Batty's Barge and the 482.
Two wrecks lie close together about a five-minute swim from the shore of Camp Bay and are usually visited on the same dive. The 482 is a former Royal Navy cable-laying vessel sitting upright on sand, and Batty's Barge lies just to the east or south-east of it. Both were sunk on purpose in the summer of 1990 as part of Gibraltar's artificial reef project.
What's down there.
- 482 sits upright, bow to the north, with an open cargo hold and original storage racks
- Caged paint locker still holding paint tins on the 482
- Large cable drum, winching gear, two small forward cabins and accommodation block on the 482
- Boiler-room hatch swim-through on the 482 (wreck-diver training needed)
- Cables across the seabed running towards the shore
- Batty's Barge: collapsed hull and deck forming a large open interior, with a small launch lodged under her stern
- Octopus
- Cuttlefish
- Conger and moray eels
- Nudibranchs
- Spider crabs and common lobster
- Mixed reef fish
482: seabed 16–17 m, stands about 7 m high; Batty's Barge: seabed 12–15 m depending on source
Shore dive from Camp Bay (about a five-minute swim). Flat sandy seabed. Suitable for certified divers of all levels; entering the 482's interior should be left to divers with wreck training.
How it got there.
The 482: former Royal Navy cable-laying vessel (also described as a cable-laying barge), about 30 m long, 7 m wide and 7 m high, and said to weigh about 1,000 tons. The Ministry of Defence donated her to Dr Eric Shaw's Camp Bay artificial reef project, and she was scuttled off Camp Bay in August 1990. Batty's Barge: a barge about 35 m long, 9 m wide and 6 m high (one source says about 40 m by 6 m), sunk as part of the same project in summer 1990. Build dates and builders are not recorded in the sources found.
42 dives.
From the reconstructed log — the dates follow the pattern I dived, so read them as representative rather than exact.