The Catterthun is a big wreck about 3
km north east of Seal Rocks and is plagued by currents.
Visibility is highly variable, from brail to crystal clear and rarely
in between. The Catterthun is blanketed by red
sponge, gorgonian fans and black coral, which add to its beauty.
There are nearly always sharks of some type on the wreck along with
schools of kingfish, jewfish and snapper. It is common to see
bronze whalers and hammerheads here. There are loads of artefacts to
discover but please don’t damage or remove any. Of particular
interest are horse bones in the bow, passenger jewellery, and three
missing boxes of gold sovereigns. The horses were intended as
cavalry reinforcements.
The biggest hazard for a dive on the
Catterthun is the strong current. With a long decompression
time a diver who loses the anchor line can surface kilometers away
from the boat. All divers must have at least one surface marker
buoy (SMB) with a 50 meter line for subsurface deployment. The Catterthun is a dive for very experienced divers only.
History:
At 2:30 am, the Catterthun struck the
reef at full speed. Water poured into her hull. The ship sank within 15 minutes,
at 2.45 am. The only lifeboat successfully launched
collected 26 survivors leaving 55 lives behind.
