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Type: A 290 foot Passenger steamer
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Wreck Information: The Royal Archer was built in Greenock in 1928. She sank on the 3June 1941 after striking a sea mine. An escort destroyer NO. L41 attached a line to the ship to try to tow her to safety, but it was too much, so the tow line had to be cut and the Royal Archer sank.The wreck today is fairly broken up to the bow, which points north, but amidships and the stern still rise a few meters of the bottom.
Harbour / slip: Granton, South Queensferry , North Queensferry , Burntisland
Parking directions: Parking ok at all harbours
Distance from harbour:
Lat & Long: WGS84 N56º06.441' W03º00.119 & N56º06.462' W03º00.259' covers most of the debris field, former mark is the stern
Chart:
Depth: 30m
Tides: Tide tables Can be dived "almost any state", but it's recommended to try for slack.
Diveboat: Divebunker Divesafariscotland Marinequest
Dive Shop: Splash Sports Dundee Edinburgh dive centre FYM
Accommodation:
Suggested experience: Experienced sport diver
Other comments: Heavily salvaged, with the stern the biggest bit, the rest is plates strewn over a wide area and not particularly easy for dive navigation. More than a few explosives used on this ship so it is worth a look. In the centre of the ship is the remains of two trucks - mainly the chassis and tyres, I didn't see much else of them, the chassis' are very identifiable, one twisted on it's side, the other lying flat. The stern is the most complete and there is a handrail obvious around the stern, with an open deck passenger walkway under the stern handrail, which it still identifiable and allows a swim through.
Created by: John Nicolson
Date: 22/7/07
Thanks To: Jumbobo and PeterM
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Wreck diagram: Contact me
Dive Report : Regthing, July 07 . The visibility was not too bad at around 3m in torch light. Mark expected some ambient light on the wreck but can't say I noticed it too much. We had the task of folding up the grapple so once that was done we headed to the stern. We passed over the remains of two lorries and the ships boilers. Life on the wreck was good with lots of the usual dead mans fingers and array of crabs. We were also treated to a parade by an impressive looking lobster. Got to the stern with its hand rails still in place. I was showing 3 mins of NDL time left so we headed back for the shot line. No luck in finding it and we managed to end up on a silty sea bed not 100% sure where the wreck was so up went a blob and we where heading home incurring 4 mins of deco.
Dive Report : PeterM April 07 In the centre of the ship is the remains of two trucks - mainly the chassis and tyres, I didn't see much else of them, maybe Chris did. But the chasis' are very identifiable, one twisted on it's side, the other lying flat. The stern is the most complete and there is a handrail obvious around the stern, with an open deck passenger walkway under the stern handrail, which it still identifiable and allows a swim through. We dived this well before slack (3 hrs?) and although the flow was quite strong going down it was next to nothing on the floor. We went down a shot line on the way down to ensure we weren't swept away, but came back on a DSMB. So I am not that sure there is any overwhelming reason to dive it on a slack tide - however this was only one dive, so other conditions may come into play!