The boilers and engine are the only parts of the Longwy that really stand out on an echo sounder, rising to 22 metres from a 27 metre seabed, so that is where most skippers will drop a shot and where most dives on the Longwy begin.The Longwy was a 1323 ton French steamship, torpedoed by a U boat on 4 November 1917. The ship went down on an even keel approximately 3 miles north of Corsewall Point in the Lower Clyde.
The boilers and engine are the only parts of the Longwy that really stand out on an echo sounder, rising to 22 metres from a 27 metre seabed, so that is where most skippers will drop a shot and where most dives on the Longwy begin.
Dropping down the front of the boilers, at the bottom there are two stoking holes to each boiler. Looking forward you should be able see the upright girders of a broken bulkhead. Resting against the foot of this bulkhead and across the wreck is a small donkey boiler, used to provide steam for the ship's auxiliary machinery and generators when the main boilers were not lit.
Up close the girders of the bulkhead carry an impressive array of plumose anemones. On the starboard side the girders extend forwards a short distance to the stubby remains of another bulkhead. The port side has collapsed completely. The area enclosed would most likely have been the ship's coal bunkers.
From here forward the wreck only stands a metre or two above the seabed. The rectangular surrounds of cargo hatches can just be made out amongst the general debris that marks the collapsed forward holds.
The end of the holds and start of the bow area is marked by a huge anchor winch sitting across the wreck, seated squarely on a thick steel mounting plate. Hull plates have collapsed and folded across the wreck, but the outline of the actual bows can still be picked out almost level with the silty seabed.
In the other direction, just aft of the boilers is a huge four-cylinder steam engine, still upright and rising to a depth of 20 metres. An exposed section of prop shaft leads the way to the stern.
In the area of the aft holds signs of the hull having collapsed to port are apparent. The starboard half of the wreck is covered by plates from the starboard side of the hull resting against the partially buried remains of the prop shaft tunnel. Intact hold surrounds and scraps of decking have all slid to the port side of the wreck, with the port side of the hull collapsed outwards leaving ribs exposed.
Nearing the stern the general line of the wreckage rises a few metres to meet the rudder shaft towering above. Steel plates lie propped against the stern like a huge steel Red-Indian tepee. Near the seabed at 27 metres the gaps between these plates are large enough to get in to see the lower part of the rudder shaft and the rudder standing in the silt. An incredibly dense covering of bright orange plumose anemones is a good indication of the strength of the current outside of the slack water times.
Back outside of this tent of steel plate, following the rudder shaft upward leads to a rectangular plate pierced and supported by the shaft; all that remains of the original deck. The top of the shaft is at 16 metres with the semi-circular remains of the steering mechanism still in place, indicating the original level of the main deck.