Up next in 10
100 Year Old Mystery Solved - Shipwreck Identified by Technical Diver
22K views
Apr 22, 2025
There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of unidentified shipwrecks on the seabed around the British Isles. Many of them are from the two World Wars and are a result of German submarine activity. Nearly 75 metres underwater, this wreck had been dived previously but resisted attempts at identification. On this technical dive, I located the maker's plate proving that it was the SS Lucent, built in Sunderland in 1879, and then sunk by the German submarine UC-66 in 1917. I dived using a@ApdivingUK Inspiration Closed Circuit Rebreather (CCR) with trimix mixed gas diluent. My buddy was on a @divesoft_tv Liberty Closed Circuit Rebreather *Highlights* 00:00 Introduction 00:40 Getting in 5:00 Arriving at wreck 08:55 Finding the maker's plate 12:05 Mysterious cargo of wheels? 14:20 Ship's "bell" 19:16 Punctured dry glove 21:30 Large helm 24:00 Battle with lobster 29:25 Ascent *Kit I Use* Note, some of these are affiliate links so help support making my videos:
View Video Transcript
0:00
it isn't every day that you get to solve a 100y old mystery before I found this maker plate the wreck was just one of
0:07
the many hundreds maybe thousands of unknown ships that lie on the seabed off
0:13
the English Coast we're now able to say that it is definitely the SS Lucent sunk
0:19
in 1917 by the German submarine UC 66 as well as finding the maker plate
0:28
you're going to see other stuff in this video such as capturing this tasty
0:33
Lobster surface conditions weren't the greatest for the dive but it was a wreck
0:38
none of us on the boat had done before so you're always pleased to get in the water myself and my buddy with a second
0:45
pair in which meant we got the task of taking the lazy shot that's the Rope I've got in my hand as soon as we got in
0:52
the water though I could look down and see that the visibility was excellent that's always a good start to
0:59
any dive first thing I need to do is get the lazy shot clipped onto the main shot
1:05
that's the thing in front of me with the boy on and you can see I'm swimming along to it I'm also starting my descent
1:12
no reason to hang around the surface I just need to intercept that rope at some point and that's what I'm going to
1:18
do my buddy's already on the way down he's standing by ready to help me though
1:24
if I need the assistance but this a fairly straightforward task and something I've done many times
1:30
before you can see I'm getting deeper not only is the depth increasing on the right hand side but the water's changing
1:37
color really rapidly going from that lovely blue at the surface down to a much more gloopy green here I am about
1:46
15 M I've got the lazy shot on and I'm dropping it down the main shotline I'm
1:52
actually using the weight of it to pull me down as well no point in hanging around on a dive like this you just want
1:59
to get down and get everything set up as I'm heading down I'll just tell you a bit more about the SS
2:05
loosens it was built in 1879 in Sunderland as were a vast number of
2:10
ships at the time approximately 1,400 tons 76 M long and 10 m wide so many
2:18
ships of this era with a similar sort of size it was built to move coal around so
2:25
it wasn't a particularly special ship in any way shape or form but perhaps the
2:30
most interesting thing about it was the way it was sunk everyone expects ships sunk by submarines to be
2:37
torpedoed but in the first world war this was surprisingly uncommon the Skippers liked to save
2:44
Torpedoes which were expensive and also unreliable so often they'd come
2:49
alongside ships get the crews off and then either sink them using gunfire or
2:55
by placing charges on board them in this case the Lucent was sunk by gunfire and
3:01
there were no casualties the lazy shot is only about 40 m long so I'm getting
3:07
to the point where I'm going to run out of rope this is just happening so as you
3:13
can see I'm going to take the PRC Loop off one of the
3:18
clips I'm then going to wrap the PRC loop around the main shot and reattach
3:23
the lazy shots using the PRC this means that the lazy shot will
3:29
stay at the depth where the PRC has been attached to the main shot it won't ride
3:34
up due to either divers pulling in on it or the current picking up getting this set up is an important
3:41
job we're going to spend an awful lot of time next to the lazy shot once we've
3:47
completed our dive I've no idea why they've given it to me then the snap shackle is designed
3:54
so that it can be released under tension that might become important once again if there's lots of divers hanging on the
4:00
lazy shot and the current is picked up significantly if that doesn't work an
4:06
absolute push comes to the shove the last pair can always chop the pric which isn't expensive and nobody's going to
4:13
get care if it gets lost that's all set up now so carrying on The Descent and
4:18
you can see there the strobes from the first pair of divers are clearly visible
4:24
below us that's another good sign means visibility is really good just a quick
4:29
look up there wondering where my buddy is but actually he's there just alongside me he's diving a liberty
4:36
