Diving

Hispania Dives

I've dived the "Hispania" 12 times:

Dive number Date Site Location Area Country Wreck Freshwater Depth (m) Bottom time (min) Total time (min) Divers Quality Summary Equipment
37
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13 Apr 1981 Hispania Sound of Mull Mull Scotland Wreck site 25 20 20 Iain Hosking, Eric Franz, Malcolm Gauld Four stars Dived with Malcolm & Eric in 2nd wave. Strong current, ~1 knot. Toured hold on two levels, then proceeded to bridge. Saw mast & derricks. Ran low on air so came up. Very pretty anemones, many of which we accidentally squashed. Steel 69, ABLJ 2
41
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16 Apr 1981 Hispania Sound of Mull Mull Scotland Wreck site 18 20 20 Iain Hosking, Geoff Hide, Murray Grant Four stars Started dive with Eric but he couldn't clear his ears so joined Geoff and Murray. Strong current on line as we inadvertently dived at full flood. Wreck sheltered owing to tilt. Swam through holds, bridge (and rooms behind) and stern. Too windy for bows. Great fun. Steel 69, ABLJ 2
88
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12 Apr 1982 Hispania Sound of Mull Mull Scotland Wreck site 25 25 25 Iain Hosking, Ross Butler Four stars Caught slack by good planning. Right round wreck - down buoy line to starboard side, in through holds to bows, back up port side, up and down mast, in through bridge, then engine room and aft cabin (where I lost Eric's torch). No gloves, but not too cold. Vis poor. own
96
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15 Apr 1982 Hispania Sound of Mull Mull Scotland Wreck site 28 26 26 Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair Three stars Hit slack again. Along starboard side, into bridge, engine room (deeper than last time), over side by mistake and into stern cabin to look for Eric's torch. Spent ages untying the buoy, and overstepped no stop time. Trouble with sinuses. own, except Malcolm's depth gauge
169
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8 Apr 1984 Hispania Sound of Mull Mull Scotland Wreck site 25 23 25 Iain Hosking, Pete Wilson Four stars An excellent dive. Round entire wreck apart from extreme stern. Into engine room, bridge, holds and up to bows. Very light and good vis. Quite strong current. own
217
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4 May 1985 Hispania Sound of Mull Mull Scotland Wreck site 23 25 30 Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken Four stars First dive with Sarah. Hauled our way down to the bows in the teeth of a gale, recovered our breath and headed aft. Good plowter around holds, bridge, stern section. Visibility good, conditions perfect - ace dive. own + EUSAC Scubapro Mk II
262
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13 Oct 1985 Hispania Sound of Mull Mull Scotland Wreck site 24 32 35 Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken Four stars Down the line to the bows, back to bridge via holds, into engine room, through an area with valves and pipes. Comprehensive tour of engine room and then into the aft holds. Over stern to prop shaft (and missing hull plate). Forward along starboard side to Captain's bath. Climbed mast, into chain locker and up. I think we saw about everything. own
310
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11 Oct 1986 Hispania Sound of Mull Mull Scotland Wreck site 26 27 30 Iain Hosking, Kenny Jack Five stars Stunning dive. Very clear, sunlight on wreck, thousands of fish -shoals of pollack and dozens of wrasse - some very big. Line came down to the stern - we headed forward, through the engine room and into the bridge, then out through the roof and on to the bows. Saw rust 'stalactites' in the chain locker very like those on the 'Titanic'. Back through holds and round starboard side.
331
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11 Apr 1987 Hispania Sound of Mull Mull Scotland Wreck site 24 27 30 Iain Hosking, Phil Gibbs Four stars Down line to stern and forward to the passageway on the second level of the hold. Swam along this for a while, but very murky so turned round and came back. Into engine room, forward to bridge, then out and swam along beside the rail to the bows. The anchor chain lies out along the seabed. Back to the stern - saw rudder (no prop). Seabed falls away on this side. Outboard engine knackered on the way back [due to motorcycle 2-stroke oil] so our boat was towed. Mark and I got bored and jumped off, swam to Calve Island, waded to the mainland and walked back, swimming a lake on the way.
341
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16 Apr 1987 Hispania Sound of Mull Mull Scotland Wreck site 24 23 25 Iain Hosking, Mark Inall Three stars Full flood and springs! NFP. Tough pull down the line to the stern, into hold and through tunnel to forward hold, then up onto the bows and into chain locker. Back into the teeth of a gale to the engine room (more collapsed than I remember). Back to stern and up.
355
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13 Jun 1987 Hispania Sound of Mull Mull Scotland Wreck site 25 27 29 Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken Four stars A fine day - new boat and engine so planed out to the wreck in double-quick time. Dived second, in quite a current. Vis was very good, and lots of fish - big ballan wrasse, smaller corkwing wrasse (very pretty), blennies and pollack. Swam through the tunnel and had a good rake around the engine room. Left a buoy on the wreck to return later.
356
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14 Jun 1987 Hispania Sound of Mull Mull Scotland Wreck site 24 32 34 Iain Hosking, Malcolm Gauld Five stars Our first boat dive on a wreck at night. Surface visibility exceptional, underwater ditto. The phosphorescence was incredible - we descended and ascended without torches, and the mast left a wake of phosphorescence behind it in the current. In between we saw most parts of the wreck, including the tunnel past the bridge (epic), the engine room and chain locker. An absolutely magic dive.