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The two-storey casemate with the originally uppermost barrel lying on the seabed. The uppermost firing port has been plated over, the plate having now corroded in its centre. The main mast runs out on the seabed to right of shot. (Author’s collection)

To the east, one of the two 6-inch gun barrels which have impaled themselves some 5 metres into the seabed as they fell off the ship as she capsized. A third gun was found lying flat on the seabed whilst the fourth is under the wreck. (Author’s collection)

It was becoming clear as the dive went on, that lots of large items such as guns and boilers had fallen off the ship as she capsized – they were all lying in a debris field on the east or port side of the wreck as she now lay. This already confirmed wartime reports from the 12 survivors that she capsized to starboard on the surface.

I moved back towards the wreck and saw a row of portholes lying on the seabed along the side of the ship, in sections of hull plating. These portholes were originally situated in the unarmoured deck above the main waterline armour belt, and they had been still in situ in the ship’s side when I dived her last in 2000. Since then, the weight of the non-ferrous portholes had triumphed over the rotting, unarmoured shell plating, and one by one they had fallen to the seabed, taking large rotted sections of shell plating with them. The structure of the ship remained – minus the shell plating with its row of portholes, leaving a seemingly black horizontal expanse, which ran fore and aft for about 150 feet, opening directly into the innards of the ship.