Other features at the stern include the remains of the steering gear and pairs of bollards to either side. There is also the remains of a structure mounted on a large gear that may have been a gun mount, but I am not sure just what it is.I like to begin and end a dive on the Dakotian at the shallowest and most intact part of the wreck - the stern. Here the wreck is tilted slightly to starboard, but the deck has collapsed inside the stern to leave it almost level. The skeleton of the stern cabins is skewed to one side, but can easily be entered and swum through.
Other features at the stern include the remains of the steering gear and pairs of bollards to either side. There is also the remains of a structure mounted on a large gear that may have been a gun mount, but I am not sure just what it is.
Whilst at the stern it is well worth dropping over the side to view the intact prop shaft and rudder. Ascending the port side of the hull, seams are split and plates overlapping. A break in the side at about 10 metres provides a route back into the holds. Immediately in front of the raised stern cabin a large winch has fallen on one end and rests almost vertically.
Forward in the holds, bales of tin plate poke out of the fine silt. A few sheets of tin lie scattered on the floor and still maintain a bright mirror surface after almost 60 years.
Moving further forwards, but still inside the hold, another winch lies propped on one end. An intact bridge of deck and broken bulkheads leaves an easy 10-metre swim through to the remains of the engine room. Little remains of the engine room, but the remains of the steam engine poke out of the debris in the center and various ship-sized pipe work can be picked out amongst twisted and tangled girders and machinery. The superstructure has been swept down to deck level.
From this point onwards the wreck is more broken up. If the visibility is poor it can be hard to find your way across the broken section to the bows.
The bows are intact and lying on the port side, so that the highest point of the wreck here is actually the starboard side of the hull. Following the intact starboard railing to the highest point of the bows, it is not unusual to find yourself amongst a shoal of pollack holding position in a gentle current.
This is a convenient point to pop a delayed SMB and ascend, but if you still have time and air you could try following the debris back to the stern half of the wreck and then explore the swept remains on the starboard side of the hull, ending the dive back at the stern.