What
The Saint Dunstan is a 200-foot steel bucket dredger. She has an unusual layout with the boiler and engines right in the bow. She was powered by two triple expansion steam engines, which also drove the bucket chain used for dredging. At the stern was a large mast used to support the boom carrying the buckets used for dredging. She had a large hold with doors at the bottom for carrying the dredged material.
She was built in 1894 by Lobnitz Coulborn & Co as yard number 420. No photographs or plans are known to exist.
Where
On September 23rd 1917 she was on route from Portsmouth to Pembroke when after rounding the Bill she was hit by a large explosion on her port side. She quickly settled onto her port side and started sinking, unable to launch the one remaining lifeboat the crew abandoned ship by jumping over the side. They were quickly picked up by the escorting trawlers 273 Fort Albert and 615 Horatio. It was soon discovered that two men were missing, but before they could be found the St Dunstan capsized and her boilers exploded.
Five mines were later discovered in the area, thought to have been laid by a u-boat, UC21. It is widely reported the St Dunstan was working as a minesweeper when she sank. This is very unlikely to be true as minesweepers at the time where normally shallow draft and made of wood. The St Dunstan was made of steel and was probably fairly deep drafted.
Today she lies upside down in 29 meters of water, the seabed is sand and gravel so the visibility can be good on here. The bow stands about 8 meters proud of the seabed.
She is 12 miles North west of Portland Bill, 20 miles from Weymouth, but the long trip of around 2 ½ hours into West Bay is worth it, as the visibility in this area is often better than east of Portland. For Ribs the nearest launch is West Bexington, hard boats from Weymouth or Portland. Closer still from West Bay or Lyme Regis.
GPS approx 50 38.27 'N 02 41.98. On the Admiralty charts she is the wreck marked at the edge of the no anchoring/fishing block just south east of Bridport. Highest point marked as 20.5 meters.
The Dive
Following the shot line down towards the wreck the first thing that comes into sight is a huge school of Bib and Pollock, this school of fish covers the wreck, parting slowly to allow divers to pass. The shot is normally dropped by the engine room, the hull plating has fallen away here allowing some good swim thoughs. One on dive my buddy was swimming between the engines when a huge conger eel followed him, he had a big shock as he turned around to check on me, instead coming face to face with the eel. I was hanging around outside laughing like the good buddy that I am. The Engines are remarkably intact, although stripped of brass work. Between the engines is a pair of large wheels, these are the reversing wheels, used to reverse the engines in order to go astern. On one dive my buddy spent about five minutes miming to me what they where. I had no idea what he was on about so just nodded and gave an ok sign, at the surface he explained and it became obvious. In the smaller holes in the engines are normally some small conger. The monster conger lives between the boilers.
Immediately in front of the engines are the boilers. The boiler room can be enter by a hole low down next to the sea bed on the starboard side about five meters back from the bow. Visible in the boiler room are brass water level gauges. Swimming around the bow are usually lots of Bib and Pollock, peer in the holes in the hull plating for Conger and more Bib. In shallow dips in the seabed can sometimes be seen Ling. Immediately behind the engine room are a set of large cogwheels, these where used to drive the large chain of buckets used for dredging. From here to the stern the wreck is more broken up. The chain of buckets can be followed backwards to a large mast lying on the seabed. Follow this back to the stern, complete with large winches and huge amounts of anchor chain. As a dredger she would have been moored bow and stern when working.
The stern is twisted and is lying on its side. Half buried in the seabed are the two props lying on top of each other with one rudder in plain view. Each blade of the props is about five foot long, which still did not stop Paul from missing them completely when I was making propellers signs, he was looking confused signing where. Eventually he spotted the huge things next to him. In the past there has been a John Dorey hanging around near the props. From the props you can follow the prop shafts back to the engine room, or better still follow the broken hull. There are some large hinges and doors here that opened to allow the sediment she dredged to be dumped out at sea. I have seen candy stripped flat worms here, and have also been chased by a lion's main jellyfish. It took me a while to realize that it thought my torch was the sun and was swimming towards it. This is also a good place to send up a buoy and head for a cup of tea on the boat. On one dive I managed to complete mess up this simple task. I somehow managed to get the loop of the DSMB attached to my crotch strap, luckily I noticed this prior to inflating otherwise I would have been shooting to the surface crotch first.
In summary the St Dunstan is a good wreck teeming with life. The engine room gives good swim thoughs that do not need any line laying. She is about the right size to see completely on one dive, but I still keep going back for more.
Other links
http://www.liddiard.demon.co.uk/photoix/stdunstan/stdunstan.htm
Or
http://www.divernet.com/wrecks/wtour400602.htm
Report written by Gavin Bashford.