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Visitor Guide Welcome to the wreck site of the British Warship Coronation Message

The Coronation was a second rate wooden 90 Gun Man’o’War built in 1685. In 1691 she foundered in one night just off the coast of Plymouth in a very erce storm. Sadly only around 20 souls survived and over 600 perished. That fateful night she tried in vain to reach safe harbour in Plymouth ending up between the headland of Penlee and Rame. As you look at the jagged cliffs in front of the site you will see how inaccessible it is and in foul weather really not the choice place you would want to try to nd refuge. In 1691, the now famous Plymouth Breakwater was still 120 years away from being constructed, so during the time of the Coronation, Plymouth Sound still presented many large obstacles and dangers in such bad weather for sea farers. The Coronation was one of the rst shipwrecks to be protected under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. This important status gives her special recognition, allowing divers like yourselves to visit, but not to disturb or remove any material. We have extended this to include all sea life, which allows the site to have a large variety of creatures for you to see, while safely undisturbed. The wreck is now managed by Historic England and we work with them under licence conditions.

Today you will be diving the ‘Offshore’ site, an area where she lost a large number of cannon and anchors. Because they are all in one small area, it makes a great dive to experience a truly historic wreck where you can see lots of artefacts, and appreciate the size of equipment the Coronation needed to be a successful warship. Although the Coronation has been dived many times since she was discovered in the 1970’s, the exact reasons she sank have yet to be established. Lots of theories have been suggested over the years, but the cause still remains unknown! Her wreckage is unusually spread over a mile or more of the seabed and perhaps holds the record of the longest debris trail in UK waters. This makes her a unique and also challenging dive, with a depth range of between 5 meters and 30 meters.

The site lies in around 16 meters, allowing divers of all abilities to visit. Your dive leader will provide you with a waterproof guide to this part of the wreck site, please study it carefully before the dive and take it with you as you visit the site to ensure you see each set of guns and anchors in turn. Guides are on sale for £2.50 each.

The site has been divided into 10 buoyed stations. They are also numbered with large stainless discs at the base to help you orientate yourself on the dive. The buoys are easy to spot as they are between 1 and 2 metres from the seabed. In good visibility you can see them as you navigate each in turn. The dive guide also gives you compass bearings and distances between them. It is best to visit each section in turn heading in an anticlockwise direction. The starting point will be Station 1 which is positioned at Anchor A. This was not the largest anchor on the vessel, but at 5 metres long, it is still impressive!

You will see more anchors at Station 5, where one anchor sits proud of the seabed on a rocky outcrop, and the remnants of two more can be seen below it. Station 7 is also interesting as it is the largest gun on this part of the wreck. Landing as it did on a rocky outcrop, in near perfect ring position, it really gives you an idea of the re power available to the ship. This gun would have been on the lower gun deck. Station 5

Station 8 may also hold an encounter as under it resides our resident conger eel. She has been observed on site since 2008, and is happy to see divers who respectfully maintain their distance. If she isn’t home, she is off hunting nearby. You may spot lots of other marine wildlife on your dive too.

Post dive as you enjoy a hot drink on your dive vessel, consider what you have seen and how you can add to the Story of the Coronation. Please send us your photographs and observations. Your dive leader will have an email address to do this. Also think how the site along with many more around the British Isles are studied, surveyed and dived by people like you, who have an interest in history and wish to enhance their diving by ‘diving with a purpose’. How can you or your club get involved? Here at the Coronation, the part you have visited is a very small part of the entire site, and we welcome groups and individuals who would like to help us discover more. Many sites just like the Coronation need and appreciate volunteers to continue the work, to study, to dive, to discover more about these protected wrecks and to enhance and complete the stories they hold. Can you help? See which sites are near to you and volunteer! Historic England have a Protected Wrecks section of their website that will give you much information of how to help and get involved. You can also talk to the Protected Wreck Association about joining teams that need new members.

Thank you for visiting the Coronation wreck. Please do come again and share your experience on social media. @CoronationWreck Email us: info@coronationwreck.org www.coronationwreck.org