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This Royal Mail Steamer was hit by a hurricane in 1867, and while trying to escape to the open sea, was forced onto the rocks on Salt Island. The wreck is split into two main sections the Bow and the Stern. These are normally done as two separate dives – the deeper bow section first and then the shallower Stern section. The water is clear, the wreck is collapsing but is still in remarkable condition considering that it sank one hundred and fifty years ago. There are thousands of fish that gather beneath the wreckage, in some places hundreds of large snappers in shoals. A world-famous dive. |
If you are lucky, you will be able to pick up one of the five red, general use moorings. Otherwise anchor in Salt Island Bay and dinghy around to the moorings, where you will find a dinghy mooring line close to Black Rock Point. The dinghy mooring is close to the stern section, but I would swim on the surface and descend a yellow mooring line, keeping an eye out for approaching boats.
The northern most yellow mooring, which is close to the red yacht moorings, drops you down to the point of the bow. As you head south, the yellow moorings take you down to the mid section and then finally the southern most are on the stern.
I'm not going to try to reproduce the vast amount of information about this wreck. There's a lot to see on the Rhone and it's worth doing some research on the Internet before doing it.