DATELINE: 16th July 2001

CHARYBDIS FOUND
A team of mixed-gas technical divers has located and dived the wreck of the British warship HMS Charybdis, torpedoed in 1943 off Les Sept Isles in north Brittany.
Led by pioneering mixed-gas diver Keith Morris and diving from the liveaboard Wey Chieftan II, the team found the wreck at a depth of 83m.
They found "considerable damage" to the starboard side, but both sets of 4.5in guns remained in position, barrels facing the seabed.
Aft of the bridge, the divers explored the port gunwale and noted both masts with their ladders, and the stern guns.
The sinking remains keenly remembered in Brittany and the Channel Islands. Of the ship's 567 crew, 460 were lost.
Morris took care to obtain all the necessary permissions from the French authorities and the ship's survivors' association, which is to receive a full diving report with pictures.
A feature on the Charybdis project will appear in the September issue of Diver magazine.

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