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After exploring around the bow area for some time, we turned our scooters and headed aft. Past the upturned conning tower, the hull reformed to its full shape. The hull amidships is sagging – I suspect that it is being held up by the amidships Q turret barbette and turret. The 12-inch thick vertical armour belt of the citadel and the internal horizontal armour deck are immensely strong and, allied to Q turret barbette, seem to be holding the wreck together here, as with the German World War I battleships at Scapa Flow.

The stern of Audacious still has both rudders upright and displays the aft submerged torpedo tube. © Barry McGill

The bottom of a battleship is unarmoured – just simple 1-inch-thick steel plating. It was so deep in the water that it was safe from any enemy shell or torpedo, the only danger seemingly being from running aground. Battleships were constructed with strong double bottom frames, the double bottom spaces holding oil and water.

As we sped aft down the upturned hull we soon arrived at perhaps the most visually stunning area of this wreck – the stern. Audacious has a small, almost delicate, stern with the upturned quarterdeck sitting flat on the sand. Both large rudders still stand upright, rising from the underside of the stern – and at the very stern itself is the aperture for her submerged stern torpedo tube.