WRECKTOUR:154 Count D’Aspremont

AFTER THE COMPLEXITY of last month’s sunken train-set, the small 452-ton steamship Count D’Aspremont brings us back to the hazards of navigating the coastal waters of West Wales, with numerous rocks and reefs and roaring currents round the headlands.
On 9 December, 1903, the Count D’Aspremont struck Horse Rock in the middle of Ramsey Sound and, four hours later, was carried off by the rising tide into deeper water.
The wreck settled well over on its port side, just short of falling completely upside-down, and has broken apart from that orientation.
The starting point of our tour is again the boiler (1), which rises to 22m from a seabed that generally slopes from 25m to 27m beneath the wreck.
The boiler is rolled just past 90°, as shown by the two fireboxes on the back of the boiler being one above the other. The Count D’Aspremont was fitted with a two-cylinder compound engine (2).
Heading aft from the boiler, this can be seen poking out from under the nearside of the arch of hull that continues aft.
The engine protrudes from the port side of the wreck, but it is actually the starboard side of the hull, because of how far it has rolled over.
Staying on this side, just a little out from the hull a single small piston stands up from the seabed.
This is too small to have been part of the main engine, and was possibly from a pump, or perhaps the drive engine for a cargo-winch (3) just a little further along.
The downhill side of the wreck is the interesting side, with many rotted plates in the hull (4) giving plenty of opportunities to poke a head inside and look along the steel cavern and the propeller-shaft above.
To get inside would be a bit of a tight squeeze, and you would have to remember just which hole is big enough to fit through to get back out again.
At the stern, the four-blade iron propeller (5) is still in place, although the rudder (6) has broken off and lies just off the stern against the rocks. Various scraps of debris lie off this side of the wreck, but I could find no sign of the steering gear.
Considering the age of the wreck, this was most likely a tiller mechanism rather than a quadrant, connected to the helm by cables or chains.
Heading back past the boiler, a drum (7) projecting from the side, which is actually the top of the boiler, is a dryer for the steam. Straight from the boiler, steam could contain droplets of water that, when passed into the engine, decrease the efficiency. The dryer heats the steam again to create “dry” steam without the water droplets.
Out from the boiler and a little further forward, a pair of bollards (8) have fallen clear of the main debris of the hull.
Back in to the hull from these and a similar distance forwards, the helm (9) rests tucked in against the hull.
The line of the flattened hull is broken by a right-angled edge of plates and ribs (10) that is twisted out to port, with another pair of bollards just off the end. This is not a significant piece of wreckage by itself, but gives a hint of how the remains of the bow have fallen later.
Back on the main line of the hull, it soon fizzles out with a reel of mooring cable (11). A few ribs can be traced in the gravel, but this is essentially the end of the continuous wreckage of the hull.
Following our clue earlier, where the right-angle edge of ribs (10) was twisted out to port, and knowing that the wreck generally has rolled to port, we get a good indication of where to look for more wreckage.
Just a little further forward, and in line with the port side of the hull, anchor-chain (12) is piled up where the chain-box has decayed, with a line of chain leading off slightly downhill. The line is just about straight, but then folds back at the end.
Following this established line a little further, we come to a pair of derricks (13) and the anchor-winch (14), resting upside-down and partly hidden beneath its mounting-plate.
From the anchor-winch, one of the anchor hawse-pipes (15) is easily in sight, though there is no sign of a second hawse-pipe or of either anchor. It is possible that the Count D’Aspremont had only one, or perhaps the other was torn loose when it struck the rock.
A ribbed section of wreckage (16) just to starboard from the hawse-pipe is actually the stem of the bow. The final scraps of wreckage are a couple of hull-plates (17) in 27m.
Our tour now returns through the scraps of bow to the main body of the wreck (18) and across to the starboard side (19).
With this being the keel, there is not much to see, though further aft past the boiler there are a few valve fittings (20) scattered on the seabed.
On a wreck this easy to navigate, if the current has not picked up too much and there is not too much decompression to bubble off, ascending the shotline is an option.
However, when the tides do pick up in Ramsey Sound it will be sudden, violent and turbulent. This would not be the time to try popping a delayed SMB from halfway up a shotline. A more cautious alternative is to make the entire ascent on a delayed SMB from the wreck.

Thanks to Bob Lymer, Mark Deane and Jim Hopkinson.

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