SMS Brummer, Scapa Flow August 2005 August 19, 2005
Posted by Mark Gilmour in : Dive Reports, UK diving, Wreck Diving , trackbackThursday 11th August 2005
Dive 1 SMS Brummer Max Depth 33.4m Bottom Time 35 mins Run time 59mins
Today was the second of the three light cruisers. Skipper enjoyed keeping us in suspense until we got on site as to which of the cruisers we were doing but gave us the briefing we needed as we sat there kitted and ready to go. Shot is midships, above the bridge and the armoured conning tower and the midships gun. Keep the wreck on the left and you’ll head to the bow, on the right and you will head for the stern.
In we went and straight down. We were on perfect slack so the shot sat in the water vertical, we left the shot as it was covered in little pipe fish curled around it and free descended onto the wreck, over the side and directly onto the midships gun. 
From the gun we dropped towards the seabed met up with the two fellas in the picture
and moved ahead towards the bow, Ian found an entry at the base of the wreck into the bow section but I was having a particularly non wreck entry moment and couldn’t seem to get the angle to go in, so backed away and moved forward of the bow and entered along the broken section there. We carried on back then half way back to the midships gun through the broken hull of the wreck, finding a hatch just before the gun to exit the wreck and continue on past the bridge and the armoured conning tower,I went under whilst Ian went over.
We made our way to the stern where we came across the stern guns. One out in the open , the other tucked away under a fallen plate of armour. As the divernet wreck tour reports the stern is more broken up than the bow and is covered in debris. There was no mistake there. It did mean lots of open areas to explore. The protruding mast along the seabed gave us an indication of where we were.
As the we reached the stern we turned again towards the bow and headed up and over onto the shallowest sections of the wreck. As Ian prepared for bagging off, I played with a particularly audacious crab sat bold as brass on top of the wreck.
As Juz reported later on the boat, this wreck was the place for loved up crabs, they were everywhere.
A nice steady ascent and uneventful stops meant a total run time of 59minutes.
Back onto the boat and the first six were called for breakfast.
Dive 2 The Bottle run. Max Depth 18m 58 mins.
The bottle run was suggested by Juz and backed up by Beanie who have both done this dive before albeit a few years ago.
Skipper put us in with a very slow current meaning a gentle drift over the seabed hunting and scavenging for bottles thrown off from years of boat traffic through the flow. Also it was good scallop hunting ground. This ended up being a really enjoyable scout around, we got some decent scallops which Fiona, Skippers wife showed us how to open and cook , very good. Also we acquired throughout the group a couple of really nice bottles.
The bottle run ended up being more of a seabed dive then bottles but I have never seen so many hermit & other types of crabs. Some of them rather feisty.
Comments»
[…] SMS Brummer, Max Depth 34.1m, Dive time 61 minutes. Dimensions: 460ft x 44ft x 19ft Launched: December 1915 4,308 tons Scuttled: 13:05 21/6/1919 The Wreck Today: The Wreck Today: The Brummer lies on her starboard side in a depth of around 36m, surface to hull is in the region of 20m, it is arguably the most impressive of the Light Cruisers. From the bow, finning aft the 5.9 inch gun looms up at you, passing along the barrel and over the protective shield, you reach the conning tower. The armoured command centre, with horizontal viewing slits. On top sits the gun control range finder. Beyond this lies the bridge and signal deck. The mid section is blasted out but the stern is intact, the officers accommodation and the 5.9inch guns are worthy of a mention. Unfortunately for us this year the visibility was greatly reduced on last year and combined with the fact that my torch flooded 6 minutes into the dive meant that we stayed mainly on the conning tower and bow. We did see the 5.9 inch gun as we neared the bow. We apparently finned over and around the bow onto the hull but it didn’t register with me at the time, but in my defence I was restricted to the area that was illuminated by my back up torch. This was a completely different dive to last year where we made our way from the bottom of the bow through the wreck and out of hatch on the deck. This year we spent much more time investigating the life on the bow and hull including the dead mans fingers and minute anemones. I think I saw a nudibranch aswell but a very dull brown coloured one. I really enjoyed it and it proved that going back a second time you can have a completely different experience. Gobernador Bories Max Depth 16.1m Dive time 59minutes 45 seconds!!! […]