Tarragona · Spain · Wreck
El Heinkel
A Luftwaffe He 111 bomber at 30 m, with a resident conger named Sam
Area photo: User:Vmenkov · CC BY-SA 3.0
A German Heinkel He 111-B bomber lying at 30 m off Tarragona, dived as an Advanced-level boat trip. The club that dives it records the plane as a Luftwaffe loss of the Spanish Civil War era. Lobster and rockfish live around the airframe, along with a huge resident conger eel, nicknamed Sam, that comes out to meet divers.
Also known as Heinkel He 111 Wreck, Heinkel He 111-B.
Where it is and how deep
41.1231° N, 1.3443° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
This is the deep dive of the Tarragona roster. The bomber lies at 30 m and Mar de Hielo runs it from the Port Esportiu as an Advanced boat dive, so the working part of the dive is short: you descend directly onto the airframe, spend your bottom time moving around the aircraft, and keep a close eye on gas and no-decompression limits before starting the ascent.
The wreck has its regulars. Lobster tuck into the structure and rockfish are everywhere — the catalogue describes them as endless — but the star is Sam, a huge conger eel that has lived on the plane long enough to be called part of the decor, and that likes to come out and see divers rather than the other way around. Between the aircraft itself and its residents, thirty metres' worth of bottom time goes quickly.
The wreck
- Vessel
- Heinkel He 111-B
- Type
- Luftwaffe bomber aircraft
- Cause
- Lost in the Spanish Civil War era, by the account of the club that dives it
- Lies
- On the seabed at 30 m off Tarragona
The Heinkel He 111-B was a bomber of the German Luftwaffe. Mar de Hielo, the Tarragona club that dives the wreck, records it as a machine of the Spanish Civil War, when the Luftwaffe collaborated in the conflict; the Scubago catalogue instead calls it a World War 2 plane that was 'recently correctly identified', without citing a source for that identification. The operator's own account is the one followed here.
Marine life and season
- Macro critters
- 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 Tarragona: Sea temperature falls below 14 °C from December to March and passes 24 °C from June to September, the practical shoulder of the local season.
Sources
- Scubago — Heinkel He 111, Wreck — Scubago
- Mar de Hielo — Tarragona dive booking site — Club de Buceo Mar de Hielo
More dive sites in Tarragona
Small caves and walls at 9 m off the Salou headland
Wreck
Tarragona's signature wreck dive, an 18 m ship a few minutes from the quay
Wall
A 10-to-26 m vertical wall at the tip of the port breakwater
Wreck
A burned wooden steamer on sand at 16–17 m, dived at Open Water level
Reef
A cathedral-shaped rock at 22–24 m where the groupers are always around
Pinnacle
A lone rock pinnacle on sand, circled by seabream and salema
Artificial reef
Concrete corridors at 14 m, minutes from the Port of Tarragona
Similar dives elsewhere
A wartime Flying Fortress upright on clean sand at 25–28 m
A coal carrier on a slope from a 13 m plateau to about 27 m
A WWII bomber engine standing alone in the sand at 27 m
The park's most intact wreck: a 1908 minesweeper in 27 m