Oost Vlaanderen

Rhine Barge
Location: NW of the lower heads buoy
Depth: 33m
Weight: 421 tons
Cargo: Cement
Date of Sinking: 23/5/43 
Armed motor vessel: Depth - 22mtrs to 31mtrs.

Built 1931: 412 tons


During the Second World War when the Islands were occupied by German forces. The Dutch Rhine barge Oost Vlaanderen arrived off St Peter Port in May 1943, laden with cement and a few guns. Before she reached the safety of the harbour, she was attacked by allied aircraft and sank within minutes.
   

This wreck was sunk by the RAF in May 1943 and was part of a convoy travelling to Guernsey from St Malo to supply the occupying German forces, she sank after being struck on the waterline forward of number 1 hold and sank with the loss of all hands.
The Channel Islands experience one of the largest tidal movements on earth which can make for some exhilarating drift dives, so as we were going to dive on a 9.1m tide I had very little hope of a big slack tide window in which to dive.

The plan for Friday was fairly simple, get on the boat, shoot out to the Cement wreck and do a dive. We trundled out to the OostVlaanderen (which is only 1.5 miles from St Peter Port). Known locally as the cement wreck, it is a reasonably intact fairly conventional steam powered coaster with an AA gun's and cement in the hold's. 

The sun was shining and the seas relatively flat when we arrived at 6pm, and not a minute too soon as it looked like slack water was already upon us.  Once on site, the shot line and anchor were deployed and it was time for the off. I was going to do about 25mins along with my partner in crime Gary who was going to about the same.The depth of this wreck makes nitrox a good choice.
 

On jumping in, I knew the vis would be good, but it wasn’t until I got to the bottom and my eyes adjusted I realised quite how poor it was!  Looks like a second plankton bloom is on its way...  Once again, as with all our wrecks around these waters congers seem to be living in every hole and huge shoal's of Pout hover over the wreck.
 I would say the vis was limited to 6m in a torch beam and was certainly not over 8m,  There was plenty of sediment in the water.

Laying in front of me was an upright but battered wreck on a white shingle seabed. My depth at this

point was 32m.

The shot was lying on the port side of the wreck, so from here we swam across the stern and towards the bow.

On reaching the bow, I swam into the forward anchor room and had a quick look around and poked in the debris and mud for a bit.  Swimming back out into the forward hold, I was surrounded by a massive shoal of pout darting in and out of the wreck as if they were trying to avoid the beady eyes of the resident congers. I was on a mission on this dive to return to the stern and ambush a big bug I had seen lurking on my last dive, Nothin’doin’ he'd seen me coming and disappeared deep inside the wreck, (next time I'll have him).
Heading back towards the bow and dropping into no 2 hold, I carried on poking around the AA guns at whatever was poke-worthy. With a dwindling No Deco Limit, I headed back to the shot line just in time to see the rest of the gang coming down. Passing them on the line we went our separate ways. During my hangtime bursts of air bubbles shot past me, letting me know that the boys were still have fun on the bottom.

Hauling my ass out over the gunwale it was time to get de-kitted and get down to sorting and hauling gear, driving home, cleaning gear and all the tasks large and small that accompany diving.  This was delayed by one of Gary's friends who unknown to us had turned up over the wreck site while we were down in his boat. Dave shouted across to us to see if we fancied popping across to our sister island of Herm for a few beers. Time to abandon ship, still in my drysuit we grabbed out gear transferred it to the other boat and shot over to Herm. While enroute I phoned ahead to Jen who had booked some boaty tickets for Herm and the Cider and Real Ale Festival that was taking place that night, to get the beers in for when we arrived. The Mermaid Tavern was packed. Had a couple of beers at the festival, different to the 'old' style in that there were not wooden barrels everywhere and just 2 ciders, however we coped very well! The BBQ was good and the company even better. Saw lots of old friends, which is always nice for a yarn. A young dude called Josh played at the Tavern followed no less than by The Barley Dogs (minus Clem unfortunately). They were excellent however. Jen said they even struck up a few notes on the M.V. Travel Trident on the way back which was awesome - just like the old days ....