Diving the wreck of the Star of Scotland
By Jim Lyle
A trip report about diving the wreck of the Star of Scotland during a Santa Ana, with a
little history, and some pictures. Enjoy!
Southern California is not a target rich environment for wreck diving like the Atlantic
coast, but we do have a few interesting ones - close to shore and
within sport diving depth. The reasons for fewer wrecks on the West
Coast are many: infrequent bad weather, insignificant action during
the World Wars, and a shorter maritime history. Some of the local
wrecks, like the Yukon and Palawan were sunk as
artificial reefs, others, like the Olympic, the
Valiant, and the Star of Scotland went to their watery
graves unintentionally.
Star of Scotland
California Wreck Divers Collection
Chestnut cowrie
Our
little dive group met early Saturday morning at Scott and Margaret's
boat, the Popeye Maru. A high-pressure system over the Great Basin
was pumping warm air over the mountains of Los Angeles and
off-shore, a "Santa Ana" condition. While Santa Ana winds are bad
for people living in the desert and canyons, when they blow, we
enjoy beautiful weather along the beaches. The offshore breeze
flattens the surface of the ocean and pushes the surface water out
to sea, greatly increasing visibility. During a Santa Ana, Santa
Monica Bay looks like a mirror - time to go
diving!
Scorpionfish
Facellina Stearnsi
This weekend,
conditions were ripe for a run up the coast to the wreck of the
Star of Scotland, located a couple of miles off the Santa
Monica Pier. As we approached the coordinates, we saw that another
boat was already on the wreck and had dropped a buoy with a dive
flag. It looked like all the divers were still on the other boat, so
Scott slowly pulled into hailing range. We asked if they had any
divers in the water and they responded in the negative. We then
asked if it would be okay to drop anchor a short distance away, and
they cordially agreed.
Sheephead, blacksmiths, calico bass,
et al.
Goby
Someone on the other
boat called out, "Is that jlyle?" What the ****? Who in world is
over there and how do they know me? Then I remembered, last Thursday
on the D2D bulleting board, in response to the weekly "Where's
everyone diving this weekend" thread, I posted that we were going to
try for the Star of Scotland if conditions were good. In fact, it
was Patrick Smith on the other boat, who coauthored the book
Shipwrecks of Southern California with Bonnie Cardone. We were in
good company. It's a small world.
A little
history
In 1918, the HMS Mistletoe entered service
in the British navy as a Q-ship. Her purpose was to protect English
shipping from German submarines by posing as a merchant sloop when
in fact she was a heavily armed warship. If an enemy submarine
approached to take a shot, the Mistletoe would run out the guns and
engage them. She was 263 feet long, with a 35 foot beam, and
displaced 1,250 tons.
Scallops and Corynactus anemones
After
WWI, in 1921 HMS Mistletoe was sold as a real cargo vessel,
and renamed Chiapas. She continued to work as a merchant ship
for several years, under several names, hauling cargo between Mexico
and California. In the early 1930's she appeared in Santa Monica bay
as the City of Panama. At that time, California law made
gambling illegal, but federal law did not, and the state's
jurisdiction ended three miles from the shoreline. One of many
so-called gambling boats, she remained safely anchored outside of
the three-mile limit, offering that irresistible triad: alcohol,
gambling, and prostitution. Water taxis ferried customers to and
from shore, and separated them from their money as quickly as
possible.
Bollards on the bow:
Bad publicity, due to
a death on the ship, resulted in another name change; the City of
Panama became the Star of Hollywood, and then the
Texas. A pirate radio station operated on board, RXKR was
licensed to operate at 500-1000 watts as an experimental,
non-commercial station at 815 kHz. Instead, it pumped out 5000 watts
of music and commercials and was heard as far away as Chicago. Under
pressure from the U.S. government, Panama withdrew the ship's
registry, the radio station was silenced and the boat was towed into
L.A. harbor.
[One of the more
infamous Southern California gambling boats was the Rex. The
colorful owner and mobster, Tony Cornero Stralla marketed to the
middle class with offers of free food and entertainment. It was
estimated that he was netting over $300,000 a month, and this was
during the Depression! Many attempts were made by law enforcement to
shut down the gambling ships. Raids and arrests were made. Slot
machines were dumped overboard. Legal arguments were heard, with the
State claiming that Santa Monica bay was an "inland" body of water
and thus the three-mile limit started from a line between Point
Vincente and Point Dume. Cornero's lawyers argued that Santa Monica
bay was rightly Santa Monica Bight, a large indentation in
the coastline and the three-mile limit started at the beach. The
battle raged in and out of the courts for years. Eventually in 1939,
the ships were put out of business under "nuisance abatement" laws,
with the Rex being the last to go. During later service as a barge
in WWII, the Rex was captured and sunk by a German
U-boat.]
