100 Best Wreck Dives
THE PHOENIX - 100
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| Number 100 |
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6044-ton, A-1 type Mulberry unit, built 1943. 204ft x 56ft beam, 60ft high, drawing 20ft, concrete with steel reinforcing rods. Floating 'egg-box ' of 22 compartments. Part of prefab D-Day harbours being towed by tugs to Normandy. Bofors gun on top platform amidships.
Position: 50 44.63N; 00 42.32W, (all positions are GPS).
Depth: 9m.
Sunk: After being raised in 1944, settled again and broke back across hole that was former 'parking' place. Showed 40ft until used for rocket practice by RAF.
Diving: Known as the Far Mulberry, very broken, partly under sand/shingle. Paradise for photographers with bass, pouting, pollack, brill and turbot. Southern end weed-covered. Northern sloping end, probably stern, clear and home to mussels and dead men's fingers. East side best preserved, towing bollards in place. Other victims of RAF bombing within finning distance - concrete petrol barge, infantry landing craft, air-sea rescue float called a Cuckoo.
Launch: Selsey, Pagham, Bognor, Littlehampton. |
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