Last time I dove here in March, looking for the wreck of the steam tug Nidge, the bottom was covered with kelp and seaweed and I couldn't have a proper look for wreckage. I did see some pieces of iron in the area where the news reports of the time said the tug was blown ashore over 100 years ago. Today (Nov. 22, 2017) I was hoping that it was late enough in the year for most of the kelp to be gone, allowing a clear view of the bottom.
As I was hoping, most of the kelp had died off, leaving much of the bottom exposed. I swam out towards the point where I saw the wreckage last time.
I reached the area at the point where I think the Nidge was wrecked. I started to see a few random pieces of iron in the area, but there were no piles of obvious wreckage or anything. By the way, visibility was 15-20' and this area was around 10' deep.
The sandy area with the mound of what I think are ornate tube worms was still here. I can't remember ever seeing a worm-built mound like this with this kind of worm anywhere else.
Near one end of this mound there was the large piece of iron that I saw last time I was here. If I saw this large piece on the bottom in some other location, I would assume that it was sunk for a mooring. This piece is in shallow water at the tip of the most exposed point in the area so no one would think of putting a mooring here. It's too large and heavy to have been thrown here from shore so I assume it is the remains of some kind of wreck.
At the other end of the tube worm mound there was the iron shaft-like object that I also saw last time. One end of it was buried under the tube worm area. Again, I don't think this would have been sunk as a mooring in this area so I assume it was from the same wreck that the other large iron piece was from. A few feet away, there was another sort-of large lump of iron that I assumed was a rock last time I dove here.
There was a large sandy area with stalked kelp next to the main area of "wreckage" (the shaft, etc.). I wanted to have a good look around here now that it wasn't completely covered with kelp. I was hoping to find some more-recognizable pieces of wreckage like a boiler, anchor or propeller. Unfortunately, I didn't see anything larger than a few tiny, corroded bits of unrecognizable metal. I still think that the large iron objects near the tube worm mound are the remains of the wreck of the Nidge. Seeing a concentration of iron objects in the same area that the news report says the wreck took place is enough to convince my imagination. I assume that most of the larger machinery was salvaged (probably for scrap) sometime in the last 100 years. This wreckage is in such a shallow, exposed area that it really must be regularly pounded in a grinder of sand and pebbles in the surf.
I swam out from the point down the slope looking for anything that could have come from a wreck, but I didn't see anything.
I swam down to where the rocky slope met the sand about 35' deep. Below 20' deep, the rocks were almost completely covered with small, white barnacles. They weren't here when I dove here years ago so I guess they showed up recently like in many other places around the B.C. coast in the last 2 years.
I headed up to the shallows and swam back towards my entry-point.
Back near my entry-point, there were a few small scraps of metal that were probably from the days when this was a military fort. I don't think I'll come back here anytime soon. If I do it will be to look for the collection of small bronze valves and the buried scuba tank that I saw here years ago and haven't been able to find since.
