The Admiralty target tug Buccaneer is one of those nice wrecks that is ideally sized for the depth it is sunk in. Anyone going to 46 or 47 metres should be prepared to do at least a little decompression, and you can see most of the Buccaneer in one dive without getting too heavily into decompression.
The wreck lies on its port side with the bow to the east. The upper starboard side of the hull is in about 37 metres. Heading towards the bow, the bow deck is raised from the main deck with focsle below. In the side are holes where portholes used to be located.
The rear half of the bow deck is taken up by the 3 inch gun. Both the gun and the platform are intact, even the hand wheels are still there. The gun points forward along the ship, maybe a little to starboard.
Forward of the gun is the anchor winch, not particularly big as the Buccaneer was only a 840 ton tug. Over the bow both anchors are still in place, held snug and tight in their hawse pipes by the anchor chains from the winch.
Behind the focsle short steps on either side descend to the main deck. A hatchway between leads back into the focsle, a tight and very silty space should you feel inclined to explore.
There is only a short space of open deck before the remains of the superstructure and wheelhouse. The lower level is framed in steel so that although the wooden sides have rotted through the overall structure is supported. The upper wheelhouse level has not survived so well, with only a steel frame at the front surviving and the remaining wooden structure long rotted away.
Behind the wheelhouse is a raised deck above the boiler and boiler room. The funnel is gone and the flue blocked with debris. Towards the port and lower side of the wreck, a pair of boat davits stand empty.
When I last dived the Buccaneer, a fishing net was strung across the wreck just aft of the boat davits, caught on the stubs of a pair of masts set at either side of the deck. With floats still attached it billowed up above the wreck, so I advise caution here. It's not difficult to avoid if you keep an eye out for it.
Clear of the net and continuing towards the stern, behind the boiler room is another gun platform. This time on stilts to raise it well above the main deck. The platform is intact, complete with railing. The gun pintle stands securely in the centre of the platform but there is no sign of the gun, either on the platform or on the seabed below.
Behind the gun platform are the familiar engine room ventilation hatches. These are open, though not that big. A sufficiently adventurous and skinny diver could get inside. One of the engines is almost within arms reach from the outside.
Aft of the ventilation hatches a small cuddy with a half-height hatch marks the official entry from the deck to the engine room.
The deck from here to the stern was dedicated to the Buccaneer's proven dangerous function of towing gunnery targets. A large winch spans most of the width of the deck, steel cable is still wound on the drum with numerous hand wheels, brake rods and other controls still in place. Either side are substantial looking bollards.
The aft deck has fallen from the ship to leave a jumbled mess of the below deck space. Original photographs show arched cable guides over the deck here and substantial looking Samson posts, all now buried beneath the debris of the deck on the seabed.
Some hull plates have also fallen away to leave an open spider of ribs just above the stern. Right at the stern the steering quadrant is intact and still attached to the rudder shaft.
Continuing behind and below the stern and out of view on the illustration, the rudder is broken downwards from the shaft towards the seabed. Above the rudder the starboard shaft stands clear of the wreck supported by an "A" frame, the bronze propeller salvaged. The port shaft is buried in the silt below the keel at 47 or 48 metres, the propeller still in place, though sometimes only the tip of a blade shows above the silt.