INVERCLYDE

 

LENGTH 37m

BEAM 7m

215 TONS

 

 

 

The Inverclyde was a Royal Navy requisitioned Steam Trawler, built in 1914. During WW1 there was a large programme of purchasing trawlers to provide a cheap anti submarine, minesweeping and patrol services. Many trawlers were purchased and converted. The Royal Navy settled on three standard designs. Mersey, Castle and the Strath. The Inverclyde fall into the smaller Strath design. Light armament were supplied. The Mersey's, Castles and Strath's all carried one 12-pounder gun.

The Inverclyde had two doses of war service. In WW1 she was on minesweeping  and patrol duties, under her original name of Perihelion. Once demobbed she was renamed Ganock Rock, becoming the Inverclyde in time to be called up again in August 1939, for WW2. Why the Inverclyde was under tow on 16th October 1942 is unknown, but during the tow she sank. 

THE DIVE

Now this Steam trawler is a shallow wreck. Her boiler, which powered it's triple expansion engine, being the largest part being 3m high off the sandy-mud sea bed. West /North West of this is the mostly flat broken plates of the wreck, scattered over a wide area. This is a good novice training site and can lead into a drift dive.

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