Name of Wreck: Guide Me II

Diving Grade required: Club Diver and above.

Description of Wreck:

Launched from Aberdeen in (1915)

Dimensions – 26m X 5.6m Draught – 2.0m. 100 Tons

The Guide Me II is near to Dun Laoghaire (30 min transit time), deep enough for a challenge yet diveable on Nitrox, handy-sized, and full of marine life.

The Guide Me II was a steel-hulled drift net fishing boat built in Aberdeen in 1907. In 1915, she was hired by the British Admiralty, fitted with a six-pound gun, and put to use as an anti-submarine coastal patrol boat. She sank in 1918 after a collision, The 94th anniversary of the sinking was Wednesday, 29th Aug, sunk 1918, one crewman lost. Edward Archibold. Not mentioned on the wreck articles, but listed in RN losses, and now lies about 1.4 km east-south-east. She was rediscovered in 1990.

The wreck sits on a coarse sandy seabed and is upright and very intact 1.5 kn SE of the Mugglins. At 26m long, it’s easy to do a complete circuit without going into deco. The impact site is clearly visible as a large hole on the port side. The gun has been raised and is in the Maritime Museum in Dun Laoghaire, but the holds, gun platform and parts of the wheelhouse are all still intact. There are lobsters and crabs and plenty of fish, with shoals of whiting and bib hovering around the wheelhouse, and many congers – especially in the scour pit at the propeller.

Diving the Wreck:

Transit time to dive site: Allow 30 min

Slack water dive 1 hour before low water or 1.5hrs before HW

Navigating the wreck and what to look out for,

The shot line is attached to the Gunmount approx 4m from the bow. If you drop over the bow on the port side you will spot large conger eels in a gap between the keel and the sea bed further along you will find the impact damage where you can look inside but recommended not to enter. Continue to the propeller which has a protective shroud on it. If you follow up the stern you will come to what is left of the wheel house follow up the deck and you will find lobsters and conger in the holds also shoals of whiting all around you. When you get to the bow turn 180 degrees where there is a small focsal and then the gunmount and shot line.

Precautions:

1. 1.                   Max Depth – 38M Club diver qualification and above
2. 1.                   Max Time – 19 mins – NDL
3. 2.                   Current – on the wreck if dived at correct time negliable however you will feel it on the shot line
4. 3.                   Viz – 0-10m+ it is alwas a dark dive so a good torch is essential
5. 4.                   Torch Essential

    WATCH AIR & DECO

Further information

http://www.infomar.ie/data/Shipwrecks/Box45/pdfs/HMS%20Guide%20Me%20II_Final.pdf