SS Kintyre Part 2
Last night Rick and I enjoyed a nice dive on the Kintyre, here’s a few words about it.
Entry
We wanted to get the dive out of the way this week but sadly that meant diving at low water. To compound the problem, we seem to be on a spring tide at the moment, which meant entry was difficult, especially due to the scooter and Al80 we each had.
However, with a bit of team work, we managed and I waited with all the gear in the water whilst Rick went back for his twinset. We took 5 minutes to get our gear squared away, then dropped down and started the dive.
The Dive
On the previous dive we had scootered out at about 45 degrees which put us on the pipe at ~10m; this gave us the impression the pipe was a lot further upstream from our entry point, but last night we kept the depth shallower, and almost immediately hit the pipe at 5m/6m. This helped a lot since there wasn’t anywhere we could tie off a reel. Scootering down the pipe we were coming off the trigger occasionally to sort buoyancy (doing this on-the-fly needs more work). At 26m we found the jump line to the wreck, and without stopping we turned to the right and followed the line. Visibility was really poor at depth (like 1.5m), so we kept coming off the trigger and gliding for a bit in fear of approaching the wreck too fast! By minute 4 on our timers, we were at the bow at 30m. The scooters were locked and depitched, and we went for a swim. 
The bow is the most interesting area of the wreck with it’s attractive sprit, and ribbed structure (hull plates have fallen away). There’s not a great amount of standing super structure mid-ships, but parts of the engine and deck bollards, winches etc can be identified fairly easily.
Towards the stern the wreck ends except on the port side; we had planned to follow the port side of the hull down to the stern, but this is all but gone, so we turned at a max depth of 46m. Given better visibility we may have been able to see the stern area, but 1.5m really isn’t sufficient.
We crossed from port to starboard and then came off the wreck for a moment. There was the odd bit of scrap lying around, but mainly squat lobsters! Turned left and the hull wall about mid-ships, then ascended to the deck level. We slowly made our way back towards the bow crossing from port/starboard and back again taking in things we’d seen during the descent; given the very limited visibility and total lack of ambient light, even a small ship like the Kintyre needs close inspection. Arriving back at the bow I asked Rick to hold whilst I scooted round to the starboard side to take in the effect of him in backdrop to the ribbed bow, it was quite nice. Sadly the flood tide had started running so I immediately felt myself being drawn towards the wreck; it’s surprising how much cover is given by the wreck. Once back with Rick we signalled to ascent and begin deco.With the bow at 30m, we just did 3m/min to 21m for the switch to 50%. As mentioned the current was picking up and trying to keep position beside the pipe wasn’t comfortable during the switch. In hindsight, I think we should have drifted away from the pipe, switched, then scootered back at 21m. The rest of deco was uneventful, and we even had a little scoot during the 9m stop instead of using them to keep position. Once back on the surface we chilled out for 5 minutes before moving our gear up the rocky shore. In terms of life on the wreck there were quite a lot of small pollock, a few butter fish, scorpion fish or gurnards, an octopus and even a curious seal! As I said, lots of squat lobbies, and some large edible crabs. The area around the pipe has similar amounts of marine life, and lots of shellfish too.
Thanks to Rick for a good dive but I wish the visibility could have been better and the current a little less, but it made the dive that little bit more challenging.
A good learning experience all round, and I got to do it after work on a Thursday Stay tuned for more wreck shore diving madness… Andy Bryson
SS Kintyre Part 1
Intro
Rumored to be in 50m of water some 200m from the beach in the River Clyde at Wemyss Bay Nr Glasgow; The 94nt Iron Steamship Kintyre sounded like the perfect Tech 1 level dive to tackle one evening after work….from the shore!
History
Built by Robertson & Co of Greenock, owned by Cambeltown & Glasgow Steam Packet Joint Stock Company and launched in 1868 the SS Kintyre was said to be one of the most graceful steamers of her type and nick-named “The Cambletown Yacht” due to her raked lines and clipper like bow.
On 18th September 1907 the Kintyre was lost in collision with the 3500gt steamer “Maori” four hundred yards south west of Inverkip. The Maori was undergoing speed trials on the Clyde and although both vessels exchanged signals a mis-understanding on the Kintyre resulted in the collision and loss of the steamship.
With the exception of the Captain and the engineer all the crew managed to scramble onboard the Maori to their rescue. The remaining pair tried to beach the badly damaged Kintyre, however 4 minutes after the collistion her stern began to submerge and twenty seconds further she slipped beneath the surface.
Captain MacKenzie had a miraculous escape after being dragged down by a piece of wreckage tangled around his legs, he managed to free himself and make it back to the surface. William Lennox the engineer was less fortunate having been thrown into the sea and could not be found after an extensive search of the area.
Team
My buddy for this dive was Andrew Bryson who had dived this wreck previously from a day boat and knew the whereabouts and background on this dive.
He is also the only other Tech 1 diver in Scotland!
Mission
Dive 1 Plan
To familiarize ourselves with the site and layout of the wreck we decided to do a 32% min deco recce dive to find the following information:-
Suitable exit/entry points
The whereabouts of the dis-used sewage pipe
Gauge visability and current
To check the line integrity and replace if need be
General familiarisation
The Dive
Having finished work on Friday 4th Aug 06 we made our way to Wemyss bay and began to kit up. There are some make shift stairs which appear to have been carved by the sea over the years. We utilised these and dropped our scooters into the water.
We dropped down to 3m initially for bubble and flow checks then picked up the sandy slope which had a fair amount of kelp on it down to 12m in a Northerly direction with a view to pick up the pipe.
After a few minutes on the trigger we hit the pipe which was full of fish-life and orange and white plumose anemones. We followed the pipe gradually down the slope until we arrived at the end after a minute or so at approx 32m.
Andy shone his light on a piece of rope which was flapping in the current. By this time, the light (ambient) had well and truly left us, visability was down to 1.5m and the current was fairly ripping through.
After a minute of briefly looking around the end of the pipe, Andy signalled to return the way we came, back up the pipe. Personally I thought this was the end of the dive but after a few seconds I noticed a second line running North West and signaled this to my buddy.
After another minute on the trigger we both saw the bow of the wreck come into view quite quickly. The bow was at approx 34m and a lot of the plates had fallen off leaving the skeletal ribs showing which again were full of anemones.
After a brief look around and keeping an eye on our MOD we thumbed the dive and headed back along the line towards the pipe and completed min deco.
De-Brief
We eventually surfaced about 5m south of our entry point having completed min deco to find quite a swell. The tide had also risen a fair bit meaning that our exit would be interesting. We got out without any problem but having read that quite a few people have been bent by exiting in rough conditions at this point. We have decided to lay line in order to assist our exit for the gas dive.
Dive 2 Plan
Lay line as a marker to aid our chosen exit point from shore to 12m due West. Once onto deco we will drop our scooters here and complete our stops resting for 5-10mins at the surface before dropping our stages.
These will be pulled in once we have de-kitted at a slow pace.
Explore the stern and depths, accommodation and engine room with 21/35 backgas & 50% deco bottle.
The Dive
Scheduled for Thursday 10th August….To be continued with pics!