It is always exciting to dive a wreck that is unknown. Especially when very few others have dived the site.

Well this is exactly the case on one of the deeper dives I did out of Portsmouth towards the end of last season. And hopefully intend to return again in the 2008 season.

The wreck lies in 65 metres of water and about 3 hours cruising out of Portsmouth, SE of the Isle of Wight. I dived this wreck on open circuit trimix in September of 2007 and it turned up a couple of surprises.

Some initial research suggested that the size of the wreck was similar to that of the Russian spy trawler, Gorizont, that sank in 1975. The wreck shoes as being approx 110 metres long and sits 15-20 metres proud of the sea bed. However, it is about 6 miles away from the reported position issued by the navy.

I had a discussion with a “Buster” Brown, following a small write-up that appeared in the local newspaper prior to the dive.

Buster was part of the original naval team that dived the Gorizont back in 1975 and he had suggested they cut their way through the side of the wreck looking for the encryption machine. However, the wreck was upside down and filled with large air pockets that made the ship move and roll about on the sea bed.

It was deemed that the dive and exploration of the wreck by the navy in 1975 was too dangerous to continue. The diving was aborted and the encryption machine never recovered.

So was the wreck we dived the Gorizont?

Being so far out and so deep we expected the visibility to be good. But as soon as we jumped off the back of the dive boat we knew it was going to be poor. In fact, it was a maximum 4 metres all the way down to 66 metres.

Out of 10 that intended to dive only 5 got in the water, due to equipment malfunctions for one diver (good old rebreathers) and sea sickness from a few others.

Being on open circuit scuba we only had about 20 minutes bottom time and the visibility meant we could only cover a very small patch of the wreck.

The construction was not as we expected being made of large riveted plates. She sat on her port side and she was big. One of the other dive teams reported seeing what looked like a man made cut in the starboard side of the ship - could this be the entry the navy used and Buster had mentioned?

But this wreck was a long way from the reported position for the Gorizont. However, it is not unfeasible that a wreck, upside down and filled with air, could skip along the sea bed. After all this has occured with submarines I have dived. Once the air pockets are set free from the rocking of the wreck the wreck tends to sit in her final pisition.

All I can say at this point is that we need to do more dives and hopefully get some video footage of her.

Hopefully all will be revealed in time.

Anyone with details of this or any other unknown wreck, please do get in touch.