I really like this pic….which has come out much better than it looked on the camera. It was the first time I tried towing another scooter - at the end of a skills dive which had gone really well (hence the mess of stages).
Putting your feet on the handles of the towed scooter is very comfortable until you need to turn sharply!
My buddy for the day
The wind from the west was nearly force 5, and building. It brought the German barque Pirat romping up the Channel with most sails set, homeward bound for Hamburg.Coming the other way from Seaham and cutting across the Channel to work along the French coast and then down to St Nazaire was the 1211 ton British steamer Ashford, a collier built in Sunderland in 1881.
The collision,15 miles south-west of Beachy Head, was colossal. Only a minute made all the difference between a near miss and the Pirat ploughing into the Ashford’s stern near her propeller, on 25 June, 1906. It wasn’t a miss; the impact holed her stern, sending seawater flooding into her two aft coal-filled holds.
The Pirat drifted clear with buckled bow plates, but was taking in little water and in the end made it safely to Hamburg, where 40 plates needed to be replaced and the bow almost completely rebuilt. The 275ft-long Ashford was less fortunate. Though she was taken in tow by the steam tug Dominion, she was filling rapidly and in two hours, before they reached water shallow enough to beach her, the tow had to be cast off.
Captain Tom Smith and his crew were taken off just before she rolled right over and sank. One of the Ashford’s crew of 18 was later found to be missing. From Kendall McDonald - Divernet.
On board competition amongst rebreather divers as to who is most DIR - I don’t like to inform them that a hat (especially one borrowed off me) doesn’t count…. but banter was good humoured.
Mal and I jumped in to find one of the other divers coming back up the shot with a freeflow and had to dogde round then on the shot but the current was barely running and this did not cause a problem.
I led the descent and had us on the wreck within 2 minutes, and down to the scour (43m) in three (I have clearly picked up a few tips from Al 
) The ambient light was stunning for this depth and the viz was roughly 6 - 8 metres so nice conditions for a dive.
The Ashford was carrying a cargo of coal, and scraps of it can still be found at the bottom of the hold. I took us to the prop and found Janos and his buddy in the process of catching a lobster. The hull is fairly intact low down so the bottom of the wreck is not that interesting apart from a conger sheltering in the scour and shoals of fish hanging just on the edge of viz. We moved up to the deck level where ribs are exposed on the hull and found some really fun swim throughs, not much to find here but quite a bit to look at and a reasonable amount of life.
On a ship of this age, the deck would have consisted of wooden boards laid over traverse iron ribs. The ribs are mostly still in place, but nearly all traces of the deck have long since rotted away.
Me on an intact section of the Ashford’s deck.
One small thing of note. We were exiting one section of the wreck when another team of divers started to come in and did not chose to give us right of way. It was not in any way an issue and we were held inside for all of about 30 seconds but if we had been exiting with a problem it would have been something to discuss back on the boat. It’s not just in cave that exiting teams should be considered to take priority, they may have a problem, may have gas issues and may have deco requirements…. take a moment to let them through. As it was, I just used the break to chill out.
Mal
I was to run deco and called it on 40 minutes bottom time. Mal shot the bag after the switch and deco was uneventful. We got bored at 6 metres so took a couple of photos - that passed about 2 minutes so only another 8 to go!
Me - see the water can be blue here - at 6 metres!
Mal - he’s not attached to the string honest 
Back on the boat we had chocolate and doughnuts - and then jumped in for a dive under Brighton Pier - tat and starfish everywhere. It is funny jumping in to 6 metres with an Ali 80 - but I wanted the remnants of my mix for a remix for the next dive - so needs must.
Another good day out - and on a work day too so a bonus there as well