SS Mohegan

The SS Mohegan was a British passenger liner that struck the Manacles reef off the Lizard Peninsula on 14 October 1898 with the loss of 106 lives, one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters of the era. The 146-metre wreck now lies on a rock and sand seabed at 18 to 24 metres on the southern side of the reef, broken into several large sections with the boilers, condensers, propeller shaft, anchors and structural plating clearly recognisable. The site is exposed and tidal, requiring careful planning around slack water; currents can be very strong. Visibility on a good day reaches 10 to 15 metres in summer and water temperatures range from 9 to 16 degrees Celsius. The wreck is colonised by jewel anemones, plumose anemones, dead man's fingers, sponges and hydroids, with conger eels in the broken plates, ballan wrasse, pollack, bib and lobsters. The Mohegan is a classic British wreck dive and one of the headline dives in Cornwall, run by charter boats from Falmouth and Porthkerris.