Sank one and a half miles south-southwest of Newhaven on 14 August 1918.

Dimensions
Size : 7 tonnes
Length : 145m
Beam : 18m
Owner : Metal Recoveries (Newhaven)
50º 44′ 33″N 000º 00′ 50″E

When to Dive
Best time to dive the wreck, relative to high water
1hr 15m Before – high water

Small Boat Launching – Newhaven slip

Notes: Generally 3-4 metres proud, bow section rises 6m from seabed. Stern section has a mounted gun pointing up slightly.

The ship Built in 1918 by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson of Newcastle upon Tyne and owned by Ellerman Lines, this steel steamship was on a voyage from London to Buenos Aires. She was 137m long and had a three-cylinder triple-expansion engine. The City of Brisbane had left London and was making her way down the Channel on 13 August 1918, when one of her lookouts suddenly spotted the telltale wake of an inbound torpedo. It was too late to do anything, and within seconds she was struck aft of hold number five. The side of the ship was completely blown in and the engine room was completely open to the sea.

The ship immediately started to settle in the water, and within a few minutes the stern was on the seabed and the master ordered all hands to abandon ship. All managed to get clear, and within half an hour the bow slipped under the waves. Today, she lies in 30 meters, 5-6 meters proud at the bows. This is the last recorded kill of the crew of the UB-57.

The dive

Vibrantly colourful plumose anemones and deadmen’s fingers are particularly notable. An abundance of mussels cling to the corroded metal remnants of the Brisbane, while starfish clung to the mussels – a living example of an ecosystem hard at work.

Although upright, the City of Brisbane is broken in two. The bow stands between 5 and 6m proud and it is here that tubes and girders stand tall in a random fashion. Other parts of the vessel present a haphazard assortment of metal plates that stand between 3 and 4m high. The wreck clearly deserves more investigation than our 35-minute dive allowed. A return visit will have to ensue!

Our target is the City of Brisbane, a World War One wreck fortunately sheltered from the east by Beachy Head. Though bringing the warm air and bright sunshine, high pressure over the north of the country has also raised a brisk easterly wind straight down the English Channel, pushing dirty water westwards and leaving diving conditions less than ideal.  My preference is always to start at one end of a wreck. It generally makes it easier to get my bearings and enables me to be more systematic in the way I photograph and sketch it, but it can make things more tricky for the skipper.

For the Brisbane, Mike places the shot close to the stern, though with 7138 tons of well-broken steamship and visibility of only 3m it still takes me a few minutes to get my act together.

Everything becomes clear when I meet the rudder post, steering quadrant and stern gun just off the edge in 27m.  Amidships I find a row of three boilers just poking out of the wreckage, though there”s no sign of the engine. It could easily have collapsed and been buried beneath steel from the superstructure, or perhaps it is obscured by the tangle of net just behind the middle of the three boilers.  Kendall McDonald reports in Dive Sussex a net draped right across the wreckage, so perhaps this is the same net now tangled amidships, or else the one that I find draped across the broken but still upright bow. No longer pulled up by floats, it simply dangles to the seabed from the starboard side.  It takes me 75 minutes to see all this, and I know that all I have is an overall impression. The Brisbane is a big ship and well-broken. The stern has the gun and steering, the bow is more picturesque, and amidships offers the better opportunity for ferreting around. I suspect that concentrating on one area would be more interesting for most divers.