Liguria Wreckdive Service

The Tirpitz has been for a long time known by local fishermen and divers as the wreck of the "Steamship": she was finally identified in July 2000 following the recovery of her ship bell (Expedition Lorenzo del Veneziano).

This cargo had been built in Hamburg on behalf of the HAMBURG-AMERIKA LINIE.
143 m long and 17,7 m wide, for a gross weight of about 7.970 Tonns, the Tirpitz was able to reach a speed of 11 Knots. Soon after her launching in 1921 she had been assigned the lining service to America for about two decades, until 1940: at this time - due to the sudden blasting of the second World War - the ship was limited within the waters of the Mediterranean sea.

Short before this stop the Tirpitz had been setting sails from Hamburg harbour to Genova: yet, following the further navigation blockade in the Atlantic, raised as a consequence of the war, the Tirpitz was soon enrolled into the so called "Mittelmeer Reederei". This was a military company that had been founded by the German government of the Third Reich: its task had been that of administering and maintaining together all the 50 remaining ships still raising a German flag, which had been gathered in the Mediterranean sea.
As part of this group - since indeed the Tirpitz could be considered merely a German ship - she was then caught and struck by an English U-Boat Torpedo: this happened on July 23rd,1941 off the Arma di Taggia cape, where the Tirpitz finally sunk.

During the sinking - as some witnesses reported - some of the survivors tried hard to manage with a last desperate manoeuvre, with the aim of bring the ship as close as possible to the coast: yet the damages had been so great that any attempt to save the ship failed.

The dive on the Tirpitz is just reserved to Trimix divers: the depths are here quite considerable and a thorough dive planning is mandatory for a safe gas check and decompression profile. The wreck lies slanting on the left side at about 87-90 m depth: yet the huge structures of the ship rise up to a depth of about 68 m, providing so a first overview also to Hypoxic Trimix divers who cannot manage with large mixed gas supply. The wreck is still in a good shape and relatively safe in its structures, if one makes exception of the blast hole triggered by the torpedo strike aprow. Its long masts still lay across the wreck on the sea bottom: they permitted the ship not to completely capsize during the sinking and made her falling on the left side on the sea ground. The blast hole at prow, starboard side, is still a remarkable view: here is the place where she had been hit by the Torpedo.

Inside the bulkheads of this area one can still put a glance on the large steam boiler, which is clearly visible.
The prow bears yet another more little hole, probably caused by inner explosions or by a cannon shot: one can dive through this hole, get inside the crew rooms and then, passing through a wide lightening window, get the path back to the main deck.
The sense of direction on this wreck is not so easy, since the dimensions are here quite large (142 m) and the depths require concentration.
The end of one of the 2 descent lines is roped at one of the railings: from here one can still go down to the sea ground covering a distance which is that of about 7 storeys.