HMS Scylla 2004
Marker: recorded wreck position (Modern).
Key facts
| Name | HMS Scylla | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 2004 | English Wikipedia lead text (year following a loss verb, parsed) |
| Era | Modern | derived from year |
| Ship type | frigate | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Nationality / flag | United Kingdom | Wikidata P137 operator → P17 country |
| Operator | Royal Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Sea / ocean | English Channel | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | England | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 5 km from land |
| Position | 50.3276, -4.2527 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
HMS Scylla (F71) was the last Leander-class frigate built for the Royal Navy (RN). She was the fifth vessel in the Royal Navy to be named after the Sea Monster who devoured the victims of the whirlpool, Charybdis, and was commonly referred to as "Aberdeen's frigate".
Scylla was constructed at Devonport Royal Dockyard, originally for Anti-submarine warfare. She was commissioned in 1970, taken out of service in 1993 in accordance with Options for Change, and sunk as an artificial reef in 2004 off Whitsand Bay, Cornwall.
Diving & visiting
Scylla was bought by the National Marine Aquarium for £200,000 and on 27 March 2004 she was sunk off Whitsand Bay, Cornwall, to form the first such artificial reef in Europe. She was 'planted' on a 24-metre (79 ft) sandy seabed at 50°19.655′N 4°15.162′W approximately 500 metres (1,600 ft) from the wreck of the Liberty ship James Eagan Layne, which has been a dive site for many years.
Within three months of sinking the wreck was colonised by sea anemone, mussels and scallops and by six months sea urchin and starfish were found in large numbers. By 2021, 250 species have been recorded.
Location
- Recorded position: 50.3276, -4.2527 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: English Channel
- Nearest coast: England
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article HMS Scylla (F71) (revision 1375375181), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Sinking and use as a dive site”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- HMS Coronation 1691 · 4 km
- Cattewater Wreck 10 km
- Erme Ingot Site 21 km
- Erme Estuary Wreck 21 km
- Louis Sheid 1939 · 29 km
- U-1063 1945 · 34 km
Browse more: UK & Ireland wrecks · wrecks off England · English Channel · Modern