Margaret (image by Scott)
In
1940, our boat was reinstalled off of Santa Monica as a
party/fishing barge under her final name, the Star of
Scotland. A long fishing platform was installed along the side
of the hull, and dining and dancing below decks were added
attractions. You can see the platform in this picture
taken:
California Wreck Divers Collection
Late one night in 1942, a lack of maintenance, and
her age caught up the Star. During a winter storm, she started
taking in more water than her pumps could handle and she started to
sink. It was reported that the ship went down in under two-minutes.
Despite valiant rescue efforts, one of the crew was killed in the
accident. As a hazard to navigation, the bridge and masts were later
dynamited and the Star rested on the bottom of the bay.
Is
this one of the water pumps that failed to keep the sea out of the
holds?
Today,
much of the hull of the Star of Scotland has collapsed, but
enough remains to make it an exciting wreck to dive. The port side
is more intact than the starboard, with the brackets that held the
fishing platform still in place. The bow of the ship is separated
from the rest of the wreck by about 10 feet and lies tilted on its
side. Amid ships are fallen plates, deck houses, and unrecognizable
debris. Nearly everything is covered in corynactus anemones,
carpeted in white, pink, lavender, and red.
The bow
Corynactus anemones.
The
Star lies in 80 feet of sea water and visibility is normally less
than 10 feet. She is the only structure on a flat muddy bottom and
attracts a lot of marine life. She is home to schools of bait fish
which attract larger fish such as yellowtail, bonita, and mackerel.
A popular fishing spot, divers have to be cautious as there is a lot
of fishing line and tackle on the wreck. Some large lobsters are
taken off the wreck late in the season. Black sea bass of 150 pounds
or more are often seen here.
Black sea bass.
Black sea bass (image by Margaret)
Windows in the collapsed deck house:
One of the more
interesting attraction of the Star of Scotland to divers and
underwater photographers is the number and size of the nudibranchs
on the wreck. It is common to spot many Peltodoris nobilis over
six-inches long. The number and size of Triopha catalinae is
amazing; they're everywhere. Add to that the different species of
nudibranchs to be found here, and you have nudi
Nirvana.
Peltodoris nobilis
Triopha catalinae
Our dives
As soon as we dropped the hook on the wreck, we
knew that we had lucked out. The diving gods were smiling on us.
Descending the anchor line, we were rewarded with more than
thirty feet of visibility and water temps in the low 60's. I
found Patrick Smith inside the bow fiddling with his camera and took
his picture. I spent the first dive taking advantage of the great
visibility and taking wide angle shots of the wreck.
A picture of Patrick on the wreck:
After swapping out our
tanks and a one-hour surface interval, we returned to the bottom to
find even better visibility than before. I circumnavigated the
entire wreck, noting features that I had not seen before. Above the
wreck were at least a dozen big black sea bass, hanging just out of
camera range. A large school of sardines darted in unison towards
the safety of the wreck. On the bow, I noticed puffs of white
periodically clouding the water. Looking closer, I realize the
scallops were spawning. Cool! Too soon, we ran out of bottom time
and had to ascend the anchor line for the safety stop. What a
fantastic day of diving. Can't wait for the next Santa Ana!
The end of our underwater diving experience.
Jim (jlyle)
Scott
& Margaret (seniorweeb)
Roger (rogerc)
Deb
(dhil)
Californian sealion (image by Roger)
Details, details, details...
Camera: Olympus c5050/PT-015 housing with two DS-125 strobes.
Some interesting web sites:
Sixteen Nudes and a Shipwreck - The Avalon - By Jim Lyle
http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/tripreports.php?s=2687
California Wreck Divers
Commercial boats that occasionally take divers to the Star:
Island Diver
Pacific Star
Further reading:
Article in California Diving News
Shipwrecks of Southern California, Bonnie Cardone & Patrick Smith, Menasha Ridge
Press, 1989. ISBN 0-89732-094-8
Back