to a storm on the Liverpool-to-Cork run, while another says nobody died. She lies at approximately 15 metres off the southern side of Big Sovereign island, her decks tilted and her masts rusting in turquoise water full of marine life.

The loss of the Jasper had a significant impact due to the disappearance of her entire crew. This tragic event occurred after she ran aground near the Isle of Whithorn in thick fog, leading to her eventual sinking in Portyerrock Bay. The steamship, built by Thomas Seath and Co Ltd., was carrying a cargo of steel rails from Workington to Glasgow when she met her fate. Despite her captain's familiarity with the route, the fog led to navigational errors, causing the ship to strike rocks and lose her rudder and propeller. Today, the wreck lies in the Solway Firth, with her shape still recognisable. Notable features such as her boilers and propeller remain visible; strong tidal currents and silt are reported at the site.

The Rath Connla, a fishing trawler that sank at moorings in 2007, sits intact at just 16 metres in the calm, current-free waters of Killary Harbour. A mooring buoy attached to her bow makes the wreck easy to find. Anemones, scallops, tube worms, and whelks have colonised every surface -- a microcosm of the rich invertebrate life found throughout Ireland's only fjord. The sheltered setting provides minimal current and calm conditions year-round. Scubadive West in Renvyle is the local operator.

Of all the ships lost close to the shore along Anglesey's west coast, none was bigger than the Missouri. A Warren Line steamer rigged as a barque, she was driven onto the beach at Porth Dafarch by a blizzard in March 1886, laden with a cargo as varied as a Victorian general store's stock: live cattle, thousands of bales of cotton, sacks of flour, hides and palm oil. She lies in two main sections spread across the bay, the forward part in the middle and the stern pressed hard against the cliffs on the western side, none of it deeper than 14 metres. Around them is the debris field of a ship of more than 5,000 tons.

The Samson is a 55-metre Maltese crane barge that washed ashore at Ram Head, Ardmore, during a south-easterly gale on 12 December 1987 while being towed from Liverpool to Malta. The towline parted off the Welsh coast and could not be reconnected. The crew of two were rescued by RAF helicopter from Brawdy. Despite questions in Dail Eireann about removing the wreck, it was never salvaged. In April 2016 the entire crane jib collapsed into the sea, adding to the underwater wreckage.

When the order came to open the seacocks on 21 June 1919, British sailors boarded this torpedo boat destroyer and ran her aground before she could sink. Ernest Cox later pressed her into service during his audacious campaign to raise the battleship Hindenburg, and an unsuccessful attempt to refloat her in 1926 left her where she sits today — upright on a gentle slope, broken into two halves. The bow section is fragmented in about eight metres; the stern sits more recognisably in 15 to 16. There is rarely any current, and the maximum depth barely troubles a single-cylinder pony bottle.

Seven Valentine infantry tanks lie in the shallow waters of Studland Bay, left behind by the deadly rehearsals for D-Day. They went down in April 1944 during the top-secret Exercise "Operation Smash", when duplex-drive swimming modifications were on trial so that armour could float in to the Normandy beaches. The trials ended in tragedy: every one of the seven tanks sank, and six soldiers were killed. The tanks rest between 8 and 16 metres, crusted over with marine growth, and the sea life living around them has claimed them as its own. Two carry permanent buoys and are spaced roughly five metres apart. The site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument with strict legal protections, so nothing on it may be touched. These training relics belong to one of the lesser-known tragedies of the war.

On her maiden voyage, the RMS Tayleur was betrayed by her own construction: the iron of her hull threw her compasses out. Built in 1853, she was the largest iron clipper of her kind, and she sailed from Liverpool for Melbourne with over 650 people on board. Fog and a storm closed around her inside 48 hours. Her crew thought their course lay south down the Irish Sea, when in truth she was running west, directly at Lambay Island. A rudder too small for the ship and rigging that had never been stretched properly left her no escape, and on 21 January 1854 she hit the rocks; over 370 people died. Her remains lie at 9-17 metres in Tayleur Bay: hull plates, a donkey engine, the lower mast, crockery, roof tiles and even tombstones carried as cargo. She is a protected wreck: it is against the law to dive on her unless the Office of Public Works has first given its permission.

