Wreck Diving in East Sussex

RMS Alaunia

The largest wreck on the entire Sussex coast, the RMS Alaunia was a Cunard Line ocean liner of over 13,000 tons — a ship built for the transatlantic run that could carry more than 2,000 passengers in an age when crossing by sea was the only option. In 1914 she made history as the first Cunard vessel to transport Canadian troops to the war in Europe. Two years later, outbound from London to New York on 19 October 1916, she struck a mine off the Royal Sovereign Lightship and went down with the loss of two crew. She now lies on her port side in around 36 metres off Eastbourne, her 159-metre hull standing 10 metres proud of the seabed in places. The bow cants at a dramatic 45-degree angle with the port anchor still hanging in its hawsehole, and rows of portholes remain in situ along the hull plating. It is a dive of genuine scale — a cathedral of riveted steel in the grey-green Channel water.