rebreather which is why it's got that nice little flashing bulb on the top of it makes it really easy to see
4:43
him now getting closer to the bottom I've turned on my main torch I can see
4:48
the strobes and I've just got my own strobes out ready to go I'm going to
4:54
attach him about the similar point
5:22
you can actually see there's so much ambient light down here on this dive you can actually start to make out the wreck
5:27
without even needing a torch that's really good news at 70 M you
5:34
normally expect it to be pretty dark and not able to see anything without a torch
5:39
one of the great things about visibility like this is it makes it really easy to orientate yourself on the wreck I can
5:46
see directly underneath me there that is the drive shaft so I'm in the stern of
5:52
the boat almost certainly the engine is either to my right or my left I have to
5:57
make a decision trying to figure out which which way to the center of the boat to the engine as it turns out I
6:03
guess correctly and go
6:16
right underwater visibility is great although the wrecks really broken not
6:22
surprising when you consider it's been underwater for over a 100 years this part of the sea has very little
6:28
protection from the prevailing winds which are Westerly so it will also have been battered by storms every winter for
6:36
those 100
6:49
years I'm coming on to the top of the wreck now you can see the uh engine
6:54
drive shaft and then the actual engine itself there's Lo of Nets but also loads of
7:02
fish it's actually really nice little wreck and I'm really enjoying the dive at this
7:08
point anytime you R the engine it's always worth having a good look around there's all sorts of interesting things
7:14
that brass Circle although I don't think it's anything particularly
7:20
notable and I'm just swimming around the wreck having a quick look around see if
7:25
there's anything catches my eye
7:31
most steel and iron on a wreck is furry from the corrosion so anything that's got straight edges is worth a look this
7:40
below me this plate is clearly not steel or iron almost certainly non Ferris so
7:47
bronze or brass I decid to get it out and have a look at it
8:03
it's kind of stuck in there so it's difficult to get out I can also see that it appears to have been worked so it's
8:10
probably a piece of material that was used for doing repairs on the engine or
8:17
perhaps other parts of the ship still interesting to see anyway I'll leave it
8:23
and move on
8:53
then I spot something else just there under a bit of girder
8:59
under a few bricks it's also got straight edges although unlike the other one doesn't appear to have been
9:05
clipped I'm going to pull it out and have a look at it like all these wrecks there's loads
9:12
of silt soon as you move anything it all kicks up but then get it out and this is
9:18
much more interesting what's interesting about it is it's a nice regular shape it's also
9:25
got those two studs on the front and on the back almost certainly it's been mounted on
9:32
something this looks as though it's important I'm going to have a look and see if I can see anything on it I get my
9:38
knife out and scrape off I'm hoping that it'll reveal some letters although I don't know why I'm doing it on what's
9:44
clearly the bit that was facing the wall in a moment I turn it over and have a look on the other
9:56
side there we go I'm looking to see if there's any markings if I can see any
10:01
writing uh anything once again I scratch again hoping that it's going to reveal
10:07
something even with a bright torch like that it's surprisingly difficult to pick things out underwater and I can't see
10:13
anything even though I feel intuitively that it's got to be something important
10:19
because of the fact it's being attached to something I can't see any any writing on it which is what I'm expecting to see
10:26
this makes me believe that maybe it isn't what I think think it is even
10:31
though I do feel that this is probably a maker
10:36
[Music] plate you can hear me talking through my rebreather at my
10:42
buddy trying to maybe get his opinion I'm not getting any feedback so I carry
10:48
on scraping hoping that will reveal something but it doesn't
10:53
unfortunately it's quite frustrating I'd love to see something really obvious at this point
10:59
but I know that it's difficult to see things underwater quite often so I
11:04
decide I'm going to stick it in my bag bring it up to the surface and then have a look when we get up there
11:11
obviously there's always the danger that you pick something up you bring it up turns out to be nothing and then you've
11:18
just got to handle having the Mickey taken out of you all the way back fortunately for me this one turns out to
11:24
be a really really good decision about the only bad bit is that this is quite early on in the
11:31
dive so I'm going to have to carry on with this bag carrying it the whole time for the rest of the dive but hey it's a
11:39
small price to pay
12:05
I'm now swimming forward up past the bridge and into what must have been the
12:10
forward cargo hold it's absolutely full of stuff when it sunk the Lucent was C
12:18
carrying government stores and then there's these things there's a load of them I've no idea what
12:25
