Xatt l-Ahmar · Gozo

MV Cominoland

A thirty-five metre wartime minelayer turned tourist cruiser, sunk upright on sand at forty metres. Smaller and further out than the Karwela, which is exactly why some divers prefer it.

Deep / Experienced🪸 Reef🧱 Wall🚢 Wreck30 to 45 mShore access: mediumPopularity: highAlso called Cominoland, HMS Miner VI (N16), MV Jylland II, MV Minor Eagle, Miner VI

Plan this dive

Sea conditions

Excellent right now

Flat, sheltered and calm

Forecast for the site, updated 01:45 AM

Waves: 0.3 m; from SE
Wind: n/a
Swell: 0.2 m; 5 s period
Sea temp: 29 °C

Next 7 days

Today🌤️71 0.5 m
0 N

Sat🌤️79 0.4 m
0 N

Sun🌤️84 0.3 m
0 N

Mon🌤️96 0.2 m
0 N

Tue🌤️100 0.4 m
0 N

Wed🌤️94 0.6 m
0 N

Thu🌤️63 0.6 m
0 N

Exposed to wind and swell from: E (90°), SE (135°), S (180°), SW (225°). Same shelter as the rest of Xatt l-Ahmar: excellent in the prevailing north-westerly, unusable in anything east or south. Currents are normally slight. Because the swim is longer, a bit of surface chop costs more here than on the Karwela. Best season: May to October for water temperature and the ladders being in; diveable through winter in northerly weather.

The dive

The Cominoland went down on the same August day in 2006 as the Karwela and landed the same way, square and upright on clean sand. She is the smaller of the pair, about thirty-five metres of hull, with the highest structure at roughly thirty-two, the main deck at thirty-five and the bows down at thirty-nine.

Being compact is not a weakness here. You can swim the whole ship comfortably inside a single deep bottom time and still have a proper look at both of her decks, which were opened up with cut hatches and side panels before the scuttle so that penetration stays bright and has obvious exits. She is the quieter of the two upright wrecks, partly because the extra sixty metres of swim past the Karwela puts people off, so you often get her to yourself.

Her past is the best of the three. This hull was laid down as a small Royal Navy minelayer in the middle of the Second World War and has worn six names since. Almost nothing of that career is legible now, but it is a nice thing to think about when you are hanging over her bow at thirty-nine metres.

There is also a running experiment on the site. The Cominoland was stripped to bare steel before sinking while the Karwela kept her paint, so the two wrecks are a side-by-side test of which surface marine growth prefers. Twenty years on, the answer is fairly obvious once you have swum both.

A 1942 Royal Navy minelayer you can swim end to end in one bottom time
Sitting upright with two open decks and easy, well-lit penetration
Usually the emptiest of the Xatt l-Ahmar wrecks
Stripped bare steel, half of a twenty-year experiment in marine growth
Six names in eighty years, which is a lot of history per metre of hull

Typical plan

Descend at the ladders and run the approach underwater on a south-easterly bearing over the plateau, then down the slope until the superstructure appears at thirty-two. Circle the hull at deck level, take one bright pass through the upper deck, then drop briefly to the bow on the sand at thirty-nine. Fifteen to twenty minutes on the wreck at a thirty-four metre average is typical, with the return leg and deco spent climbing the reef slope. Nitrox 32 is close to essential here given the swim; a twin set or a slung stage makes the whole thing much more relaxed.

What the bottom looks like

1Reef drop-off before the sand slope22 m deep · 190 m out
2Bare stripped plating, the paint experiment33 m deep · 230 m out
3Highest point of the superstructure32 m deep · 260 m out
4Main deck and cut entry hatches35 m deep · 285 m out
5Bows on the sand39 m deep · 315 m out
6Open sand seaward of the hull40 m deep · 350 m out

Cartoon cross-section along the usual route from Xatt l-Ahmar ladders, Red Bay shore. Depths are approximate.

Fine sand around the hull, with rock and Posidonia on the inshore plateau you cross to reach her.

Who you might meet

Getting in and staying safe

Shore dive from Xatt l-Ahmar, or boat if you would rather not swim. Drive down from Ghajnsielem on the narrow, rough lane below Mgarr to the parking and kitting area, then walk down to the rocks and enter off the steel ladders, which are seasonal and pulled out for winter. She is the furthest of the three big wrecks from the entry, so the swim out and the gas budget both need to account for that; many divers descend at the ladders and run the whole approach underwater on a compass bearing. Nothing at the site itself, so bring water and plan to change at the car.

Maximum depth around thirty-nine to forty metres with a decompression obligation on most plans
Longest approach swim of the three wrecks, so gas planning is the real limiter
Overhead environment on both decks despite the cut openings
Silt inside the hull
Narcosis at depth on a small, easily over-explored wreck
Sharp cut steel edges
Boat traffic on the surface; use a DSMB
Rough access track and a slippery rocky entry

A bit of history

Philip and Son of Dartmouth built her in England in 1942 as an M class minelayer of 295 tons, thirty-four metres long with an eight metre beam, commissioned as M6 and known as Miner VI. E Zammit and Sons bought her out of naval service in 1966 and converted her into a ferry for the Valletta to Comino run, naming her Minor IV, then Minor Eagle, then Cominoland in 1976. She became the pleasure cruiser Jylland II in 1980, and in 1982 Captain Morgan Cruises took her on, restored the Cominoland name and ran her on harbour and Comino day trips. The Gozo Tourism Association scuttled her at Xatt l-Ahmar on 12 August 2006 together with the Karwela, both cleaned out by Cassar Ship Repair and sent down with buoyancy tanks and lift bags so they would land on their keels.