Wreck Tour 51: Light Vessel 83

It might take some finding, but an intact lightship inexplicably rammed and sunk in the North Sea is a rare treat indeed, says JOHN LIDDIARD. Illustration by MAX ELLIS

THIS MONTH’S WRECK TOUR IS OF ONE OF the more unusual wrecks I have dived – an upright and intact lightship.

I dived the LV83 from Gordon Wadsworth’s boat Jane R. Gordon has a system of tying his boat in to a wreck overnight while everyone takes one-hour turns on anchor watch. So I got to dive the wreck late afternoon and then again early next morning.

Some hardy souls made a night dive, but next morning they were still asleep while my buddy and I had the wreck to ourselves. The first dive with 12 of us in the water had been good, but the early-morning dive was sublime. The sea was oily calm, the sun was shining, the wreck was covered in anemones, and there were shoals of fish everywhere.

Jane R was tied in to the top of the light tower (1), which rises to 20m from the 34m seabed. The glass and lens for the light are missing, but there is still a spindle in the centre on which the light would have been mounted.

A platform with partially intact railing surrounds the remains of the light. Although interesting, detailed inspection is probably best left until ascending at the end of the dive.

The tower rises from the centre of a superstructure that runs most of the length of the ship. Aft of the tower are mounts for two lifeboats and the collapsed remains of the derricks that would have been used to launch them (2).

Continuing sternwards, the empty mounting for the stern navigation light can be found behind a raised box at the aft end of the superstructure (3).

On the main deck below, open ventilation hatches lead to the generator room (4). The engines inside are for electric generators and not for propulsion. The LV83 was towed to its location and moored, so had no need for its own motive power.

The ventilator hatches are too small for a diver to fit through easily, as is a square hatch in the deck just behind them.

The gunwale surrounding the deck was made of lighter steel than the hull and has mostly rotted through to leave just an open framework round the stern (5).

If diving on tables, it is probably best to stick to the main deck level at 30m, but if diving on a computer, a short diversion to have a look at the rudder (6) will not seriously affect later decompression obligations. With no motive power, the LV83 consequently has no propeller.

Ascending the port side of the ship, a long beam rests against the main deck (7). I could find no features to identify this. It could have been a mast, but there is no obvious place from which it could have fallen. Another possibility is that it is part of a trawler’s gear lost on the wreck, but there are no signs of netting on the beam.

Back at the main deck level, the superstructure spans the width of the wreck, with covered companionways along either side through which it‘s easy to swim (8). Broken windows and rotted gunwales allow plenty of light inside.

Coming out amidships, the superstructure narrows to provide deck space for a hand-driven water-pump (9). Cranking wheels at either end have ornate curved spokes, and the centre of the wheel is draped with scraps of netting, showing that a trawler has run its gear into the wreck at some time, so perhaps that is where the beam came from.

Forward past the superstructure, the bow deck is dominated by an enormous anchor-winch (10). Level with it on either side are pairs of large mooring bollards. Just forward on the port side, a large spare anchor is firmly attached to a sloped fairing set in above the deck (11).

Along the centreline is a trio of open hatches: first a small square hatch, then a larger square hatch with the remains of a curved cover over it (12), and finally a small round hatch right against the inside of the bow. On either side, chains from the anchor-winch lead forward and disappear through hawse-pipes, outside the bow leading off along the seabed (13).

On the starboard side, the spare anchor has fallen to the seabed. Level with the anchor-winch, the entire side of the hull is sharply stoved in and ripped open where the Polish trawler Snardy ploughed into the side of the lightship on 16 August, 1967 (14).

Continuing back on the starboard side, an easy way inside the superstructure is through a doorway (15) where the superstructure waists slightly for the light tower. Inside, most of the partitions have rotted and collapsed to leave a framework of uprights with plenty of room to swim through, though there are also plenty of dangling cables on which to risk getting entangled.

The light tower continues unbroken inside the superstructure. I haven’t been inside it, but the information from Gordon is that it is possible to get up inside it by going one deck lower, and that the inside is fitted with gas cylinders that would have contained acetylene for the back-up light.

Rather than get too adventurous, a simple route that allows a brief look about is to swim straight across the wreck, exiting through a corresponding doorway on the port side (16) next to the deck-pump.

Rising a couple of metres to the top of the main cabins, the forward part of the superstructure is surrounded by an intact railing. Right at the front, a small wheelhouse looks out across the bow deck (17). The interesting feature here is a large foghorn mounted vertically on the roof (18).

From here, the easiest ascent route is to cross to the light tower (19) and spend any remaining time looking at the light fittings that I recommended skipping at the start of the dive.

Thanks to Gordon Wadsworth, Helen George, Andy Moll, and members of Severnside BSAC.

Appeared in Diver, May 2003