Lewes Lass

 I thought we may have been able to locate the stone from the 'Lewes Lass' but after looking into it a bit further it seems it was wrecked onshore rather than the paper seems to suggest, just offshore.

The ship was broken up and used in the construction of two cottages, 1&2 Lewes Lass Cottages, Ninfield Rd, Sidley. The figurehead was perched up on the roof, sadly no longer.

Not sure if the cottages are there any longer but it seems Bexhill Museum has a picture of them.

Nyon

 

HMT Frostaxe

Frostaxe as Atlas

Built at North Shields by Edwards as ATLAS in 1899. More information and pictures here

With only about 6 miles southwest of Newhaven to go on and nothing in that area to investigate, this is likely to remain missing. I have a few very small marks that might have once been worth exploring, and I’ve checked some of them, but nothing appeared on the sounder. 

It was a wooden vessel, now so rotted away that whatever remains is likely buried beneath the sand. However, the provided position could be far off, and the remains might still be waiting to be uncovered or identified.

Royal Navy, HM Trawler Frostaxe - First World War Casualties - A Street Near You

Frank Channor , the first chap in the post above, missed all the goings on in his home town of Lee Common.

The paper reports the Frostaxe as Forsdyke and it being hit by a Swedish ship. The media have never been very good at getting their facts right!

Clio

 Magnum found this one as well as the bell, which had no name unfortunately, but cargo and position makes it a good bet..

The Clio had been in service since 1845 when in1876 she was in collision with the Austrian steamer Narenta in fog between Beachy Head and Dungeness.

Registered as a barque , the three masted vessel had square rigged sails on the fore and mid mast and fore and aft rigged sails at the stern ; also additional fore sails rigged to a long bowsprit .

At 107.5ft long and 27.7ft wide Clio was rated at 205 tons.

Built by Austin and Mills of Southwick Sunderland she was launched 23^rd April 1845 and registered in the ownership of Collings and Co London on 22^nd May 1845 for service to Demerera , Guyana from Sunderland.

Clio had several owners over her life while mostly in the West Indies Trade, the last owner was C Harrison 14 St Hildas Terrace Whitby, and the Captain John Cummins.

The Clio’s last voyage to Newcastle started in Gabes ( Kabes ) Tuniscia , a small port on the mouth of a river with a bar using lighters to load to anchored ships. Only opened up to international trade by the opening of a customs post in 1874. ( now Tuniscia’s 6^th largest city )

Loaded in mid April 1876 with iron ore and Esparto Grass an important return cargo for UK to Mediterranean coal ships. Used in paper making 147518 tons were imported to the UK in 1876 with 21820 tons from Tunisia.

The high quality hematite iron ore could have been for Beckow and Vaughan new Bessemer steel plant opened in 1875at Eston Middlesborough which couldn’t used the low quality local ores they had been using for iron making.

The dense iron ore would have left space in the hold for the Esparto Grass. To avoid making the vessel to stiff the ore was made into a wedge shape mound along the center line. ( steam ships often carried Esparto as a deck cargo over iron ore in the hold not a viable proposition for a sailing ship.

On about the16th of April the Clio left Gabes for Newcastle on Tyne, , on the 31^st of May the master Captain John Cummins died and on the 1^st of June the Clio put into Lisbon where the captain was interred . Captain F Leng (could be Long ) of Boston took over command leaving Lisbon on the 8^th of June.

By Wednesday the 5^th of June at 8.30 pm Clio was off Beachy Head 5 miles west by north of the Royal Sovereign Light Vessel. A thick fog soon enveloped her and the fog horn kept going. There was a nice breeze South by West the vessel traveling through the water at six knots. Between 9 and10 o'clock the lookout reported a steamers lights some distance on the starboard bow this was the Narenta ( poss Marentha ) an Austrian vessel registered in Trieste under the command of Captain Druscovich. The steamers course it was stated was not altered a single point , her whistle was not heard and shortly afterwards she came within hailing distance of the barque. Captain Leng shouted several times to port his helm and in about a minute the steamer struck the barque by the fore rigging cutting into her decks and immediately backing off. Some of the crew including the captain clambered onto the steamers rigging and saved themselves, while others were by the force of the collision hurled overboard and one or two men jumped into the water. Captain Leng and his crew lowered one of the steamers boats and succeeded in rescuing three of the five who were overboard. The steamer also lowered a boat and burned a blue light for some time. The Clio sank in about four to five minutes after the collision John Best AB of Gottenburg and John Stent an apprentice were drowned.

