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Dive sites around Newfoundland

Chimney Cove
Chimney Cove is a small cove located just a 15 minute boat ride from Foxtrap Harbor. Right next to it is the infamous Kelly's Island, which has many pirate and ghost stories. This dive site is full of marine life and here we are very likely to find lobster, eel and catfish. The depth here varies between 7 and 14 meters.

Bell
Bell is another interesting dive site. You can get there with a slightly longer boat trip of about 50 minutes from the port of Foxtrap. This dive site is full of interesting walls and passages that you can swim through, filled with marine life. This site is suitable for both beginner and advanced divers.

The Conception Bay Whaling Wrecks
This site has been well known to divers since 1964. It is believed that the whaling ships that can be seen here were abandoned at the end of the era of the whaling industry in Newfoundland. Just a mile offshore in Conception Harbor rest two whaling ships, the S/S SPOSA and the S/S SOIKA. They vary in length from 33 to 40 meters. Visibility in winter and early spring varies from approximately 9 to 30 meters. A harpoon is still mounted on one of the ships and a propeller still remains on the SS Southern Foam. Fantastic opportunities for photography and video filming await here. 

Whale Bones, South Dildo
About an hour from St Johns in southern Trinity Bay, South Dildo is an old whaling station. Skeletons of many of these large animals are still scattered on the sea floor near land. They can be accessed from the quay or from the adjacent beach. The dive site reaches a depth of approx. 20 meters and is easy to navigate. Alternatively, a boat can be used to reach the areas that are a little further away. Skulls, ribs, jawbones and vertebrae from the great whales are found all over the site, even those that are more covered than others are easy to recognize.

Wrecks in Newfoundland

SS Lord Strathcona
During the morning of September 5, 1942, the SS Lord Strathcona was sunk by the German submarine U-513. The SS Lord Strathcona was anchored in Conception Bay off Bell Island in Newfoundland. She was the second ship to meet her fate that day, just like SS Saganaga which was sunk by U-513 just minutes earlier. Fortunately, the crew of the Lord Strathcona knew what was coming and therefore abandoned the ship before it sank to the bottom of the sea, this luckily resulted in none of the crew losing their lives that day.

The German submarine U-513 commanded by Fritz Rolf Ruggeberg was also spared on this day. In its eagerness to sink the SS Saganaga and then in the maneuver intended to sink another ship, the submarine collided with the stern of the Lord Strathcona, damaging its own turret. But U-513 quickly recovered and then fired two torpedoes, sinking Lord Strathcona. The submarine which was full of ammunition then met its own fate on July 19, 1943, off Santos and it was US Naval Aircraft that was behind this death blow. 

Interestingly, it is worth noting that before World War II began, Germany was the largest consumer of iron ore produced in the Bell Island mines. In fact, it may have been the same iron ore that was used to make the submarines and torpedoes that were used to sink these ships and that caused such havoc this day. The German High Command was familiar with the anchorage off Bell Island and its strategic value in the war.

Diving around the SS Lord Strathcona offers a beautiful sight as an abundance of flowering anemones adorn her decks and railings. This ship that once proudly sailed the seas is now home to many of the sea's inhabitants, who have taken over as a new crew. Similar in structure and size is the SS Rose Castle which is also nearby. Lord Strathcona gives the diver the opportunity to wreck dive at the most spectacular ship in the entire Atlantic Ocean. Photographers and videographers always appreciate what she has to offer.

SS Saganaga
The British steamship SS Saganaga was sunk by the German submarine U-513 on September 5, 1942 in Conception Bay, Bell Island, Newfoundland. There she lay at anchor awaiting orders to set sail for northern Sydney with a cargo of iron ore. The submarine U-513 had managed to slip into the bay during the night and lay there in ambush until it was time to attack. The torpedo attack took place the very next morning at 11.07. In all the tension, the crewmen on the submarine managed to neglect to secure an important function regarding the battery switch and the torpedoes therefore sank to the bottom instead. Who knows, maybe the torpedoes filled with explosives are still lying on the seabed today? The mistake of the torpedoes sinking to the bottom was quickly forgotten and two torpedoes were quickly fired again and this time they hit their target. The first torpedo hit the ship's port side at 11.07:30 and the second that followed sent SS Saganaga under the waves in less than XNUMX seconds.

