Diving on RMS Rhone

RMS Rhone was a 310ft British packet ship owned by Royal Mail that did passages between England and the West Indies. It sank in the late 1800s during a hurricane and remains fairly well intact today.

We had been told about this site and how good it was from multiple people. We were yet to scuba dive in the Caribbean so we figured this would be a great dive to start again. 30ft in the shallowest section at the stern and 80ft in the deepest section at the bow we were in for two dives.

Sail Caribbean Dive were our choice in dive company and they were fantastic. We were anchored in Cooper Island so a short dinghy ride ashore brought us to one of their bases. We sat in the shade of a palm tree whilst they loaded up the boat, carried our gear and bottles and summoned us when they were about to leave. Never before have we had such VIP treatment when going on a dive! We were used to carrying our heavy bottles and rigging up the kit so this was total luxury!

We board the Newton 36 dive vessel and speed off to Salt Island where the wreck is located. A fun fact about that island – the residents of this island rescued the survivors from RMS Rhone and salvaged what they could of the wreck. Being decent honest people they sent what they salvaged back to the Queen. The Queen being so grateful announced that as a thank you, the residents of the island don't need to pay taxes anymore but must provide a token pound of salt once a year. From 2005 the island has been uninhabited but the salt is still harvested. The Tortolan government send a team round to the island to get a pound of salt and send it on to the Queen!

We reach the dive site and put our kit on. Dylan and I, keen to ensure we follow the correct process ask the dive master to show us the buddy checks. When finished a cocky almost transparent white American guy goes to me 'oh you are clearly new to this'. I reply 'no, but we haven't dived since last September' to which he responds 'gosh thats an awful long time'. He riled me, especially when he didn't bother with a buddy check himself. Remember this later in the blog...

We straddle jump into the water and all 8 of us descend down the mooring line to the bottom. As we are dumping air out of our BCDs, a huge almost majestic sight looms into our vision. This wreck was some ship and is now home to excellent coral, sponges and fans. The excellent visibility highlights the bright colours against the rusting iron hull. We swam around the bow section first, relatively intact and come to a section where the wood has completely rotted away. Here, one by one we penetrate the wreck (swim through, to all non divers). We swam in to what appears to be a pitch black hole but no sooner have you stuck your head through, you are greeted with shafts of light showing the inside of the ship, more corals and tons of reef fish. At this point I start to get a good idea of the people with us on our dive. The cocky American guy is flailing around, kicking us in the mask, swimming right in front of us unable to control his buoyancy and looking like a spastic seahorse. For the rest of the dive we swim with one eye on him, the other on the wreck, keeping as far away as possible – there is always one on every dive we do! We see a sea turtle, lobsters and plenty of decent sized reef fish. After 20 mins we surface and commence our 'surface interval' preparing for dive 2.

Dive 2 takes us to the stern section where we again penetrate the wreck and swim over the huge 15 foot diameter brass propeller. Only one passenger survived the wreck and he was staying in cabin 27. The porthole of cabin 27 is still intact and is considered lucky by all divers. It is tradition to rub the brass 3 times clockwise so thats what we do – it is really shiny compared to the rest of the wreck due to the amount of hands that have continuously rubbed it!

Dylan at some time in the dive cut his hand on barnacles and during dive 2 he squeezes it and shows me what looks like green goo oozing out of it. At this point I think he has a serious infection (already) and take note that we will have to check it out when we surface. So first thing I do when we get back on the boat is grab his hand expecting to see some alien liquid covering his palm, instead I see dried blood...the light distortion at a depth of 80 feet has changed what is normally dark red to a slime green!