Reefwander
Longstone Lighthouse's red-and-white tower standing on the bare rock reef at the outer edge of the Farne Islands.

Farne Islands · United Kingdom · Wreck · Wall

Longstone

A Danish steamer at 33 m below Grace Darling's lighthouse

Photo: Lewis Clarke · CC BY-SA 2.0

The Longstone is the lighthouse rock at the outer edge of the Farnes, and the dive here is the Chris Christensen, a Danish steamer that struck the reef's south-eastern tip in 1915 and slid off into more than 30 m of water. The wreck lies 30-40 m off the rocks, and the reef behind it rises as a vertical wall from 20 m most of the way to the surface, with seals in the shallows.

Also known as Longstone Reef, Chris Christensen.

Where it is and how deep

Depth profile of Longstone: typical dive 20–33 m (66–108 ft) 18 m · Open Water30 m · Advanced40 m · Recreational limit20 m33 mtypical dive
Depths on a shared scale to 40 m (130 ft); dashed lines mark common certification limits.

55.6397° N, 1.6045° WPublished position for this site.

The dive

The shot goes in close to the starboard boiler, where the depth is about 32 m, and it lands there reliably. From the shot the route runs forward past the boiler and over coal scattered on the seabed, then twists to port where the hull broke apart, and out to the bow, which stands upright with the cargo and anchor winches lying near it. This is the deepest point on the wreck, at about 33 m.

Turning back aft you pass a section of black-and-white tiled floor, the port boiler, the collapsed triple-expansion engine, and then the spare propeller and the emergency steering wheel toward the stern. Exposed to the current, the wreckage is covered with white and yellow dead men's fingers, with an army of sea urchins munching their way around it. A hole towards the top of the boiler gives a view in among the tubes, the kind of hole conger eels like to hide in.

The exit follows the propeller and rudder at about 27 m and then the reef slope, which ends at 20 m in a vertical wall running most of the way to the surface. That makes the ascent easy and removes any need for hanging decompression stops, and it leaves the shallow part of the dive for the soft corals on the wall and for the seals that hang around above the wreck.

The wreck

Vessel
Chris Christensen
Type
Danish steamship
Length
85 m (279 ft)
Built
1903
Sunk
1915
Cause
Ran aground on the south-eastern tip of the Longstone reef and slid off into deep water within days
Lies
30-40 m off the south end of the Longstone, deepest point about 33 m

The Longstone light is tied for good to Grace Darling and her father William, the keeper, and their rescue of the Forfarshire survivors in 1838. The reef below it kept taking ships. The Chris Christensen, a 1,491-ton Danish steamer built in 1903, 85 m long with a beam of 11 m, struck the south-eastern tip on 16 February 1915. She was riding high when she did so and hit only the tip, but she was holed so badly that within days she had slid off the edge of the reef into more than 30 m of water.

Marine life and season

  • Seals & sea lions
Month-by-month season rating for Longstone
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Off-seasonOff-seasonOff-seasonFairGoodPrimePrimePrimePrimeGoodFairOff-season

Season follows Farne Islands: Summer and early autumn combine workable North Sea weather with playful, non-breeding seals; late-autumn pupping season brings huge seal numbers but rougher seas and some beach access restrictions.

Know before you go

  • Currents here are strong and the slack-water window is short, so be on the shot on time and be ready to call the dive when the tide starts to run.
  • The wreck bottoms out at about 33 m, deep enough to eat gas and no-stop time quickly; the sloping reef up to the wall is the planned way back.

Photos from Longstone

  • Mark McNestry · CC BY 2.0

  • D-Stanley · CC BY 2.0

  • Lewis Clarke · CC BY-SA 2.0

Dive videos

Longstone Reef. Dive site at the Farne Islands · Stu Mclaren. North Sea Diver on YouTube

Questions divers ask

How deep is the Chris Christensen?+

The shot lands near the starboard boiler at about 32 m, and the bow is the deepest point at roughly 33 m. The exit climbs the reef slope from about 27 m to a wall that starts at 20 m and runs most of the way up.

Does the Longstone have to be dived at slack water?+

Yes. Slack is essential here and comes two hours after low water at Seahouses, and the window is short, so boat timing drives the whole day.

Sources

  1. Wreck Tour 32: The Chris Christensen — Divernet

Photo credits

In The Logbook

More dive sites in Farne Islands

Two upright boilers with a triangular swim-through between them

3–20 madvanced

A steamship lost in fog in 1915, spread from 8 to 30 m

8–30 madvanced

Similar dives elsewhere

Wreck

Alex Van Opstal

Weymouth & Portland · United Kingdom

A 1939 mine casualty broken across a 30 m seabed

to 30 madvanced

Wreck

Bodekull

Stockholm Archipelago & Dalarö · Sweden

A cannon still on its wooden carriage aboard a frigate lost in 1678

28–30 mintermediate

Wreck

Breda

Sound of Mull · United Kingdom

Tiger Moth biplanes were in her holds when she went down

to 26 mintermediate

Wreck

Chadwick

Isle of Skye · United Kingdom

An upturned 1892 coal ship beneath the cliffs just north of Neist Point

15–25 mintermediate