Ulysses, wreck

The dive

The Ulysses was an iron screw steamer, planked over the iron frames, of 1,989 GRT, launched by R. & W. Hawthorn Leslie at Hebburn-on-Tyne on 8 November 1870. She measured 95.1 m by 10.2 m with a 225 HP compound steam engine and belonged to the Ocean Steamship Company of London, part of the Greek-named fleet known as the China Boats. In mid-August 1887, under Captain Arthur Bremner, she left London with general merchandise for Penang and China. In the early hours of 16 August she struck the northern side of Gubal Seghir - Little Gubal - and went hard aground. All hands survived. HMS Falcon and two lighters worked the cargo off her over the following weeks, but on 6 September 1887 she slipped off the reef and sank by the stern.

She lies on her port side on the northern face of Little Gubal, draped down the reef from about 4-5 m at the bow to roughly 28 m where the propeller sits partly buried in sand; two dive guides give 5-28 m and 6-27 m. Because she was a planked ship on an iron frame and the timber has rotted away entirely, the stern opens up like a rib cage and can be entered through the deck supports. The boiler dominates the middle of the site, and sections of hull, winches, the propeller shaft, the engine and the coral-encrusted propeller and rudder are all still identifiable.

The depth range is what makes it unusual: you can shape the whole dive between 5 m and 28 m and finish long and shallow, which is why guides describe it as a beginner-friendly wreck on northern-route itineraries. The catch is conditions. This is the northern, exposed face of the island, and operators are explicit that very calm conditions are needed - currents can be severe and large surface swells make it impossible to moor. The dive goes when the sea allows, which is often why it does not happen.

Our occurrence records here are headed by giant moray, twoband anemonefish, common lionfish and geometric moray, which matches what divers report: hundreds of glassfish and sweepers packed into the open stern, flutefish, lionfish, scorpionfish and stonefish, morays, pufferfish, boxfish, nudibranchs, stingrays, crocodilefish and torpedo rays.

• 1,989 GRT iron steamer of 1870, one of the Ocean Steamship Company's 'China Boats'
• Aground on the north side of Little Gubal on 16 August 1887; all 32 crew survived, and she slipped off and sank three weeks later
• Lies on her port side down the reef from about 4-5 m to 28 m - a whole dive in one wreck
• Wooden decking rotted away, so the stern opens like a rib cage and can be entered through the deck supports
• Needs calm weather: currents can be severe and swell can make mooring impossible

Conditions

A wreck lying down a reef slope on the exposed northern face of Little Gubal, from about 4-5 m at the bow to 28 m at the propeller. Conditions decide everything here: strong current can be expected and large surface swell can stop boats mooring, so the site is dived when the sea is calm. Gubal Island itself gives protected anchoring at night.

On current: Sources agree on the shape but not the exact numbers: 4-28 m from a detailed survey, 5-28 m from one dive guide and stern 27 m with bows at about 6 m from a liveaboard operator. We record 4-28 m. Current is the real variable: guides state that strong currents can be expected and that very calm conditions are needed, because currents can be severe and large surface swell can make it impossible to moor a dive boat on this exposed northern face. No source we read gives a typical visibility figure for this wreck, so we leave it null.

Dives & underwater footage