Depth : 34 - 44m
The Salsette hardly needs any introduction and it is certainly not necessary for us to extol the virtues of a dive on this wreck … just ask anyone who has already dived her !! In short this is a huge wreck, so much so that despite her depth she causes a boil of water at the surface at just about any state of tide. Built in 1908, she measures 440-foot, has a beam of 53-foot and weighs in at a massive 5,842-ton. She was powered by an enormous steam engine, driving two giant bronze screws, one of which is still on her. She was and still is owned by P&O and was built to run the express mail service between Britain and India . It was on such an outward journey in July 1917 that she was hit on her starboard side by a torpedo from the German sub UB40. Fourteen men died almost instantly and in just 28 minutes she had completely vanished below the surface. Today she lies on her port side with her bows in the north and her stern. Her starboard rails are therefore her proudest part, at a depth of 32 metres. She has no fewer than 300 portholes on each side and only a very few have been removed. There are plenty of access points into her mainly untouched interior with its plethora of luxury fittings. The sloping deck tempts divers deeper. “This is undoubtedly one of the finest wreck dives in UK waters but must be treated with respect. She is deep and there is quite a lot of monofilament on the wreck.”