Port-Cros & Îles d'Hyères · France · Wreck
Le Donator
Wheel, propeller and rudder still in place between 35 and 51 m
Photo: Waielbi · CC BY-SA 3.0
A 78 m cargo ship mined in November 1945 in the pass between Port-Cros and Porquerolles, and one of the best-known wreck dives in the Mediterranean. She lies deep — 35 m to the shallowest structure, 51 m at the seabed — so this is a short, tightly planned dive with a decompression obligation on the ascent.
Also known as Prosper Schiaffino, Donator.
Where it is and how deep
42.9992° N, 6.2786° EPublished position for this site.
Site maps published elsewhere
The dive
The wreck lies in the pass between Port-Cros and Porquerolles with her shallowest structure at 35 m and the seabed at 51 m, so the plan is fixed before you get in: a set bottom time, a set turn point and decompression stops on the way up. Until January 2000 the after mast still stood up into the blue, topping out at 25 m; it has since come down, and the top of the wreck is now the deck.
What you work through is the ship herself — the corridors and the holds, the ship's wheel, the propeller and the rudder. Life has taken the steel over: gorgonians on the exposed structure, shoals of fish over the deck, groupers and morays in the wreck, and pelagic hunters passing through the blue. A photogrammetric 3D model published by the Septentrion Environnement research institute is worth studying before the dive.
She was launched at Bergen in 1931 as the Donator, carried bananas between the Antilles and Rouen as the Petite Terre, and was renamed Prosper Schiaffino in 1939 after her new owner. A mine sank her on 10 November 1945, with the war already over, and she was not the only loss of that winter: the Sagona, the wreck divers call Le Grec, went down to a mine in the same waters weeks later.
The wreck
- Vessel
- Prosper Schiaffino (ex-Donator)
- Type
- Cargo ship
- Length
- 78 m (256 ft)
- Built
- 1931
- Sunk
- 1945
- Cause
- Struck a drifting mine off Porquerolles
- Lies
- In the pass between Port-Cros and Porquerolles, 35 m to the top of the wreck and 51 m to the seabed
Launched at Bergen in 1931 as the Donator, she was sold in October 1933 to the Compagnie générale d'armement maritime, renamed Petite Terre and put on the banana run between the Antilles and the port of Rouen. In June 1939 the Société algérienne de navigation pour l'Afrique du Nord bought her, renamed her Prosper Schiaffino after Charles Schiaffino and converted her to carry wine; during the war she moved troops and stores, including resupplying Corsica after its liberation in 1943. A mine sank her on 10 November 1945.
Marine life and season
- Groupers
- Reef fish swarms
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Port-Cros & Îles d'Hyères: Jun–Sep is the main season with the warmest water; mistral winds close the exposed wreck sites in any month.
Know before you go
- The shallowest structure is at 35 m and the sand at 51 m, so the whole dive is decompression diving — fix the bottom time, turn point and gas plan before you splash, not on the shot line.
Photos from Le Donator
Gcogn · CC BY-SA 4.0
Dive videos
Plongée sur le Donator - Porquerolles · BrunoEmbriagoun on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is the Donator wreck?+
The shallowest structure is at 35 m and the seabed at 51 m. That puts the whole dive outside recreational limits: bottom times are short and the ascent carries a decompression obligation, so clubs ask for a deep qualification.
What ship was the Donator?+
A 78 m cargo ship launched at Bergen in 1931 as the Donator, later renamed Petite Terre and then Prosper Schiaffino. She struck a mine on 10 November 1945 and sank in the pass between Port-Cros and Porquerolles.
Sources
- Donator (épave) — Wikipédia (fr)
- List of ships of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique — Wikipedia
- List of shipwrecks in November 1945 — Wikipedia
- Îles d'Hyères — Wikipédia (fr)
Photo credits
- Diver hovering over the open deck structure of the Donator wreck in deep blue water by Waielbi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Close view of the Donator's propeller encrusted with marine growth on the seabed by Gcogn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In The Logbook
- Deep wreck diving: where recreational stopsWrecks · 8 min read
- How a dive computer calculates no-stop timeBody & health · 10 min read
- Air, nitrox or trimix: which gas, and when?Gear & kit · 15 min read
- WWII wrecks you can dive, by theatreWrecks · 7 min read
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Pinnacle
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