This was one of the Larinaga fleet. A 5358 ton cargo and passenger steamship registered in Liverpool. She was attacked by German aircraft on 12th May 1941 and she sank in Frenchmans Bay 500 yards east of Trow Rocks. She has been well dispersed, with only the bow section relatively intact. The rest of the wreckage is scattered over a wide area and is obscured by kelp, but plates, fittings, pipes and ribs can be found. The stern section lies in deeper water further east. Her general depth is 12 metres. She was built in 1929 by Lithgows ltd at Port Glasgow for the Larinaga Steam Ship Co. ltd. Her single propeller was powered by a three-cylinder, triple-expansion steam engine. Her machinery was designed and built by R. Rowan & Co. of Glasgow. She had one deck and a superstructure consisting of an 11.6m poop-deck, an 81.5m bridge deck and an 11.6m forecastle. She was sailing in ballast on passage from the Tyne to St. Lawrence, with a crew of thirty five and five passengers when bombed by German aircraft of 12 May 1941. She was taken in tow, but broke her back in the shallow water just off Trow Rocks in South Shields (Spokes and NMR Database states 500yds east of Trow Rocks). Salvage attempts employing explosives have resulted in a collapsed wreck broken up into small pieces. However in winter storms in 1999-2000 ribs from the under section were exposed.

Grid reference conversion made 16.11.2010 with http://gps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/etrs89geo_natgrid.asp with Lat/Long referenced as
N 54 59 662 W 001 23 082

Only 20 PC-class Q-ships were ever made. The original P-class ships were 'patrol boats' a class of coastal sloop. 24 P class boats (numbered P11-64 were constructed between 1915-1916) under the Emergency War Programme for the Royal Navy. Ten of these were later altered for use as decoy Q-ships and were renumbered as PC-class sloops. These vessels were designed to replace destroyers in coastal operations. The Q-Ships had their original numbers altered by the addition of a C after the P. More ships were ordered in 1917 with the PC71 ordered in June of that year. She was built by White of Cowes and was launched 18th March 1918. These were built to resemble small merchant vessels for use as decoy ships (Q ships) and were alternatively known as PQ boats. The PC class sloops were completed with slight enlargements for the standard P class. They were 247ft long and 25.5 ft in breadth. The PC71 had a 694 ton displacement. They caried one 4-inch and 2 12-pounder guns but no torpedos. The corvette PC71 was sold for breaking up on 28th October 1925, she was being towed to the Firth of Forth, when she broke her tow. She drifted for 6 hours until she came ashore on Target Rock. She is totally broken up, but some of her remains show above water at low tide.

This 5000 ton steamer ran aground on 22nd October 1940, having overshot the Tyne. The wreck has been salvaged. N55 59 12 W001 22 42 in 8 metres of water. Just north of Camel Island. She lies north-south and is broken up. Her telegraph was recovered in May 1990. The ship was built by Pickersgill in 1926. She went aground in thick fog. Wind and waves drove her further onto shore. She broke her back on the reef. The Roker Volunteer Life Saving Brigade was on the scene for 22 hours and rescused 16 men by lifeboat and 35 men by breeches buoy. William Burton was awared a BEM (British Empire Medal) for his courage in going on board to help a sick seaman. Local people 'rescued' her cargo of butter, bacon and tins of powered egg. On 22 July 1926, shortly before the launch of the Cairnglen, around 100 men were climbing a gangway to start work when it gave way. 50 men were injured and 3 died.

This appears to be a bucket dredger with some large buckets.

An unidentified wreck lies behind Camel Island (a rock with two humps). The wreck is well broken up but framework, engine block and prop can still be seen (Collings). Ian Spokes database notes the wreck of a steamship lying under 5m of water at Camel Island.

A World War Two bomber which crash landed 1/3 mile off Sunderland pier. Air-sea rescue saved 5 of the 8 crewmen. The plane had taken part in a 1000 bomber raid on northern Germany. A Polish destroyer took the Plane in tow, to attempt to get her to Blyth, but she quickly sank.

