About midway between Yealm head and Hillsea Point rocks lies a stretch of water known locally as Fairyland, or the Fairy Grotto’s. It is a great area for photography and its attraction is heightened by the presence of a small trawler wreck. The wreck has been stripped of its engines and fittings and really just acts as a background for your shots. Because it was so derelict, I had never really given much thought to how it got there, and a very cursory trawl through the local newspapers suggested it had sunk by accident and there was no great story attached.
Even so a wreck is a wreck, and it niggled at me, as I just don’t like NOT knowing. After all, I am supposed to be wreck historian (amateur). I had just made up my mind to devote some time to finding out what trawler it was, when I came across a letter in ‘Diver’ from Karen Williams who basically had done some serious digging and solved the whole problem together with ‘Dive Skipper’ Peter Hambly who owns the dive boat Furious. I am very grateful for their efforts.
It turns out that the wreck is that of a sixty foot shrimp trawler called the Viking Princess (PH407) built around 1960. At some stage she had also been used as a scalloper and was originally named as the Renilde Maartje (RX282) when she was based at Rye and Newhaven.
In the early 1990’s with fishing in serious decline the government decided to reduce the size of the fleet by offering inducements to fishermen to decommission their boats. This meant that they would have to be destroyed. Ten Plymouth trawlers between forty and sixty five feet were designated for decommission and their skippers suggested that they should be sunk in Whitsand Bay to form an artificial reef. This great idea was naturally turned down, so the trawlers were cut up and scrapped. The Viking Princess was partially scrapped in Hooe Lake in 1993 and in 1996, her engines were removed and the top of her bow cut off. She was now approved for decommissioning so in the Autumn of that year she was taken in tow by the Tug Kinsman for her last journey to Galmpton Creek on the River Dart. It wasn’t the best of weather and as the sea became rougher the Viking Princess became overwhelmed and sank where she now lies. So what is she like to dive
The Viking Princess lies more or less upright in about 25 meters . The bottom is predominately rocky with small reefs and some sand patches. The wreck is completely open, so presents no obstacles to a good ferret about. At the stern is what looks like a large propeller guard, but is actually a Kort nozzle which improved the efficiency of the engine when under extreme load during fishing. The wreck is usually swarming with small Pouting and some female cuckoo wrasse, who happily pose for the camera, and under the port side, near the stern, is a nice conger eel. There is not a lot to see, but it is quite photogenic , with the exposed ribs and fish giving you plenty of photo opportunities. Most people use this as a second dive coming back from the Persier, but I prefer it as a first dive, so I can spend plenty of time in the fairy grottoes.
When Karen found the wreck she did these drawings to help identify it.
In March 2012 Dave Page found this anchor about 30 meters from the bow.It is obviously much older, but nothing else is known. Photos are Dave Pages.
April 2012
In the storms of 2014 the Viking Princess was smashed to pieces.
john williams says
Karen, my wife,discoverd the wreck during a drift dive in August 2000.
For some time we had it to ourselves,it was interesting to see how it was deteriorating with time, and to see species come and go.
A lot of pine deckng, although worn was still in place and a lot of boat”gash,” paint tins,rusty pulleys and other junk was still in the hull.
After a few years the word got out and the wreck was found by magnetometer search.
Since then the passage of time and plenty of shot weights have done a lot of damage. We wrote an article for Diver magazine published in April 2006. We have a large collection of pictures of the wreck taken over the years. John Williams
Alexander S says
Just to correct some of her history the Viking Princess was actually built in Rotterdam in 1917 as a sailing barge called Catherina Geertruida.
She changed ownership and names a few times in Urk and Breskens before moving to Ostend Belgium and changing her name once more to Renilde.
She came across the channel to Brixham Devon in 1971 before moving up the channel to Rye Sussex in about 1973 and changing name to Viking Prncess.
She moved on again to Newhaven Sussex till finally ending her fishing days in Plymouth Devon.
Not bad for an old girl of 103 years old!