View Full Version : diving the wallachia
hi, all has anyone any info on diving the wallachia? i,m hoping to dive it this sunday . high slack i am aware its dark .the last time the club tried to dive it .it was an awful day so we binned it.
bubblemaker
26-08-06, 00:32
no idea... i have a couple of log book entries of 'near the wallachia' !!!
email Ding about it.. he's done it more than a couple of times.
hi, all has anyone any info on diving the wallachia? i,m hoping to dive it this sunday . high slack i am aware its dark .the last time the club tried to dive it .it was an awful day so we binned it.
i have dived it a few times, if your new to clyde diving this isnt the best entry level dive.
i dived it last weekend, hit it at 10:30am bang on slack tide, millpond.
the viz wasnt great, around 3-4 meters at best, reducing to zero at times as a previous dive boat was on the site prior to our arrival.
if your thinking about penetration, then i suggest you dont, not on your first dive.
there are 4 main cargo holds which did at one time hold mecwans beer, erthenware storage jugs,whiskey & acid bottles.
sternside you may see a small hold, this is the whiskey hold & the most dangerous hold on the ship, people have exchanged their lives in there in order to bag up some worthless bottles of undrinkable whisky.
please dont join them. you will find the proof of that in a brass plack on top of the greenhouse section of the mid ship.
most of the other holds are simple, they are not more than 1-2 meters deep.
(for indetification)you will find beer bottles in the hold to the fore of the midship. this hold has a mast section lying across it & is probably the most lucrative if your after some booty.
in order to obtain your 'booty' you will have to drive your hand into the (now very stiff) silt and forage. be aware some bottles are broken ended & sharp!!
this is a perfect dive for nitrox, i generally use twin 10's one with air, the other 32%. but pure 32% is perfect.
the first time i did it i used 32%, my buddy was on air, he had 15 minutes of deco, i was one minute from deco.
this is a 30 meter dive, but a serious 30m dive. dont dick around.
plan your dive, dive your plan.
i recomend you buy 'clyde shipwrecks' by peter moir & ian crawford.
http://www.shipwrecksofscotland.com/wk_ss_wallachia.jpg
hi, all has anyone any info on diving the wallachia? i,m hoping to dive it this sunday . high slack i am aware its dark .the last time the club tried to dive it .it was an awful day so we binned it.
It depends how experianced u r
There is a way into the engine room down through the funnel but its not for the faint harted. You can also get into the engine room through the hold to rear of the funnel but thats even harder. The stern hold where the whisky was, yes was kept is a square hold approx 4m and 2m high with the hatch in the middle (its very easy to kick up the viz in here) The next hold still gives up the odd bottle of beer. On the deck here there are the bottoms of the acid jars, (there is an intact one on the floor in aquatron) they had been on the deck so long that they had stuck and when divers tried to take them they broke. The main holds can be entered as long as the viz is ok but stay where u can see green above. If u dont have wreck experiance stay on the deck or over the side and take in the view (viz permiting)
Cheer enjoy
Ding
i have 4 bottles of beer, all intact & sitting in the back garden.
just had a look at them & a sniff.
pheewweeeeeee, bloody stinking, i think i would die if i drunk these.
but what a way to go on a saturday night :D
give us your trip report when you get back.
have a safe dive,
stewart
thanks for the info i was,nt planning any penetration thou my usual buddy likes his bits and bobs . i think we will agree it does,nt sound like the kind of place to mess about .it will be a 0 vis scenic dive. we have the position but is it bhoyed?
there is a 25 litre container (white) strapped from a line to the mid ship area.
on the starboard side.
we generally shot it with a grapple hook & our own buoy.
there is regularly fishing boats on the site with day trippers pulling out bloody hundreds of fish, by the time you kit up their boat will be near sinking.
another hazard, big trebble hooks from above :rolleyes:
thanks for that stewart now all i have to do tomorrow is argue my case for the wallachia . brian
It depends how experianced u r
There is a way into the engine room down through the funnel but its not for the faint harted. You can also get into the engine room through the hold to rear of the funnel but thats even harder. The stern hold where the whisky was, yes was kept is a square hold approx 4m and 2m high with the hatch in the middle (its very easy to kick up the viz in here) The next hold still gives up the odd bottle of beer. On the deck here there are the bottoms of the acid jars, (there is an intact one on the floor in aquatron) they had been on the deck so long that they had stuck and when divers tried to take them they broke. The main holds can be entered as long as the viz is ok but stay where u can see green above. If u dont have wreck experiance stay on the deck or over the side and take in the view (viz permiting)
Cheer enjoy
Ding
I know this won't help for today but...
There are 3 easy access routes into the engine room. The port and starboard covered companionways. Just turn left or right at the bottom of the steps and go through the door and you're in. Alternatively, you can just drop in through the pitched roof directly above the cylinders. Normally I drop down the funnel and through the big triangular hole at the bottom, have a snoop round then exit via one of the doors either side of the rear bulkhead and out a companionway. If the vis is kicked or you get disorientated then find the cylinders and ascend vertically to the roof where there are plenty of access points.
I wouldn't go under what is left of the walkway around the top of the engines 'cos it looks a bit shoogly but YMMV!
well i did,nt get on the wallachia again a number of reasons people did,nt want to hang around till slack . late afternoon .there was only four of us three diving one to cox the rib one diver had,nt been out for a while and was looking for something a bit more easy. we ended up at the usual trail island ,as i am hoping to do the b.i course in jan we did some dive leader stuff . the first dive in the morning turned out to be excellent nice drift along the wall we watched a far sized octopus for a while til he got bored and shot off. then we had two of the most inquisitive seals i,ve seen pulling our fins and darting round and round us. the second dive was the lady isobella not much to see the swell was about four feet coming back out. we had went looking for scallops but did,nt get many . i,ll get the wallachia yet. but a good day anyway
sounds like you had a god dive anyway.
seals, octopus..& a little iron left over from the isobella!