The Narenta landed the survivors at Cardiff.

Lots of reports give position as 15 mile off Dungeness , the captains account of time and distance from Beachy Head and the fact the cargo is iron ore make the Clio a good bet for where she was found.

AAA Diving Diary

Yeah I probably should have started a diary about 20 years ago but I didn't. I'll try and keep this updated..

The content on YouTube represents years of diving by myself, Jamie, and Magnum 

11/05/25

First dive of the season after a nightmare few months fixing the boat!

2025 Boat Woes

Bit odd this mark as it shows up quite nice but we have both dived it and can't find anything. The viz was very poor but I did a circular search up to 20m and didn't snag anything. Perhaps it was sitting just out of sight. We're not ready to dismiss it just yet, we'll have one more go when the viz improves and do it as a bounce on the way back from a wreck, see if we have more luck!

North to South

East to West

31/05/25

Managed to get in for one dive. The previous Bank Holiday weekend was blown out everyday!

Thick fog all day and only had the morning as the wind was going to get up in the afternoon. 

Dived HMS Saltash low water, 25m. 3 runs up to drop the shot and still didn't shot it. It's really small!

4th go dropped the shot and after dragging it we pulled it back in. Another shot and this time we were happy. 

Jamie went in first and had to reel off but did get on the wreck. Nobody has been on the wreck as everything is where we left it. Viz was 2m max

Pinged what I believe is St Ronaig on the way back so will drop on that at some point. Jamie dropped in at the cannon site at the Buckle in 4m of water but came up a few minutes later as viz was zero and the sand has covered everything.

We did some work on the trailer as the wheel bearings are absolutely shot. As always it didn't go to plan, The outer race of one of the bearings got stuck in the hub/drum and after taking it home and using a small cutting disc, the new chocolate bearing is ready to go back in.

07/06/25

Another weekend and another blowout. Went and put three new bearings in the trailer instead before the wheels fell off, again.

So, new bearings except offside front which is ok for some strange reason!!

We picked up some fishing line when coming back up the river the previous weekend so removed the rear prop, removed the fishing line and after a struggle gave up on trying to remove the front prop, it's stuck fast.

Had to order a prop nut as the one we put back on to reattach the props is not winding up properly. Nothing is very simple. 

13/06/25

Went down the boat early to change the front prop. That didn't happen as we couldn't get it off, It's stuck fast! As we were running out of time we fitted a new prop nut ,to replace the bronze one that wasn't doing up. With that back on we set off about 20 mins late.

Conditions up top were fantastic, flat sea and blue sky. You could see 10m down the shot but on the bottom it wasn't quite so good but a gloomy 5-6m. We dived the Scallop wreck and as ever found no clues, it's a barren waste land down there!

We pinged a few marks on the way back to try and work out what we have and what we don't have. It's fair to say between Brighton Marina and Beachy Head to the shipping lanes we now know pretty much everything, even if we don't know what it all is!

Planteur is probably the only thing we pinged we want another go at, probably with the metal detector.

Possible Planteur

21/06/25

To early for the high water, none of us were getting down the boat for 05.30. Jim turned up and we went out for a splash on some rubbish wrecks during the tide as it was neap, and we could, just about!

First one was a metal box of some sort,. Jamie said a water tank or fuel tank, Jim had no idea and I thought possibly part of a vessel that had been a block ship that was towed out and scrapped ww2.

 

Second was St Ronaig. Not much of that left as it was blown to shit.

We then headed West a short distance to Magic...or what I believe is Magic Cut stone blocks and some signs of a wooden wreck.

We went out later, somewhat too late, so couldn't get to 'Not the Mohlem Prie' but did SS Midsurrey instead. What a dull wreck! 

Bows is boring, Large anchor, Donkey boiler, scrap metal...main boiler, upside down engine and 2 blades of a prop and steering and rudder gear laying on the sea bed smashed to shit. Quite how Im supposed to make a video out of all this shite I do not know. Maybe I wont!!!

