Saint Nazaire

The dive

The Saint Nazaire was a French merchant steamship built in 1919 and owned by Delmas Vieljeux. On 13 September 1943, running from La Spezia to Genoa with a cargo of fuel drums and canned goods, she was hit in the stern by a torpedo and sank quickly with the hull enveloped in flames; crew and North African workers aboard died in the fire. She lies off Moneglia on the Riviera di Levante, tilted onto her starboard side in a roughly navigating attitude and partly buried in sand and silt.

Depths depend on which part of her you are on. Portofino Divers quote 48 m as the shallowest and 55 m as the deepest point of the dive; the Italian wreck listing gives a maximum of 56 m and an average of 49 m, and puts the tops of her two masts at around 30 m, which is the first structure you meet on the way down. She has been worked over: the hull is deteriorated, the propellers and anchors are gone after post-war salvage by La Spezia divers and the Genoese salvage ship Artiglio, the stern has collapsed and the bow is markedly inclined. What survives well is a small gun on a wheeled mount above an open hatchway, half covered by old netting.

That netting is the character of the dive and its main hazard. Nets drape the deck and hold nudibranchs and decorator crabs; the gun and the outside of the hull carry jewel anemones; large lobsters, crayfish and conger eels sit in the holds. Both sources describe the water here as murky, and the wreck is deliberately described as one that less experienced divers rarely visit because of the visibility on this stretch of coast rather than because of the depth alone.

• Two masts rising from the wreck to around 30 m
• A small gun on a wheeled mount above an open hatchway, half covered by old netting
• Hull lying tilted onto its starboard side, partly buried in sand and silt
• Jewel anemones on the gun and the outside of the hull
• Large lobsters, crayfish and conger eels in the holds
• Nudibranchs and decorator crabs on the draped netting

Conditions

Murky. Both sources agree the water on this stretch of coast is turbid, and one names that as the reason the wreck sees few visitors. The hull sits on sand and silt between roughly 48 and 56 m with the masts reaching up to about 30 m, and current is reported as light to variable.

On current: The two sources are not identical and the conservative reading is the one to plan on. Portofino Divers call both visibility and current variable and poor; the Italian wreck listing calls the visibility medium and the current light. Depths are given as 48-55 m by one and 56 m maximum with a 49 m average by the other; the mast tops are around 30 m. Take 56 m as the bottom and expect murky water rather than the medium visibility figure.