Captain E. Manning, a seasoned master of sailing ships, was on his first trip down the Clyde in charge of a steamer when the Baron Glamis, a steel steamship launched at Port Glasgow in 1894, left Glasgow for Buenos Aires in January 1903 with coal, wood and bricks. In fog near Corsewall Point she struck the rocks by Laggan Beacon and held fast. The rocket brigade and the Portpatrick lifeboat came out, and her crew of twenty-five were taken off as the wind rose. Three days later she broke in two amidships and was lost. Her remains lie well broken north-east of the beacon on rock and sand, with the stern section the most complete part and cargo remains among the wreckage.

A winter storm took the F2 to the bottom of Scapa Flow on 30 December 1946, more than a year after the war she had been designed for was over; she never fired a shot there. She was a Geleiteboot, an escort boat, and one of ten experimental ships given high-pressure Brown-Boveri turbines. Those temperamental engines could push her to 28 knots, but they also earned her a name for mechanical misery. In 1938 she was lengthened by four metres and given a new job recovering torpedoes. After her surrender to the Royal Navy in 1945, she was towed north to Scapa. Her stern rests upright in 16 to 18 metres, while the forward section lies listing on its side. A 30-metre line joins her to the salvage barge YC21, which went down close by in 1968 during an attempt to scrap her, and a 20mm gun taken off the F2 finished up aboard the barge: a small absurdity that ties the two wrecks together.

The court-martial records have disappeared. The curse story has not. HMS Wasp was a Banterer-class gunboat ordered to assist in forcible evictions on Inishtrahull Island, north of Malin Head. According to Tory Island folklore, islanders "turned" a cursing stone against the ship. On 22 September 1884, running under sail with an inexperienced officer at the wheel and insufficient boiler pressure to manoeuvre, the Wasp ran onto rocks at the base of the Tory Island lighthouse, killing 50 of her 56 crew. The official verdict: navigational error. But the inquiry records have since vanished, and theories of sabotage persist.

Chased by a U-boat, a Chinese crew made a desperate choice. In 1917, while evading a German submarine near the Saltee Islands, the SS Lennox struck rocks behind Great Saltee Island and went down. Her Chinese crew swam to the island and then onward to Kilmore -- all surviving. The broken wreckage lies at 10-18 metres in sheltered water behind Great Saltee, marked by a buoy. The bow is still recognisable, pointing seaward, and a three-cylinder engine is visible among the wreckage. Conger eels inhabit the broken structure.

The Dakotian's end came with shocking speed. A Heinkel 111H bomber dropped a parachute magnetic mine into Milford Haven in November 1940, and when it detonated against the anchored cargo steamer she went down in barely three minutes — one of the earliest parachute mine casualties in Welsh waters. What the site lacks in crystal water it makes up for in atmosphere: swimming along a 120-metre hull canted on its beam ends, knowing how suddenly and violently her war ended, gives the Dakotian a sombre character that clear-water wrecks sometimes lack.

The wreck of the steamship Austria underscored the necessity for improved navigational aids in the Firth of Clyde. Austria, built by H S Edwards and Sons and launched in 1884, was on a voyage from Fuime to Glasgow when she ran aground due to navigational errors by her captain and second mate. The subsequent inquiry led to the suspension of their master's certificates. The wreck, heavily salvaged and broken, lies scattered off the south coast of Ailsa Craig. While her remains are identifiable, the exact extent of the wreckage is uncertain, with debris found at varying depths. The site includes remnants of her cargo.

The Ben May is notable for her final resting place in East Tarbet Bay, where she lies in a sheltered area at a depth of 20 metres. Originally built as the Ready, she underwent several ownership changes before being renamed Ben May by the Ramsey Steamship Co Ltd. On 14th November 1938, while transporting coal from Workington to Dundrum, the Ben May sprang a leak north of the Isle of Man. Despite the crew's efforts to manage the situation, the vessel was abandoned near the Mull of Galloway. The crew safely reached shore, aided by a motorboat from Drummore. Today, her remains lie well broken on a sandy seabed, with her anchor, mast and remnants of her cargo.

Captain Byrne, bringing the Duke of Edinburgh up the Firth of Clyde from Dublin in fog with thirty passengers, cattle and general cargo, took a fog bank on his port bow for Ailsa Craig and turned to starboard, only to run at thirteen knots into a second bank that hid the island itself. She struck its western shore so hard that more than half her length came to rest above high water. Vessels that heard the crash came to help, her crew calmed the passengers, and everyone aboard, the cattle included, was carried to the mainland. Already an unlucky ship, wrecked on her maiden voyage as the Earl of Dublin and rebuilt by Harland & Wolff, she resisted every attempt to haul her off until a south-westerly gale broke her in two amidships. Hull plates and ribs lying off Ailsa Craig may be hers, but nothing found there has confirmed it.

