If you look at a photograph of the Louis Shied taken when it was breaking up on Thurlestone beach in 1939, you will see that the bows section points out to sea. Now if you dive on the remains of this once proud ship, you will soon realise that all you are looking at is about three quarters of the ship. There is no bows. Alright, that’s not exactly going to disappoint you too much because the Louis Shied is an extremely pretty little wreck, and even after all the hundreds of divers that have grovelled over her looking for souvenirs, small brass tallies and valves are still there to be found as the fierce storms continually wash away the sand to reveal other parts of the Wreck. I have dived quite a lot on this wreck and have always been rather puzzled as to where the bows might have got to, Once or twice I have made half-hearted efforts to find out, but often this has coincided with bad visibility, and in the end I just let the matter drift on unresolved.
Last summer I was concentrating on the shallow Wrecks around Hope Cove and found myself snorkelling quite often on the remains of the Louis Shied as a last dip before going back to Plymouth. This rekindled my interest in the missing bows, and my friends and I were determined to have a serious look for the missing bit the following weekend.
If you do a lot of wreck diving and research (like I do) it is very easy to begin to think of yourself as something of an expert. I had studied all my photos of the Louis Shied, written to various people, consulted the Coastguard about the possible effects of tide and currents, pottered about the whole area in my boat, and finally convinced myself that there was only one logical place for the bows to be, and that was in the next bay near a rocky promontory. My companions were not so sure. Maybe, they said diffidently, it’s a bit closer in, near the shore. Well us ‘experts’ are nothing if not expert, and I rather smugly gave my partners chapter and verse as to why the bows could not possibly be closer in, and they like the good divers they are, nodded politely and allowed me to get on with it.
That Saturday we did not find anything, but nobody minded because the sun was hot and the sea calm, and it was very nice just swimming aimlessly about. Us ‘experts’ are used to disappointment but when the next weekend produced much the same result, I could see my grasp of the situation slipping away. Now it so happened that whilst some of us were swimming about all over the bay, others (getting fed up) had swanned off to dive a bit more on the wreck site proper. It was here, much to their surprise, that they found a large set of bronze thrust blocks crudded into the sea bed. We did not have any tools with us, so reluctantly we had to leave them, suitably hidden under bits of plating. However we decided to retrieve them the next morning, and duly arrived off the Louis Shied suitably tooled up.
Unfortunately the tide was right out and we could not get theb oat near enough to the bit we wanted to dive on, so we decided to anchor up and await the returning tide. Now the bottom hereabouts is all sand with just the odd bit of rock and light anchors are not really suitable. I soon realised we were dragging our anchor and looked about for a better anchorage. As luck would have it there was a rock just breaking the surface right close in near the bathing beach.
We’ll head for that I thought and stick the anchor on it. The water was really clear, and as I approached the rock I realised that it was much bigger than I had thought, and took care to keep the boat well away whilst my buddy hooked the anchor. As soon as the anchor hit the rock it gave a loud clang’. My buddy jammed on his face mask and jumped into the water, surfacing almost immediately with a big grin on his face. Yes, you have guessed it, we had found the bows of the Louis Shied.
It was not as big as I had expected, but then quite a lot is buried in the sand, Still there is about fifteen foot sticking out of the sea bed and you can get inside and look out through one of the old hatch openings. The metal is rather jagged however, and there are some nets tangled on it. The whole scene is very picturesque and inside the bows were a small school of bass.
There were also quite a few lobsters right down at the bottom, but there is such a tangle of iron plates and netting that it’s a bit difficult to get at them.
Maybe what we need is another expert.
There is not much really more to tell. I have added a little piece of wreckage to my own private Jigsaw, and realise that I still have a lot to learn about wrecks.
As to the bronze thrust blocks?
Well in the general excitement and name calling that went on when I ‘discovered’ the bows, we Sort of forgot them. As far as I know they are still there.
