Even when the weather isn’t playing ball, Malta offers some unique ‘second-choice’ dive sites that shouldn’t be ignored. Jason Brown visits an aircraft wreck with a fascinating history…
We’ve all had one of those days. You’ve booked your space on the boat, you’ve filled your cylinders with the right gas for the dive and you’ve cut a decompression schedule for the planned depth only to find that the weather gods have made other plans. Mother nature can be fickle and her intervention in even the most robust of dive plans is something we all grow to begrudgingly accept.
Getting ‘blown out’ on an air or nitrox dive isn’t really a problem if there’s an alternative, more sheltered site that you can visit. But when you’re diving trimix, a sudden change in plans can wreak havoc. Trimix is a breathing mixture consisting of oxygen, helium and nitrogen used by technical divers to reduce the effects of nitrogen narcosis on deeper dives. In a similar fashion to nitrox, the precise mix of the three component gases has to be selected based on the maximum depth of the dive to reduce both the effects of nitrogen narcosis and to mitigate the risks of oxygen toxicity. With the right mixture selected, any increase in maximum depth causes problems – the mix may be too ‘rich’ (ie. oxygen concentration is too high) or the helium content may be too low to provide an adequate END (equivalent narcotic depth).
Whilst the presence of helium helps divers to keep a clear head at depth, it also bumps up the cost of the fill considerably – a 12 litre twinset filled with trimix 18/45, for example, can cost upwards of £160 ($295 CAD) these days. And then, of course, you’ve got to factor in your decompression gases – typically a mid-range gas (nitrox 50, for example) followed by a rich decompression gas like pure oxygen. Adding these onto the bill will leave you with little change from £200 ($370 CAD). Using such ‘exotic’ gases will allow you to reach far beyond the limits of recreational diving but the price tag makes trimix divers just a little less enthusiastic when the skipper suggests a change in dive site.
During a recent trip to Malta with a UK diving magazine, I’d spent the first few days shadowing one of the team as they were put through their paces on a Sport Rebreather. Now I’m as happy to be in the water as anyone, but it didn’t take long for the inevitable draw of Malta’s deeper sites to lure me away from the training for a day on one of Malta’s most iconic wrecks – Le Polynesian. Lying at a maximum depth of 63m, she’s a big and beautiful wreck that is still largely intact. A French passenger steamer torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine UC-22 seven miles off Grand Harbour, Valetta in August 1918, she’s often referred to as ‘the plates ship’ due to the ceramics still visible on her today.
The weather in Malta can be a little unpredictable at the tail end of the dive season and today was to be no exception. Having cut a plan that would have given us lots of time to explore the Polynesian, the weather gods had other ideas. Overnight the wind had picked up and made the diving conditions less than favourable. An alternative plan was needed. “What about the Stubborn?” I suggested. Like the Polynesian, HMS Stubborn is a popular deep site that offers much to visiting divers. Sitting on a white sandy sea bed at a maximum depth of 56m, the Stubborn is a 66m long S-class submarine scuttled by the Royal Navy shortly after WW2 to provide a target for ASDIC sonar training. Still fully intact with a slight list to one side, the familiar submarine profile complete with conning tower and torpedo tubes can be seen during descent from as shallow as 25m. although a little shallower than our planned dive, she still lay at a perfect depth for the trimix in our cylinders.
“Sorry guys, there’s a small problem with that site too – there’s a bl**dy great big tanker parked on top of it!” came the reply from PADI Platinum Course Director Alan Whitehead of Divewise Malta. It would seem that on this one day of the year, our choice of dive sites was going to be rather limited. After much scratching of heads, Alan suggested a site that he was positive we would be able to dive – the Bristol Beaufighter wreck. A popular training site for both recreational deep and introductory tech training, the thought of blowing off almost £200 worth of trimix on a training site laying in less than 40m of water just off shore didn’t inspire us. The dilemma we faced, however, was a simple one – it was that or nothing. After a brief discussion, we decided to go for it.
The Bristol Beaufighter was a long-range heavy fighter that enjoyed a distinguished career throughout WW2 in a multi-role capacity – as a night fighter, a strike fighter and even a torpedo bomber. The Beaufighter wreck that now lies approximately 800m off Dragonara Point, Sliema was attached to 272 Squadron of the Royal Airforce which was stationed on the island at the height of the war. On the 17th March 1943 at 11:25 hours, Beaufighters from 272 Squadron took off to escort nine Beaufort torpedo bombers on an aerial strike on axis shipping off Point Stelo. Shortly after take-off, Beaufighter ‘N’ (serial number T5174) crewed by Sgt Donald Frazee and Sgt Sandery began to vibrate and lose speed rapidly. With a safe landing out of the question, Sgt Frazee successfully ditched the aircraft into the sea at a speed of 100mph. Rapidly vacating the sinking aircraft that managed to remain afloat for less than fifteen seconds, both crew members were soon picked up by local Maltese Dghajsas (fishing boats) and then transferred to a rescue launch. Despite sustaining minor injuries in the crash, both crew returned to active duty.