What people remember about the Elinor Viking is the rescue. John Lewis and Sons Ltd built her in 1974, a British diesel trawler that fished the waters around Shetland, and in a storm she was driven onto the rocks of Vee Skerries, leaving her men in real danger. A British Airways helicopter crew, brought together on the spur of the moment, flew out into the severe weather and, in spite of the conditions, lifted the trawlermen to safety on their winch. Afterwards the trawler slid off the rocks and was a total wreck. Her remains lie along the eastern side of Reaerach, one of the reefs, and no recent reports describe their state.

She struck Howth Head once. Backed off. Then struck again beneath the Baily Lighthouse and sank in fifteen minutes. On the night of 14 February 1853, the paddle steamer PS Queen Victoria -- built in 1838 for the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company's Dublin-Liverpool mail route -- departed Liverpool with approximately 100 passengers into a snowstorm. Around 02:00 on the 15th she hit the headland. Captain Jones tried to make harbour, but the damage was catastrophic. Dead in the water and filling fast, the ship drifted and struck a second time. Around 83 people perished including the captain. One lifeboat, carrying 17 survivors, reached shore. The Board of Trade blamed the captain, first officer, and lighthouse crew. The wreck lies at approximately 18-20 metres south of the Baily Lighthouse. Permit required to dive.

The Pionersk was a Soviet fish factory ship of 12,639 tons gross, 165.5 metres long, launched at Gdansk in 1963 and owned by Zapbrya. Ships of her kind, known in Shetland as Klondykers, lay at anchor offshore for weeks so that Russian trawlers could land their catch for processing without the long run home. She was moored off Bressay awaiting the fleet when a force 10 gale parted her lines and drove her ashore on the Ness of Trebister, south of Lerwick. The Lerwick lifeboat and a helicopter brought her whole crew safely to land. Oil from her tanks fouled the coast and fed island demands for tighter checks on such ships. She stayed on the rocks for nearly three months before a storm broke her up; her stern is the most intact part of the wreckage.

No ship afloat was bigger than the RMS Celtic when she took to the water in 1901. Harland and Wolff built her in Belfast for the White Star Line, the first of the quartet that became known as the Big Four, and at 20,904 GRT and more than 700 feet long she was the first vessel ever to pass 20,000 gross tons, outstripping even the SS Great Eastern. She met an undignified end on 10 December 1928: waiting off Cobh for a harbour pilot, she was blown onto the rocks at Roches Point. Caught on Cow-and-Calf Rock, she was pounded by the sea until her structure gave way, and within a week she had been written off as a total loss. The Danish firm Petersen and Albeck bought her and broke her up where she lay, finishing by 1933. In November 1929 hydrogen sulphide given off by her rotting cargo killed four of the men working on her. Pieces of her ended up in homes around Cork, and only sparse wreckage is left, in 10-20 metres.

Copper ingots weighing 40 kilograms each -- some are still down there, visible but stubbornly immovable. The SS Oswestry was a 2,419-ton steel steamship wrecked in fog on the north side of Mizen Head on 12 March 1899, carrying cotton, deal, Indian maize, and valuable lead and copper bars worth approximately 250,000 euros in modern terms. Captain Wilson and all 24 crew were saved by locals. The wreck at 15-20 metres is wedged against a towering rock stack 500 metres north of Mizen Head, making it easy to find. Sometimes mistakenly called the Irada, which was actually a different ship wrecked at Mizen Head in 1908. Built in 1888 by E. Withy & Co., West Hartlepool.

A Greek steamer laden with Black Sea grain, the Spyridion Vagliano met the same fate as so many vessels on the Manacles — a navigational miscalculation that put her squarely onto Maen Voes on a February night in 1890. Fourteen of her twenty-two crew were lost to the freezing water. She now lies close to the more famous Mohegan, reachable by following a south-west compass bearing from that wreck down to around 18 metres. What sets her apart is the boiler: with its outer casing long since rotted away, the internal tube structure is exposed in unusual detail, offering a cross-section lesson in Victorian marine engineering. In summer the wreckage disappears under dense kelp, so spring and autumn visits tend to reward with clearer views.