SS Stanfield

No anchor sits on this wreck. The boat positions, drops a weighted shot line, and the descent begins in open blue. The wreck appears between 40 and 45 metres depending on the day, resolving from haze into a recognisable early-twentieth-century steamer with railings, hatches, and bridge. Planned routes split into two zones. The upper route on the main deck and bridge between 45 and 50 metres is where divers running 21/30 trimix or air-with-deco-gas spend most of their bottom time. Hatches open into the holds, the intermediate bridge holds the lines of a 120-metre vessel, and the visual material is a working ship preserved upright. The lower route drops below the deck to the sand at 61 metres and across to the propeller at 62 metres. The four-bladed, five-metre wheel draped in red and yellow gorgonians is the reason divers commit to the heavier gas budget. Interior penetration is a third zone, into the holds and inter-deck passageways, where gorgonian growth has thickened in some corridors to the point of partial obstruction. Most dives keep the inside optional rather than routine. The deco schedule defines the rhythm: stops at 21, 15, 12, 9, 6 and the long 3-metre hang, runtime 70 to 110 minutes.

Three things differentiate the Stanfield from every other wreck in the Cabo de Palos cluster. Size, first. At about 120 metres the hull dwarfs the Naranjito at 52 metres and the older Carbonero and Lilla at around 88, and it cannot be covered in one dive. Preservation, second. The ship rests upright on sand with the bow slightly raised, holds passable, inter-deck spaces negotiable, the propeller standing clear at 62 metres. The wreck also sits outside the reserve. Bajo de Fuera's deep wrecks demand 15 days advance notice, medical certificates, and a 25-diver daily cap; the Stanfield is gated by certification, gas mixes, and the weather window. The community register around this dive is restraint, not enthusiasm: a known buddy and a known centre are non-negotiable, repeat visits across years are the norm, and the consensus framing is a wreck worth multiple dives rather than one pass.

The ship was built in Southampton in 1896 under the name Standfield. By 1916 she sailed under Cypriot flag as Nitsa, also written Nitza. On 5 June she departed Norfolk, Virginia, carrying coal for the Italian army on a wartime run to Savona, with the U-boat campaign in the western Mediterranean at its height. Late on 25 June 1916, near Isla Hormiga, she went down; the official date of loss is 26 June. All 28 crew and the captain launched the lifeboats and were rescued by the steamship Alba after the boilers detonated. The cause remains unresolved, with four theories surviving in the record. A torpedo from a German U-boat, possibly U-35, is the most-repeated version and is supported by visible damage to the starboard side. The other three are a collision with the Bajo de Fuera reef, a collision with another wartime ship running without navigation lights, and boiler failure. The Stanfield is one of around 50 WWI-era wrecks lost off the Cartagena and Cabo de Palos coast between 1915 and 1918, the local arc of the U-boat campaign that made this stretch of sea one of the Mediterranean's largest underwater cemeteries.

This is a tec trip and books like one. Gas mixes need to be ordered, boat scheduling coordinated, and weather windows confirmed in advance. No permanent mooring sits on the wreck, so workable sea state matters more than for inner-reserve sites. Bottom mix is usually 21/30 trimix above the deck and 18/45 or 15/55 for the propeller; EAN50 covers the 21-metre transition and oxygen handles the 6-metre hang. Plan the deepest portion first and respect the deco. Penetration discipline applies inside the hull, with line reels, primary and backup lights, and gas reserves planned for the longer return path. Drysuit is the operational norm year-round at this depth band. Summer thermoclines drop sharply near 15 metres and the bottom runs 14-16°C even when the surface is in the high 20s; winter is uniform 13-15°C top to bottom and a long deco hang in a wetsuit is not workable. Cancel rather than push marginal weather. The dive isn't going anywhere.