Calf Sound.
Calf Sound is the channel, about 700 yards wide, that separates the Calf of Man from the main island, with the islet of Kitterland in the middle. It is usually dived as a fast drift over a seabed carpeted in plumose anemones. The remains of the steamer Clan Macmaster also lie in the Sound.
What's down there.
- Fast drift dive through the channel
- Plumose anemone carpet
- Clan Macmaster wreck (1923): engines and boilers
- Kitterland islet and its seal colony
- Thousla Rock
- Plumose anemones
- Jewel anemones
- Hydroids
- Grey seals
- Ling
- Cuckoo wrasse
- Basking sharks (summer surface sightings in the Sound)
Drift dives are given as 20 to 45 m. The Clan Macmaster wreck is given as 15 m in one account; one club logged 23 m on it.
Strong tides. Drift dives run at 3 to 4 knots, and spring tides reach up to 6 knots. Needs boat cover, careful timing on the tide and experienced drift divers.
How it got there.
The Clan Line steamer Clan Macmaster struck Thousla Rock in fog on 30 September 1923 while sailing from Glasgow to Liverpool, bound for the Far East. All 80 crew reached safety on the Calf. Her general cargo included sewing machines, machinery, cotton goods and coal, and much of it was taken before salvage began. She is described as the largest ship wrecked on the Manx coast, and her engines and boilers remain on the seabed. The Calf of Man and Wart Bank area became a Marine Nature Reserve in 2018.
8 dives.
From the reconstructed log — the dates follow the pattern I dived, so read them as representative rather than exact.