21 Oct 2007 - HMS Ludlow found (finally) and Dived...
Lying in 6-7m off Yellowcraigs Beach, at Broad Sands...it isnt easy to find and conditions have to be right, a long walk of over a mile across the Dunes, it isnt for the faint hearted!Today I Dived Eyemouth in the Morning and then Dived her with Shane Wasik from Heriot Watt SAC...
Large Part of the Hull.....
HMS Ludlow - Ex USS Stockton was one of 50 'Lend Lease' Destroyers given to the Royal Navy by the US Navy in 1940, in exchange for bases in the Carribean.
USS Stockton was built in 1916 and served with the US Navy in WW1 on Convoy Duty, operating from Kingstown in Ireland, she had a eventful war, colliding and sinking a Merchant Ship , destroying her Bows in the process, and engaging a U-Boat with gunfire in 1918, she was laid up in 1922, then given to the UK in 1940, refitted and operated on East Coast Convoys until 1945 when worn out she was towed to Yellowcraigs and used as a rocket target for RAF Typhoons from Drem and East Fortune, she then was left and apart from some salvage in the 1960's has been left to the Sea and almost forgotten...except by me!
She lies 200m offshore in 6-7m and is broken into 3-4 pieces, mainly buried in the sand, it is now a reef and is home to lots of life, Wrasse, Lobsters, Crabs, and lots of Brittlestars and various Hydroids and Truncates...best dived from the Boat...or wait until low water and paddle around her!
Some Images at:-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/steviestuff/
USS Stockton was built in 1916 and served with the US Navy in WW1 on Convoy Duty, operating from Kingstown in Ireland, she had a eventful war, colliding and sinking a Merchant Ship , destroying her Bows in the process, and engaging a U-Boat with gunfire in 1918, she was laid up in 1922, then given to the UK in 1940, refitted and operated on East Coast Convoys until 1945 when worn out she was towed to Yellowcraigs and used as a rocket target for RAF Typhoons from Drem and East Fortune, she then was left and apart from some salvage in the 1960's has been left to the Sea and almost forgotten...except by me!
She lies 200m offshore in 6-7m and is broken into 3-4 pieces, mainly buried in the sand, it is now a reef and is home to lots of life, Wrasse, Lobsters, Crabs, and lots of Brittlestars and various Hydroids and Truncates...best dived from the Boat...or wait until low water and paddle around her!
Some Images at:-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/steviestuff/