About Us
Buchan Divers are a small group dedicated to the location, identification, exploration and research of the sunken wreck heritage off the North East of Scotland. Our focus area is mainly the Buchan coast which, technically stretches from St Combs, just north of Rattray Head to Whinnyfold near Cruden Bay in the south - however our wreck searches generally range from north of Fraserburgh to Aberdeen.
The group has its roots in the old Peterhead BSAC Branch, Number 1804 which wound up in 1999 due to falling membership. Around then, members Mike and Jim met on their Trimix open circuit course and began diving together. At this time only four of the offshore Buchan wrecks were known; the Muriel, Fram, Bel Lily and the St Magnus. Rog would kindly skipper the Buchan Diver, a 6.5m RIB with 140HP outboard to ferry us back and forth to these great ‘starter’ wrecks. Gradually, having explored every nook and cranny of the Muriel and St Magnus, we began to venture further - searching in the winter months - cold, grey days - for wrecks we would dive in the coming spring and summer season. We found the St Glen, Anvers, Simonburn and Remuera in this way and had a great period of RIB based diving.
In 2001 we purchased our first hard boat, the Buchan Elle, an old offshore fast rescue craft with a great engine but in sore need of a refit. We spent the next 3 years rebuilding her - and she was eventually launched in 2004. A great boat, loads of room to get kitted up in, sturdy and built like a brick. Unfortunately the extra weight from the rebuild had shifted her centre of gravity and reduced her speed significantly – so, while she took the seas very well, she was slow compared to what we were expecting, more importantly, without an enclosed cabin, she was pretty wet and cold for Rog. Still we found and dived the Charles Goodanew and Sofie Bakke from her and visited many of the other wrecks we had found previously with the RIB. But she was too cold and exposed for long journeys or the hours of wreck hunting necessary to find many new marks, so we rarely ventured far in her.
In 2006 we decided to upgrade to something more comfortable and invested in an 11m Procharter, based on the very successful Offshore 105 hull, she is a fibreglass boat with a 370HP inboard diesel and jet-drive. She has a heated cabin which comfortably seats 5 plus skipper with forward heads and two sleeping berths. More importantly a small galley for tea, coffee and breakfasts, most welcome on an all day wreck searching trip. She'll do 28 knots, but comfortable and fuel efficient at 18 knots with 6 divers and kit. We have ventured the 30 miles north to dive the Astronomer in the crystal blue waters found that far away from land, we have also pushed further offshore, beyond the 12 mile limit and spent many days searching and finding wrecks based on the inaccurate marks passed to us by fishermen from old Decca charts.
We hope you find the details of the ships, their story, dive details and video's interesting. We have also published the detailed marks that we have guarded secretively for many years, never revealing them beyond our small group until now. Safe in the knowledge that we would be the only group diving them and that they would not be disrespected, we now hope that any divers using our details to visit them will respect them and look but not touch.
Our journey will continue. We are venturing beyond the 12 mile UK fishing limit to find the large but much deeper wrecks out there. We will add these wrecks, and more to the site as we find them.