Stromness, Scotland, United Kingdom

Reginald Blockship

The Reginald is a British steel-hulled merchant ship scuttled in 1915 across the eastern end of Burra Sound as one of the first generation of WWI Scapa Flow blockships. After more than a century underwater the wreck has been heavily fragmented by storms and the relentless tidal currents that pour through the sound, but the bow section, frames and ribs are still clearly identifiable in 8 to 12 metres of water on a rock and shingle bottom. The Reginald can only be dived during the brief slack water windows that punctuate the tidal cycle and is consequently a popular companion dive to the Tabarka or Inverlane on Burra Sound charter days. Visibility is typically 8 to 12 metres thanks to constant tidal flushing. The exposed steelwork is colonised by plumose anemones, dead man's fingers, kelp at the shallowest extremities, hydroids and sponges. Lobsters, edible crabs, pollack, ballan wrasse, conger eels and grey seals are routinely encountered. Boats run from Stromness in tightly timed slack-water schedules.