WRECKTOUR:152 The Alex Van Opstal

THIS MONTH WE PICK UP on an old Weymouth favourite, the 5965-ton Belgian motor ship Alex Van Opstal, an early casualty of World War Two. It was sunk by a mine on 15 September, 1939, just 15 days after the German invasion of Poland.
Charter-boats generally hook a shotline across the bow (1), tipped over almost 90° to port, so that the deck is close to vertical and the starboard side rises a good 5m from the 30m seabed.
This section is easily recognisable, so divers can begin the dive with some orientation, even if it does become a bit tricky later on.
Following down the starboard side of the bow, our route passes a pair of bollards, a reel of mooring cable and then a trio of smaller bollards that would have served as fairleads for mooring cable. The starboard anchor (2) is a modern stockless design, and is tight in to the hawse-pipe.
On the deck, the stub of a mast (3) stands between the holes for the opposite ends of the hawse-pipes, with the beam of a derrick resting across it.
Behind the mast is the anchor-winch (4). The wreck now breaks down to the seabed, leaving a few holes to explore inside the bow for those suitably experienced and prepared.
Following the wreckage aft, towards the deck side (the Portland or west side) of the wreck, the next main feature is the right-angle corner of the coaming from the forward hold (5).
Soon after this come a pair of bollards, and then a pair of masts lying on the seabed, with cargo-winches either side of their bases (6).
The forward of these two winches is intact but the second is broken.
Most of the masts on the Alex Van Opstal can be found in pairs, because they were fitted in a goalpost arrangement, side by side.
Here is where navigating this wreck becomes a bit tricky. There is a break where the mine exploded beneath the second hold, so any diver who just follows the edge of the wreckage will most likely keep turning left, and end up following the keel back to the bow.
The trick is to judge the line of the wreck, either from the lay of the deck or from the keel, and head out onto the seabed, following scraps of wreckage as you go. One notable item is a tubular mast-foot (7), upside-down and tipped in towards the wreck.
In good visibility, this is easy. In poor vis, divers could just as easily lose the wreck completely.
Within about 10m, the wreckage begins to pick up again, with hull- and deck-plates and some curved assemblies of 2in pipe (8) that I suspect were refrigeration machinery, either for galley supplies or a refrigerated hold.
The wreckage becomes denser as our route approaches the middle of the ship, with debris from the superstructure including another pair of masts and a windowed section of plate that may once have been part of the engine-room skylight and ventilator (9).
Just a little in from this, a section of hull-plate has a line of circular holes (10) where portholes were once fitted.
Little remains of the first hold aft, but the point between the aft holds is easily identified by another pair of masts (11).
The aft hold is similarly unrecognisable, and our route soon comes to the stern (12). Like the bow, this has fallen to port.
Unlike the bow, most of the upper deck has broken apart, with some debris including an easily recognisable pair of bollards (13) on the seabed.
The open ribs of the stern (14) form an impressive tunnel that can be followed the rest of the way aft.
Rounding the stern, the rudder (15) lies flat to the seabed and remains attached to the rudder-post. Inside the propeller cut-out, the propeller has been salvaged, but the tail-end of the shaft still protrudes from the stern gland.
The keel of the hull is initially intact (16) but soon breaks open. A little further on the propeller-shaft reappears (17), and can be followed all the way forwards through an arch of propshaft tunnel (18).
The wreckage then banks up over the shaft (19), presumably held up by the remains of the engine. A broken thrust bearing is just visible beneath the debris.
I once spent ages looking for the usual steam-engine machinery and boilers, only to find out later that the Alex Van Opstal was a motor ship, so had a diesel engine.
This section of the ship (20) is basically upright, but broken down to a lower deck, with most of the upper part of the wreck and superstructure fallen off the port side that we followed aft earlier on our tour.
Towards the forward and starboard side a split runs along it, through which a pump can be seen (21).
Across on the port side, a hull-plate (22) bridges between the lower part of the hull and the seabed to make a big triangular swim-through, but I would venture inside only in very good visibility.
The Alex Van Opstal is a big wreck. Even once you know your way around, it will take a good 30 minutes to complete this route. A drifting decompression will be necessary on a delayed SMB

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