The Irony of Fate

Lying almost 40 miles due south of Brighton, deep in the English Channel, is a large steamer known as the Warilda. British divers from South London had searched for the wreck for many years during the 1980s. At that time, the SS Warilda was regarded as “the wreck to find” for the eastern part of the English Channel. During the very early 1990s, deep air divers from the English south coast district of Arun had began to dive another large wreck five or so miles farther south of the Warilda’s true location. The divers were convinced they had indeed found the lost wreck in question.

It wasn’t until some time later that deep wreckers known as the Hounslow Divers also began to explore the new wreck and found themselves on the bow section where they could clearly see the letters spelling out the wreck’s name, Lanfranc. At 6,287 tons, the newly-discovered Lanfranc was itself a huge wreck and, in turn, would later become a classic wreck dive equal to the Warilda. But the wreck wasn’t the sought-after Warilda they had all hunted for.

In August of 1992, Littlehampton skipper Ivan Warren was given a new set of numbers after the Hounslow ‘SPG’ {special projects group} divers had removed snagged rope from a local fisherman’s prop. The new wreck, which was not listed by the Hydrographic Department, was large and had been secretly fished for some time. At last, the divers had found the wreck that had been lost 74 years earlier.

Positive identification was made during one of the very early dives when diver Martin Reed came across a large, brass footplate that once welcomed passengers On a dive not long afterward, Diver John Hughes located and recovered the prized main fo’c’sle bell also bearing the name