The remains of the wrecked aircraft were discovered quite by chance in the late 70s by Vincent Milton – the founder of popular St Julians dive centre Divewise Malta – who stumbled across it whilst surveying the local reefs surrounding St Julians. Even then, the wreck would remain a mystery until Vincent and his son Patrick returned to identify it many years later.
These days the Beaufighter is a popular logbook addition for many visiting divers. Today the wreck of Frazee and Sandery’s Beaufighter lies upside down at a depth of 37m on a clean, white sandy sea bed. Despite laying just 200m north of Merkanti reef (a popular shallow dive in St. Julian’s bay), the wreck is only really accessible by boat. With skipper Jordan Morley at the controls of Divewise Malta’s fast rib and Stephen Scerri along to keep a watchful eye on us in the water, we loaded our gear and headed out to the dive site. Laying so close to shore, it didn’t take long for us to arrive so we kitted up and dropped over the side of the rib to begin our descent onto the wreck. With twin 12s filled with trimix and a pair of AL80 decompression cylinders clipped off to my left side, I’ll admit that I felt just a little bit overdressed for the dive. Thankfully no single cylinder divers swam past to remind us of the shear level of overkill.
To protect the wreck from badly-placed shots and anchors, a permanent block and line has been placed near the wreck to remove the need for visiting boats to shot the wreck for themselves. This line buoy needs replacing on a regular basis as the wrecks sit in the main path for boat traffic travelling to and from the islands of Gozo and Comino. The replacement of these buoys has become a regular part of Divewise’s diving duties!
At a depth of about 20m, the wreck reveals itself below. It’s clear to see that even after seventy odd years on the sea bed, it’s in surprisingly good condition with the familiar aircraft shape easy to make out. Laying upside down and partially buried in the sand, the wreck is reasonably intact with only the tail section of the fuselage missing. Rising up from the wings on either side of the centre fuselage, both undercarriage frames are locked in the landing position with their shredded and degrading rubber tyres still in place.
Although partially buried in the sand, the aircraft’s Bristol Hercules 14-cylinder air-cooled radial engines are a sight to behold with much of the engine’s workings on show. Considering the speed at which the aircraft ditched, the fact that the port engine still has its propeller in place bares testament to the construction of this rugged aircraft. There’s plenty to appeal to underwater photographers but it’s this area of the wreck that perhaps offers the greatest draw. Who can resist the opportunity to snap off some eye-catching photos of your dive buddy next to engine and propellor of such a fearful weapon of war? Not me, that’s for sure – a shot I captured here of Divewise tech instructor Steve Scerri even made it onto the front cover of a UK diving magazine!
Not only was it tough but the Beaufighter packed a punch too – With its four cannons and six Browning machine guns - four on the starboard wing and two on the port wing - the Beaufighter more than lived up to its nickname ‘the ten-gun terror’. Look along the length of the centre fuselage and you’ll see the four ‘ports’ that housed the aircraft’s 20mm Hispano cannons. These ports now serve as home for a pair of moray eels that have taken up residence inside them and Triggerfish have also been sighted around the wreck.
Being a reasonably compact site, it doesn’t take long to cover the wreck – even on a single cylinder, you could take a quick tour of the site without busting no stop limits. That’s not to say that the Beaufighter has little to offer, though. Far from it. Where else can you dive a ‘real’ WW2 fighter aircraft that’s still in a reasonably good condition and offers such a fascinating back story?
It’s enthralling to think that this wreck was engaged in the defence of Malta – an island that suffered constant bombardment by the Luftwaffe but remained fiercely defiant throughout. This isn’t a wreck that’s been placed for the enjoyment of divers – it’s a monument to the tenacity and vigilance of the RAF and the people of Malta. For that reason alone, it’s an entry worthy of any diver’s log book.
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Written by Jason Brown
An experienced trimix rebreather and cave diver certified through Global Underwater Explorers, Jason Brown is an accomplished underwater photographer whose work has graced the pages – and covers – of numerous magazines across the globe. An experienced writer with over 30 years experience writing engaging features for a diverse range of publications, Jason now focuses his writing and photographic talents on his life aquatic.
When he’s not shooting eye-catching photos above and below water, Jason is actively involved in a number of high-profile dive industry events. He is one of the lead organisers of both the EUROTEK Advanced Diving Conference and the award-winning TEKCamp diving masterclass event – both held every two years in the UK. In more recent years, he’s been invited to give talks on underwater photography at a number of leading dive events. Most recently, he contributed a section on the wrecks of Scapa Flow to the book ‘Wild & Temperature Seas’ which is available to purchase through Amazon.
View more of Jason's photography work online at www.bardophotographic.co.uk and follow him on Instagram at www.instagram.com/bardophotographic.
