Albany · Australia · Wreck
The Herschel Wreck (Edith Byrne)
An 1857 hull, abandoned in 1908, with bow and stern at 20 m
Area photo: Peter Southwood · CC BY-SA 3.0
The Herschel, built in 1857 and previously called the Edith Byrne, was deliberately abandoned in 1908 and now lies broken on the bottom east of Albany. Little of the ship is left, but clear bow and stern sections can be seen at about 20 m. It is boat access only, and a dive for people interested in an old hull rather than intact structure.
Also known as Edith Byrne.
Where it is and how deep
35.0035° S, 118.1636° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
There is not much ship left. What the dive gives you is two readable pieces of one - a clear bow section and a clear stern section, both at around 20 m - and the ground between them, where the rest of a steel hull that has been down since 1908 has gone to pieces. It is a site to swim slowly and look at rather than one with a route to follow.
She was built in 1857 as the Edith Byrne, a steel-hulled ship with two decks, and she was deliberately abandoned rather than lost, which makes for a different kind of wreck dive: nothing dramatic happened here. At 20 m the whole site is comfortably inside a single no-decompression dive, with time left to go back over the bow before heading up.
The wreck
- Vessel
- Herschel
- Type
- Steel-hulled two-deck ship
- Built
- 1857
- Cause
- Deliberately abandoned in 1908
- Lies
- Broken up on the bottom, with clear bow and stern sections at about 20 m
Built in 1857 and originally named the Edith Byrne, the Herschel was a steel-hulled, cemented ship with two decks. She was deliberately abandoned in 1908 rather than lost at sea, and little of her remains today: what divers find is a broken hull whose bow and stern sections are still clearly readable at about 20 m.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Good | Prime |
Season follows Albany: Charters run year-round; December to March is the dry, warm half of the year, June to August the wet half with July the wettest month, and the whales are in the Sound July to October.
Questions divers ask
How much of the Herschel wreck is left?+
Little of the ship remains. Clear bow and stern sections can still be seen at about 20 m, and the rest of the hull has broken down around them.
Sources
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