Navio do Leão

Navio do Leão is the English steam cargo ship Aylestone, built in 1917 in Sunderland, 106 m long. In July 1926, she left Rosário, in Argentina, bound for Liverpool, with 26 crew and a cargo of wheat and corn. On the night of 8 July 1926, in heavy rain, wind and fog, the captain believed he had already rounded the archipelago and set a northward course, and the ship ran aground on Pedra do Cação, a submerged rock slab off Praia do Leão. The 26 crew abandoned ship in a lifeboat and were rescued by the German tug Ingeborgipland, landing safely at Porto do Cachorro on the morning of 9 July. The identification of the Praia do Leão wreck as the Aylestone was only confirmed after years of research, with a 2024 publication.

Today the wreckage lies scattered: there are boilers of about 3 m that still show their furnace doors, a mast, the shaft still in its bearings and the propeller, with blades of about 1.8 m. In some spots it is possible to pass under the hull. The scattered pieces shelter schools of fish and crustaceans, among seaweed and small rocks.

In the region, the months from April to September are pointed to as the most recommended, when the sea tends to be calm. For diving in Noronha, September to November also tends to bring calmer seas.