The ship had a crew of 48, including three naval gunners, 29 of whom were later reported missing. As a side track to this tragic story, one of the crewmen who died was the sailor Walter Skelton, from Grimsby, Lincolnshire in Great Britain. His grandson found out through an internet search that Walter had perished in Conception Bay. The family had previously assumed that he was in the North Atlantic at the time of the sinking. But to their surprise, the search revealed that their loved one was actually at Newfoundland. A trip was then planned with the intention that the family would have the opportunity to pay tribute to their relative, the sailor Walter Skelton. A moment that touched many was when Walter's grandson, Alan Chapman, on September 6, 2004, descended on the SS Saganaga to place a memorial on deck in Walter Skelton's honor.

 Today SS Saganaga is a diver's paradise, and she has been given new life by beautiful anemones growing on her and all the small animals that have found refuge in her iron hull. The ship has some of the most spectacular passages, a true photographer's dream. She rests at a depth of approximately 33 meters and can easily be seen from 18 to 25 meters.

PLM27
The steamship PLM 27, PLM was an abbreviation for Paris-Lyon-Marseille which was commanded by the Free French Forces and General Charles De Gaulle, during World War II. She was the second ship to be sent to her grave during the morning of 2 November 1942. U-518 had just sunk the SS Rose and was now targeting PLM 27. One torpedo was fired which was enough to sink PLM 27 along with twelve of her crew and she dropped in less than a minute. The survivors were picked up a few hundred meters away at Lance Cove, closer to land. Residents of the island were almost shaken out of their beds early Sunday morning. This reminded them of the earlier attack in September on two ships loaded with ore. The parents dressed their children in their Sunday best and awaited what they thought would be an invasion by German forces, but luckily it didn't happen.

The Wolf U-518 sped for the open sea after leaving her deadly load of torpedoes in the hull of Rose Castle and PLM 27. But like 85% of all submarines she too met her fate in the form of Allied forces on 22 April 1945 .This occurred northwest of the Azores.  

Rose Castle
Less than two months after the tragic loss of SS Saganaga and SS Lord Strathcona, SS Rose Castle also met her fate, this time at the hands of the German submarine U-518. Commander Friedrich Wissman had been ordered to drop off a German agent in New Carlisle, Quebec and to attack Allied shipping. On their maiden voyage they decided to slip into Conception Bay and attack at the first opportunity. Early on the morning of November 2, 1942, as U-518 approached the Bell Island anchorage, she sighted the Anna T, a 3000-ton vessel loaded with coal, anchored off Scotia Pier. The first torpedo was fired at the Anna T, but fortunately for the Anna T it instead went under the stern of the Flying Dale and hit the Scotia Pier. This was the first and probably the only incident where the enemy hit the North American coast during World War II. Two more torpedoes were quickly fired at Rose Castle which was anchored nearby. The ship sank in less than 90 seconds, taking with it 28 crewmen to their graves in the depths. The SS Rose had previously managed to escape a similar fate when the German submarine U-69 which sank the ferry "Caribou" (serving in Port Aux Basques on behalf of North Sydney) fired a torpedo at Rose Castle on 20 October 1942. Fortunately the torpedo had a defect in the donor and she was spared - but only for a short while. 

Although three ore boats sank during this tragic event, Rose Castle is the most spectacular. She lies upright at a depth of about 45 meters and looks as if she is ready to set sail just as she did 60 years ago when she was above the surface. The wires running to her mast are still taut, in the marconi room the radio is still waiting for messages and deep in her hull you can still see the crew's personal belongings. Without a doubt, she is the best preserved ship. If you wish, you can visit the 4,7 inch gun that still sits on the stern, beautifully decorated with floral sea anemones, forever ready for action. The cave-like holds attract the more adventurous divers, but be careful!

T +46 (0) 301 22100   E info@scubatravel.se

Fabriksgatan 13, 412 50 Gothenburg, Sweden

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