WRECKTOUR:162 The Aparima

THIS MONTH’S TOUR is the 5704-ton Aparima, one of a cluster of World War One U-boat victims off Anvil Point. Coastal geography has resulted in several such clusters of wrecks along England’s south coast, with this cargo liner being the largest wreck in this particular group.
On bigger wrecks at depth I find that it helps if the shot can be placed towards one end. This way, most of the wreck can be seen by swimming a single length of it, and popping a delayed SMB to ascend on reaching the other end.
For the Aparima, skipper Bryan Jones managed to place the shot conveniently at the stern, conveniently next to the gun-mount (1).
The stern and most of the wreck is broken to port, so heading downhill from the gun-mount takes us past a cargo-winch (2) and a reel of mooring cable to pairs of bollards that are pretty much level with the seabed, and a section of collapsed railing.
Turning aft, a big steel lozenge (3) is part of the steering mechanism. Next to this, the Aparima’s 4.7in stern gun (4) lies on the sand at 42m, with the breech towards the hull and the barrel pointing almost directly out from the wreck.
The steel lozenge (3) from the steering would have been located on the top of the rudder-post (5), now twisted away from vertical by the collapse of the stern.
The post leads through the stern to the rudder (6), pushed offline towards the starboard propeller-shaft (7). The propeller has been salvaged. The port shaft is buried beneath the stern.
The starboard shaft and the remains of the shaft tunnel (8) lead forward, visible beneath the collapsed starboard side of the hull. While the wreck has collapsed, the main deck and hold-coamings are pretty much intact.
Between the aft holds are four big cargo-winches (9). On the lower port side of the deck the railings have fallen outwards, and a section of hull shows empty portholes (10). Between the winches is the mast-foot, with the lower steel section of the mast fallen to port and slightly forwards (11).
The upper part of the mast and derricks would probably have been wooden and therefore decayed.
Continuing forward past the next hold, we come to the Aparima’s two triple-expansion engines, both fallen to port with the crankshaft from the port engine (12) covered by the starboard engine (13). In classic steamship terminology, you may find this type of configuration described as “six cylinders of triple-expansion engine on two shafts”.
Steam for the engines was provided by three boilers: a pair (14) with the furnaces pointing forwards into the stoke hold, then a single boiler (15) with the furnaces pointing aft. The hull and decks above have collapsed, with the exception of a single ladder (16) that stands on the starboard side.
In addition to cargo the Aparima carried passengers, and was also a training ship for the Union Steamship Company’s cadets. So there would originally have been a fair amount of accommodation in the superstructure above the boilers and engines.
Heading on past the forward holds, the main deck and coamings are as intact as the aft holds, with a similar arrangement of fittings. Four big cargo-winches (17) are arranged about a mast-foot.
Next to the mast-foot, a spare anchor (18) is folded and secured to the deck.
The lower section of the mast (19) has similarly fallen to port and slightly forwards.
While the bow has fallen to port, the deck has collapsed within it, so that the anchor-winch (20) is almost level. The port anchor (21) hangs from its hawse-pipe beneath the bow.
On the higher starboard side, the hawse-pipe (22) is empty. The point at which the starboard side of the bow rises a few metres above the general level of the wreck provides a good location for releasing a delayed SMB for a drifting decompression.

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DEPTH -20m 20m-35m 35m-45m 45m+ DIFFICULTY RATING