A luxury yacht built by George Brown & Co of Greenock in 1905, HMY Zarefah was originally named Maretanza V. She was commissioned by the Royal Navy in 1914 and converted for minesweeping duties, however on May 8 1917 she struck a mine laid by German sub UC-31 and went down with the loss of 16 men. The wreck now lies in 40m about a mile off Mull Head, Deerness, Orkney.

I had attempted to dive the wreck a couple of years ago, but this ended unsuccessfully when the shot was dragged off target by the tide. On this occasion, an unusually sunny, calm October day, everything went to plan and Lindsay and I were able to fully explore the area. The seabed is white/beige shell sand which reflected a lot of light and there were also plenty of fish about, plus the odd lobster standing guard.

In the videos the propeller, prop shaft, an anchor capstan, the triple expansion engine, single boiler, and large sections of the keel are visible. Also I am pretty sure there is an admiralty pattern anchor visible in one of the clips.