A German U-Boat submarine which sank 1st February 1917. She was on mine laying duties and sank with torpedoes and 14 mines on board. 23 crew died, but the captain survived. The wreck was found by divers off Sunderland in 1989 and was blown up by Navy divers later that year (Collings). 511-tons, 52m long, 5.2m beam, UC11 Class German Submarine launched in Germany on 12 August 1916 and commissioned on the 13th of that month. She was armed with one 88.8mm deck gun, three bow and own stern torpedo tubes (sized 483mm x 178mm and 76mm x 102mm). She also had six vertically inclined mine tubes and carried eighteen UC-200 mines. Her twin bronze propellers were powered by two oil engines that and she ran submerged on an electric motor, powered by rows of lead/acid batteries. She was reported to be capable of approx. 12 knots surface speed and 7.4 knots submerged. During the First World War, UC32 was a mine-laying submarine and had a general patrol area from the Humber to the Tyne. Also, she used to harass trawlers at the mouth of the River Wear. She would lie in wait until vessels left the river, then she would surface and sink them with her deck gun and submerge before any ship or plane could catch her. However, the Royal Navy got together with the fishermen and armed a steam fishing trawler with a large deck gun (a Q ship) and kept it camouflaged until the submarine surfaced. They took the covers off and let blaze at the U-boat. Taken by surprise, she immediately crash-dived, leaving on unfortunate sailor still on her deck. The submarine got away that time, but the sailor drowned.
On 23 February 1917, UC32 was just starting to lay her mines off the river mouth in 12 m of water, when she accidentally struck one of her own mines. The vessel blew up and sank, killing nineteen of her crew, but the Captain, Oberleutnant zur See Herbert Breyer and two sailors were rescued by an examination vessel. It was thought that a plug that held the mine to the sinker must have dissolved too quickly, releasing the mine, which exploded under her stern end. Locals lined the docks and jeered and spat at the survivors as they were escorted ashore under armed guard.

In 1985 a substantial amount of the wreck was still intact, including her twin bronze propellers, which had inscribed on them ‘Vulcanwerke, Volcad Works, Rubel Bronze, 29-7-1916 and Durchmess, Steigung’. When she was found, the complete periscope and about five telegraphs were also there. They are now long since gone, taken when she was first discovered. In 1994-94 a local diver ‘re-discovered’ the wreck and the German Embassy got involved after press coverage. The site was designated a war grave. Because the wreck was close to the shipping channel and there were still live mines and torpedoes on board, the Royal Navy brought in divers to examine her and decided to disperse the wreck. The wreck lies approximately 400m north from the pier lighthouse at Sunderland in a general depth of 12-13m. There is still a substantial amount of her left, in three main sections and lots of copper and brass to be seen along with dozens of giant lead batteries standing in rows. The torpedo tube also still has a live torpedo in it, ready to fire!

Grid reference conversion made 02.02.2011 with http://gps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/etrs89geo_natgrid.asp with Lat/Long referenced as N 54 54 31 W 01 19 27

A British steamship of 1294 tons. Sank just off the mouth of the Wear after hitting a mine on 14th January 1917.

This was a drifter used on Admiralty service during World War Two. The Summer Rose was 96 tons. She hit a mine and sank on 13th October 1940. She lies at N54 55 401 W001 20 30 in 12 metres of water (collings). A 96T Royal Navy armed trawler sunk as a result of a mine 13th October 1940. She now lies at a depth of 12m.

Built for the Preston Steamship Co. in 1905. 228 feet long and 1143 tons. The Presto struck a mine 4 miles off Roker on 17th April 1917. 4 crew were killed. There are several unidentified wrecks on the chart which might be the Presto (Collings). Steel, 1,143-ton, 69.59m long, 9.8m beam, 4.31m draught British steamship registered at Newcastle upon Tyne. She was owned at the time of loss by Pelton steamship Co. Ltd and built by J. Crown & Sons Ltd at Sunderland in 1905. Her single steel propeller was powered by a three-cylinder, triple-expansion steam engine that employed one boiler. Her machinery was built at Sunderland by G. Clark Ltd. She had one deck, a well-deck, four watertight bulkheads and a superstructure consisting of a 5.8m poop-deck, 18.5m quarter-deck, 14.6m bridge-deck and 8.5m forecastle. The vessel was also armed with a stern-mounted deck gun that fired 2.72kg (6lb) shells.
On 17 April 1917 (the NMR database records two dates April 17th and April 6th), the Presto was in ballast on passage from Lowery, when she foundered and was lost, one and a half miles east of the River Wear. She was making about 9.5 knots when it is believed she detonated a German-laid mine under her no.1 hold, which caused a violent explosion and killed four of her crew (another report says six crew) at 9:40am. The ship immediately began to sink by the head. Her surviving crew abandoned ship in the boats and the examination vessel, which happened to be close by at the time, picked them up and took the Presto in tow by the Stern. Two tugs also came out from the Wear and assisted the tow. However at 11am she had taken in so much water that the fore part actually struck the seabed about one and a half miles from Roker lighthouse, where she was abandoned, settling on the bottom in 17m of water (Spokes and NMR records her location as 4 miles from Roker).

The wreck believed to be the steamship Presto, lies fairly close to the remains of the Hebble on a well swept seabed of hard stone and sand, in a general depth of 17m. The wreck is in line with the main shipping channels for the river and appears to have been dispersed with explosives at some time, because she is reported to be totally collapsed, rather flattened and concreting to the seabed. The highest section of about 3m is around the boiler and engine which are covered in soft corals.

Grid reference conversion made 02.02.2011 with http://gps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/etrs89geo_natgrid.asp with Lat/Long referenced as N 54 55 26 W 01 19 01