Round and Round the Mulberry..
Whilst waiting to actually get a dive in the sea I thought I would write a brief description of a site I enjoy very much, but which I will probably see little of this year due to the boat I regularily used leaving the area.
This site is off the coast of West Sussex in the south of England. It lies at around 10m deep and makes a refreshing change from the tendancy that UK divers sometimes have of assuming the best is always deeper.
Mulberry units were large concrete structures built for the Normandy landing in World War 2. They were essentially pre-fabricated harbours, built in pieces in Britain and then floated over to Normandy to create the harbour facilities that would be needed to get large amounts of kit, and forces, into France. They were large, hollow, concrete blocks, that could be floated by pumping the water out from the inside, towed across the channel, and then sunk to the bottom to leave a section showing clear of the sea.
The story behind what now lays on a sandy seafloor just off Selsey Bill is one of a failure to deploy, rather than a loss due to enemy action. This unit was, along with many others, staged in the area until it was due to be deployed. When the time came it was floated but something went wrong in the operation and it had to be restteled on the seabed. However it did not settle down in exactly the same place and accidently caught on a sandbar, or its own scour, and as the weight was taken the back of the unit was “broken”. At that point it was no longer any use and was abandoned. It was later blown up to protect shipping from hitting it and it now lies in large chunks, piled over each other.
Of course, lying on a clean sandy floor it has turned into a haven for wildlife - the only safe shelter for a large area. It is this wildlife, rather than the “wreck features” that make it such an fabulous dive. Although you can circumnavigate the site two or three times in an average dive you shouldn’t rush. The concrete slabs form walls and crevices that attract what must be almost every type of creature commonly seen along the south coast.
Upon descent the first thing that may strike you are the enormous shoals of bib and poor cod that habitually gather just off the end of the unit. There must be hundreds of fish in one place, and hanging around, quietly, in the sunshine at 10m, being engulfed by the shoal and then released again is an abiding memory of this site.
Swimming slightly out there will be pollack. They are fewer in number than the bib, but patrol more purposefully in hope of a meal made from smaller fish.
Moving along the wreck, be careful of the sharp rods of steel reinforcement that now protrude from the concrete. The ends have been honed to a spearlike point by decades of rusting and they can easily puncture a drysuit, wing, or worse - you! A fellow diver even managed to impale a fin firmly upon one!
The gaps between slabs and the cracks are home to velvet swimming crabs, edible crabs and lobster (but remember the no-take rule!). You can sometimes see bass hunting over the top and the ubiquitous wrasse - ballan, corkwing and cuckoo - are present. If you are like me and fascinated by the small stuff, then pay close attention to the top edges of the concrete, in the light, where you can spot nudibranchs grazing.
At the far end from the bouy where you are likely to be dropped in is a large, sloping flat wall of concrete. It is the biggest unbroken surface on the site and it is covered in jewel anenomes. Other anenomes and dead mens fingers soften the edges of this underwater carbuncle, and some areas have a shagpile carpet of seaweed providing a great foraging ground for hermit crabs.
There are some conger eels at home here, so be wary of the holes you poke your fingers into, especially as the current can often be fairly strong as there is a temptation to pull yourself from handhold to handhold. In these sitautions you are better off getting into the lee of the unit and concentrating you energy on trying to find one of the more elusive inhabitants, such as the lumpsuckers which breed here, but which I have never managed to see!
A favourite with underwater phtographers is the tompot blenny, with its puppy-dog eyes and comical tufts adorning its forehead. they have colonised the Mulberry unit in great numbers and can often be seen battling it out over a small patch of concrete, before shooting back into the saftery of whatever hole they have called home.
If you fail on the celebrity resident hunt with the lumpsucker front then pay attantion on the sandy, gravelly seabed surrounding the unit for here you will find cuttlefish. If you do find one then very gently lay low on the seabed and extend a hand very gently. Lie that on the seafloor too and wiggle your fingers gently. Cuttlefish are very intelligent and curious and see fingers as either food or communication. Whichever it is you may be lucky enough to grab their attention. Don’t harass them, however.
All too quckly your useable dive time will be up, but the final advantage of the Far mulberry becomes clear as you begin your ascent - you can follow it up almost tot he surface so that even the deco stops aren’t wasted, but can be a continuation of the dive, and a bonus for safety as you will have no qualms about extending them as you find yet something else to admire in the last minutes of the dive.
If you are fed up with deep, dark and difficult, just starting out, a camera-nut or just an admirer of the underwater world the Mulberry unit has something for you - give it a whirl if you get the chance. I can’t believe that you would be disappointed.
And even when the vis and light is poor you still get a great dive. Only dived it the once on a September eve last year, would love to get back there and see it in it’s finest.
Thanks for the report of it.
Mark
Really looking forward to doing this next weekend +camera. Keep hearing more and more about it. If I see any cuttlefish I’ll try the wiggling fingers out.