29/06/25

A very Ill Jamie turned up to pick me up and he didn't get much better as the morning went on!

Got out to the 7Seas, or not 7Seas, and had a poke about port side where the sides fallen out to the seabed just behind the engine. Lot's of wood that was probably floor but no clues. Headed forward  and then drifted back down the starboard side. Disappointing viz, just a gloomy 3-4m. Still no clues!! A very frustrating wreck, but aren't they all!!

Jamie didn't dive which was the right decision. Zipped in a drysuit with the shits is not where you want to be.

Didn't do the HW as Jamie was not in a good way so headed home. More luck next weekend hopefully..

5/7/25

Blown out Saturday so no diving. Forecast said blown out Sunday but it wasn't. Still didn't go diving as nothing was sorted out.

12/07/25 

Blown out and lack of interest. 

18/07/25

Went out with Newhaven club boat on the Lancer in the morning. Viz was not so bad as I was first in but It went downhill when some newbies turned up. Nice to be underwater just hanging about though.

2nd dive on Scallop wreck. Same ol same as. It'll never give up a clue. Interesting how different people measure the viz...I put it at a gloomy 3-4m others at 2-3m and another two at a really clear 7m!!

Good to see cameras flooding, GoPro's lost (not for the owners, obviously!) and anchors thrown over unattached. I thought It was just us who had all the bad luck and mishaps.

Fun day out though and was well looked after. And we got the anchor back!

26/07/25

Lack of interest. Although had a great weekend on the mtb!

02/08/25

Shipped out of Newhaven. End of an era. 

10/08/25

Got back into diving after a bit of a break, and it definitely showed. After sorting everything on the boat the day before and getting home late, I ended up rushing to prepare my gear and forgot my torch and computer. Luckily, I used Jamie's spare, though it wasn’t ideal since I can  barely see anything without glasses on, and the numbers on it were tiny. I made it through, though! Jamie, using his new computer, wasn’t entirely sure how it worked, so he pressed a few buttons and jumped in. We’re still not sure if it was in gas-switching mode, but he survived too. He also left his reel and SMB on the boat, only to find his spare was a tangled mess when he tried to use it. Luckily he survived as well.

On our way back, we think we hit a clump of weed that tore the transducer off the bottom of the boat. Jamie spent 20 minutes underwater trying to reattach it, then I spent another 20 minutes, and we finally got it back in place. We turned it on to check, and it was completely knackered. £338 for a new one... Our luck really needs to turn around.

Even after all the disasters I did actually really enjoy the dive. An unknown wreck laying on it's starboard side. We'll do it on the Low water next time and be more organized... hopefully!!!!

23/08/25

A drunken weekend. Not sure I can remember it all. Did Clara I think!? Or not Clara...then a mound of stone with some anchors on it as a bounce. I think we went back out to Clara later and the tide was raging when I got in and the viz had gone and so was I nearly, down channel. 

Next day the ignition decided to play up and we missed slack so went and got pissed instead. Up early ...5.30ish onto a new mark. 

30/08/25

Blown out F4-5

6&7 /09/25 Blown out

8&9th /09/25

Went out to a wreck and had a good dive...more on this wreck later. The wind got up later in the day so did some drone flying and beer drinking as we were staying over.

Next day Jim came down at 5am for a 6am lock. Back to the previous days wreck but massive 7.74m tides are ruining things. No slack which makes filming pretty much impossible.

Tried the High water but then the boat started playing up after sucking up some dirty diesel so after conking out and fixing that problem, we then had a fisherman following us about so decided to bin the dive and go drink more beer and decide how we'd sort this dirty fuel problem.

We need some better luck. Or neap tide and settled weather would help a lot!

14/09/25

Blown out all weekend, yet again, but we drained the fuel out, cleaned the fuel tank and filtered the fuel. Just need the weather to improve!!

Unknown Plane

 

Watch on YouTube

Discovered by Magnum, believed to be a wing from a B17. That makes three aircraft recently found. The rest might be buried nearby under the sand, and whatever isn’t has likely been repeatedly struck by trawls over the years, or it disintegrated on impact and scattered across a wider area and then covered by the sand!? 

MidSurrey

Stern

                                                         Link to some footage of MidSurrey

Sinking