Eastbourne Wreck Information

This is a section on wrecks off Eastbourneand general diving information for those wishing to dive out of Eastbourne.

1. General information

Soverign Harbour at Eastbourne is the home ground of Taurus, skippered by Steve Howland of Taurus Charters. There is ample free parking near the charter boat jetty. Gas is available from Planet Dive, 20 the Waterfront, Soverign Harbour, Eastbourne BN23 5UZ tel 01323 472126. They do air, nitrox and trimix fills.

2. Wrecks

There are hundreds of wrecks in the vicinity of Eastbourne, I will just list some I have dived. General diving information can be found in 'Dive Sussex' by Kendall McDonald, available from many dive shops in the UK.

SS Seaford

Lying 25 miles south of Beachy Head at 50 19 30N, 00 20E in between the shipping lanes, the SS Seaford is not an easy wreck to get to and is not listed in Dive Kent. However the viz that far out is usually good and the time I dived her (1/6/02) it was 15m and light enough not to need a torch.

In general depths of 45m, the Seaford is fairly broken, the highest part being midships which stands up about 5m. Here you can see the boiler under the overhang towards the bow, maybe 3m in diameter. forward of this the wreck is fairly broken. There are enormous congers to be spotted on this wreck, along with large crabs and lobsters. Towards the stern a large shoal of bib usually congregate in the current.

SS Persiana

About 6 miles from the Seaford at 50 27.358N, 00 16.034E is the Persiana, built in Hartlepool for the Furness Line and sunk in 1895 while carrying a cargo of (apparently) coal. The depth to the seabed is around 46m but you don't need to go there to have a good dive - the top of the decking is at 35m, where the shot will most likely be dropped. The decking is collapsed in many places allowing access to the holds below which can safely be explored much of the length of the ship due to plently of holes allowing daylight in (well at least when we dived it!). Heading towards the bow the wreck has collapsed inwards, and a large trawl net has snagged all the way across the wreck, catching crabs and several sizeable cod in it. Near the bow the ship's bell was recovered, thus clearly identifying the ship. As with the Seaford, the viz is often remarkably good this far out and we were able to see the whole deck from the 21m stop!