THE BASIL

Today I dived The Basil, a WW1 steam munitions ship, with a group of pals. The ship went down in 1917 after a collision with a French steamer in fog.
It was a long trip out from Littlehampton, 14 miles out into the Channel , the weather was improving but it was a bumpy ride most of the way.
As we dropped down the shot line to what I believe was the midships section of the wreck.
We found a couple of  large crabs but as soon as we reached for them they found an escape route deeper into the wreck. We dropped over the side of the wreck and down to the seabed, the side of the wreck was pretty much intact and the seabed was a bit uneventful so we headed back up to the deck area.
The large expanses or expedite looked like big piles of twigs, as we moved on we started seeing g the crates of large shells packed in wooden crates of 4.
I came across a lobster and after cutting  away some line managed to get it in the bag along with its single claw.
There was a bit of current running along the wreck, we dropped over a section of deck and came across a loose shell case (this also went in the bag!)
Our bottom time was up and I attached the goody bag to the man and fired it up to the surface, after the deck obligation we surfaced.
Run time for the dive was just over the hour with a max depth of 38M.
Thanks to Pete,Ron and Keith for a great day.