they are perhaps some sort of tires maybe or Wheels it's difficult to say what they're made
12:58
of
13:28
for for
14:21
I'm really close to the bow now and anytime you near the bow you've always got to look out for the Bell especially
14:28
if you don't think it's come off a wreck so when I spot this I get quite
14:33
excited unfortunately as soon as I touch it I realize it isn't the Bell but more
14:39
out of Hope than anything else I just give it a bit of a fan to see if I can
14:45
see any more about it it's far too thin to be a bell though so I quickly move
14:58
on for
15:49
that's the capston for raising and lowering the anchors there's also various other bits of chain and other
15:56
sort of paraphernalia that you associate with a bow it's all around
16:27
here
16:57
for
17:27
for
17:57
for for
18:36
I'm heading back towards the bridge now so this is the forward cargo hold once again you can see that by all these big
18:43
wheels or tires or whatever they are
19:14
you might be wondering what's going on here with my glove it doesn't come out particularly well on the video but I've
19:20
actually torn a hole in the dry glove so it's flooding to stop the water going up
19:25
my sleeve I've got to remove the small piece of tubing on the inner seal that allows the gas
19:31
inside my dry glove to
19:53
equalize then something else catches my eye it's really quite distinctive
19:58
that's clearly the boss of a Helm so I've got to go over and have a look at that takes me a while to figure out
20:05
what's going on here but the helm is actually that big Iron thing in front of me so often these are brass on ships but
20:15
this is a relatively cheaply made ship so they've used an iron one in this
20:23
case I'm going to remove as much of the uh netting as I possibly can to get a
20:29
better look at it unfortunately all that does is confirm what I
20:57
thought e
21:33
still a Helm's not something you see every day so I'll try and let the other divers know it's here so they can come
21:40
over and have a look and I then use the universal symbol for this is a Helm I'm not sure that's
21:48
anything many diving agencies teach you but it seems to work
21:57
okay
22:27
e for
23:02
I'm just to the port side of the bridge now that looks like a valve that somebody's dug out and left there for
23:09
other people to have a look at
23:27
him for
23:59
you tell this wreck hasn't been dive very much that Lobster doesn't seem to know that divers are bad for
24:06
him almost inviting me to come and grab him which obviously I do as I quite like
24:18
lobster for those who've never grabbed a lobster this is the recommended
24:24
technique get them behind the head where they can't reach you with the claws
24:30
grab them anywhere else and you're going to get a really nasty nip it's also useful to have a buddy particularly one
24:36
with a goodie bag mine's actually got a maker plate in it at the moment so I'm going to need another one and we're
24:42
going to work as a team to get this Lobster into the bag already this is proving to be an
24:48
excellent day for me a makers play and a lobster it is actually my birthday so
24:54
that seems wholly appropriate
25:01
too late the lobster realizes that we don't mean him any good he's proving quite Troublesome to get in that bag
25:09
neither of us is very keen to get nipped so we're both being very
25:27
cautious
25:57
for
26:27
e e
27:21
on a wre this size I'd expect there to have been more Port holes this is the
27:27
only one that I se on the dive I pull it out and put it where people can see
27:57
it for
28:46
All Too Soon bottom time is nearly up I'm just heading back along the drive shaft now heading towards the shot
29:18
I don't always dive with a buddy on technical Dives but when I do it's great to have someone around we both know the
29:25
dive is done and time to go up bit of admin first got to take off
29:32
your strobes and actually all of a sudden it seems as though the sea is alive with
29:37
divers seems everyone else has turned up back at the shot at the same time
30:11
as always I don't hang around on a sense once I've made the decision that it's time to come up I'm going to get up as
30:18
quickly as I
30:26
can for
31:00
[Applause] next thing to do is to remove my tag
31:05
this is a lazy shot that we put in earlier and you can see it's under quite a bit of strain almost
31:12
certainly the tide is picked up a bit on the surface and that's what's pulling
31:19
it as I look down I can see almost every other diver on the boat it's really
31:24
unusual to get this many people together at the lazy shot at the same time I
31:30
guess it's just one of those things you do enough diving it's bound to happen
31:40
eventually anyway I've hope You' enjoyed following me through my dive for me it's
31:45
been a cracker underwater visibility is awesome and I've had two great results
31:52
not only have I got a maker plate but I've got a nice lovely Lobster to have for my dinner as well
31:58
if you've enjoyed this video I'd love to hear from you in the comments section it'd also be great if you could like it
32:05
share it with other like-minded souls and of course it's always great news when somebody decides they want to
32:11
subscribe to my channel
#Diving & Underwater Activities
#Water Activities