Diving The Mulberry Triangle Trail

A tale of true grit and determination by Gareth Hamilton-Fletcher.

The idea came to me when the Wittering Dive shop ran a competition two
seasons ago through one the national dive magazines. The prize was some
expensive dive gear. The competition was run over several months on the
lines of picture clues with the final clue being to dive out from the Mulberry wreck to the Infantry Landing Craft, some 80 metres away, and to read the final answer written on a pencil board.

From Dive Sussex, the Landing craft was stated as being on a course of 325
degrees from the Mulberry. With the Mulberry being so large it was difficult
to get the correct starting point for the bearing to the Landing Craft, so
many divers missed the mark and only a few read the final answer. I didn't
win the prize but a local lad did.

I thought why not set up a guide line from the Mulberry to the Landing
Craft, so that divers could safely visit another wreck and make that regular
dive round the Mulberry that more interesting. Reading up Dive Sussex about the Landing Craft and the Cuckoo aircrew rescue boat on page 59, made me think why not extend the guide lines to the Cuckoo as well and then make up a triangular course.

Last season I arranged a mooring for my Avon inflatable near to the Lifeboat Station in Selsey through the kindness of a local fisherman and club member, Peter Lynch. We started making trips out to the Far Mulberry and tried with simple sonar to locate the Landing Craft with no success. So we dived and did a line search going out with a 50 metre reel, putting a spike in the sea bed and then doing two semi-circular sweeps of another 50 metres.

Out of the murk appeared the Landing Craft, like a shallow wall. On top of the Craft was the winch assembly with the Wittering Diver’s clue board still attached. After successfully locating the Landing Craft, it was decided to leave a small marker buoy on it, and to go back with a rope later. But on the next visit, there was no buoy. Thinking the recent storm had removed it, we went through the diving search again and put up another buoy. On the next visit there was no buoy.

Peter Lynch thought the fishermen with the pots had cut it off, thinking the buoy had a pot on the end. The first season was not successful, but a local building firm, Covers, donated rope and spikes to create the trail. Thanks to Russell Carr for sorting that out for us.

Come May 2000 the Avon boat and engine were overhauled and put back on the mooring. This time, before we went out, Peter Lynch talked to the fisherman who potted the Far Mulberry and asked them to leave our marker buoys alone. The message came back that a particular fisherman was totally un-approachable and would cut-off anything he found on site. So we were going to have to find the Landing Craft and Cuckoo and lay the guide ropes all in one operation.

Meantime, I had fired up Peter Lynch on this project so much so that he had
located 200 yards of redundant weighted lobster pot rope, coiled up in a
large plastic drum. We took both his fishing boat and my Avon out during the week. Peter found the Craft on his sonar after an hours search. We dived and attached the weighted rope to the Landing Craft wreck, using Peter's boat to tow the line back the Mulberry buoy. We then dived again, attaching the rope to the big ring on the Mulberry.

To make sure the rope lay on the bottom near the Mulberry, I positioned steel bars across the line. So there we were with one line in place between the Mulberry and the Landing Craft.

Now to find the Cuckoo! We tried the sonar again for hours without success,
although other interesting shapes showed up on Peter’s sonar. We then
carried out another underwater search with 50 meter reels, going out on a
course of 290 degrees from the Landing Craft for 50 metres, spiking the sea
bed and out again with two further 50 metre reels to do semi circular
sweeps. We only found some steel girders. Had the Cuckoo totally rusted away after all these years?

I couldn't dive one weekend as I was going to Wimbledon to see the Britain
v Ecuador Davis Cup match. I left the match with low spirits after Britain
was defeated. Suddenly my mobile phone was ringing on the way back to the car. It was Peter Lynch phoning from his boat by the Far Mulberry! He had found a 30 ft long boat shape on the sonar and had dived to confirm that it was the Cuckoo.

We could loose no time, so the ropes went down to form the triangle over the next couple of days. Seeing the Cuckoo for the first time was a real thrill as it was in such good condition. We had a good look inside the boat structure and one could squeeze inside the cabin by pushing one's scuba gear ahead. However, the thought of those conger eels has put me off any "adventurous" dives so far.

So there we have it; a triangular course from the Mulberry to the Landing
Craft and onto the Cuckoo, with a return to the Mulberry. At present we don’t know the exact distance but Pete Woolfson and myself dived the course and used about 100 bar of air from 12 litre tanks.

So go for it, enjoy the vis and dive the Triangle!

August 2000, Gareth Hamilton-Fletcher.

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