Wreck Diving in Dorset
5 diveable wrecks in Dorset, United Kingdom. Depths range from 8–35m.
HMS M2
There is truly nothing else like HMS M2 anywhere in the world. Originally completed in 1919 as a submarine monitor carrying a massive 12-inch gun, she was converted in 1927 into the world's first undersea aircraft carrier, fitted with a watertight hangar and catapult for a tiny Parnall Peto floatplane. On 26 January 1932, during a routine exercise off Portland, water flooded through the hangar and she went down with all 60 hands. The salvage investigation found those hangar doors standing open — a haunting detail that has fuelled debate ever since. She rests upright and intact at around 33 metres in Lyme Bay, her 90-metre hull still unmistakably that of a submarine, the cylindrical hangar forward of the conning tower instantly recognisable. As a designated war grave she demands the utmost respect, but for those qualified to make the dive, she offers a genuinely unique encounter with a one-of-a-kind vessel.
MV Aeolian Sky
At 148 metres and nearly 11,000 GRT, the Aeolian Sky is one of the largest diveable wrecks off the Dorset coast — a modern freighter whose size dwarfs the elderly steamers that litter the surrounding seabed. She was barely a year old when fog and misfortune conspired against her in November 1979: a collision with the German coaster Anna Knueppell off Guernsey, a desperate attempt to reach Portland, and then the storm that finished her five miles south of St Aldhelm's Head. Lying on her port side between 18 and 30 metres, she offers a dive of genuine scale — four cavernous holds, imposing cargo derricks, and a stern superstructure that still reads as a functioning ship. Salvage charges reduced her height somewhat, but the intact sections retain an architectural quality that smaller wrecks simply cannot replicate. Moderate currents demand careful planning, but the reward is a dive that feels truly immersive.
SS Kyarra
No wreck off the English coast has welcomed more divers than the Kyarra. Built on the Clyde in 1903 as a luxury liner for the Australian run, she carried 286 passengers in considerable comfort before the Great War requisitioned her as a hospital ship tasked with evacuating wounded troops. On 26 May 1918, heading for Plymouth to collect a thousand injured Australians, a torpedo from UB-57 struck amidships and sent her to the bottom a mile off Anvil Point. Six men died. Discovered in the late 1960s and now owned by Kingston and Elmbridge BSAC, she lies between 18 and 30 metres in waters that regularly deliver good Dorset visibility. Thousands of divers visit each year, yet her 127-metre hull absorbs the traffic easily. The boilers, engine room and stern section are highlights, and the marine life — from nudibranchs to cuttlefish — is outstanding for a Channel wreck.
SS Moidart
The Moidart's story is one of the most harrowing of the U-boat war. On 9 June 1918, this schooner-rigged steamer was carrying 1,550 tons of Welsh coal and 80 tons of steel plates from Cardiff to Le Havre when UC-77's torpedo struck to starboard near the stern gun. She went down by the stern in less than sixty seconds — so violently fast that not a single lifeboat could be launched. Fifteen of her twenty-one crew perished, many trapped below or thrown into the water alongside the ship. Only six men survived. She rests at 33 metres in Lyme Bay with her bow pointing just east of north, a sombre but compelling dive that puts you face to face with the human cost of unrestricted submarine warfare. The depth and exposed position demand respect, but for advanced divers comfortable in these conditions, the Moidart is a powerful experience.
Valentine Tanks (Operation Smash)
Resting in the shallow waters of Studland Bay lie seven Valentine infantry tanks — silent witnesses to the deadly rehearsals that preceded D-Day. In April 1944, during the top-secret Exercise "Operation Smash," these tanks were testing duplex-drive swimming modifications that would allow armour to float ashore on the Normandy beaches. The trials went tragically wrong: all seven sank, and six soldiers lost their lives. Today the tanks sit between 8 and 16 metres, encrusted with marine growth and surrounded by an ecosystem that has made them its own. Two are permanently buoyed and spaced roughly five metres apart, making them easy to locate. As a Scheduled Ancient Monument, the site carries strict legal protections — look but do not touch. For divers of any level, swimming alongside these D-Day training relics is a moving and accessible encounter with one of the war's lesser-known tragedies.