Malta

Scotscraig

A stubby Scottish car ferry that ended her career as a film prop and now sits upright in 21 metres off Anchor Bay. Shallow, quiet and rarely visited, which is exactly why the fish like her.

Open Water🚢 Wreck18 to 21 mBoat divePopularity: lowAlso called MV Scotscraig, Popeye's Barge, Popeye’s Barge, Scot Craig, Scott Graig

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🌤️79 0.5 m
0 N

Sat🌤️86 0.4 m
0 N

Sun🌤️89 0.4 m
0 N

Mon🌤️99 0.2 m
0 N

Tue🌤️85 0.4 m
0 N

Wed🌤️78 0.5 m
0 N

Thu🌤️79 0.5 m
0 N

Exposed to wind and swell from: W (270°), NW (315°), N (0°). Needs a calm day with the wind anywhere in the southern half of the compass. Anything out of the west or northwest builds swell along this coast fast, and the site silts up for days afterwards. Best season: May to October, with September and October giving the warmest water and the steadiest spells; winter trips happen but only in a settled southerly..

The dive

Everything about this little wreck is faintly absurd, in the best way. She spent fifteen years shuttling cars across a cold Scottish estuary, retired to Malta, got a cameo in a Robin Williams musical, was parked on the seabed as a makeshift breakwater, and then drowned herself on the way to her next job. Now she lies flat and upright on seagrass, shingle and sand at about 21 metres, twenty five metres of rusting steel that looks bigger than it measures because she is so wide across the beam.

The diving is gentle. You drop onto open deck at roughly 15 to 18 metres, potter along the rails, and drift through the open spaces where the vehicle deck used to be. The hull plating is opening up in places, which is bad news for the ship and good news for anyone who likes swimming through structure, and the lower deck can be entered by divers with the right training and a light. The famous photo op is a row of toilets still bolted in place, waiting for passengers who stopped coming in 1966.

Because hardly anyone bothers with her, the residents have grown comfortable. Morays and congers own the broken plating, a grouper or two patrol the stern, octopus tuck into every hole, and the odd stingray flaps off the sand when you swim over. Visibility here is usually a step down from the north Malta average, and it turns properly murky after a blow, so pick a settled day.

At 21 metres with a big shallow shelf of seagrass to potter over on the way back up, she makes a lovely second boat dive of the day, and she is well within reach of a newly qualified diver with a guide.

A complete little ferry sitting upright in easy recreational depth
The unlikely Popeye film connection, with the village still standing ashore
Toilets still bolted to the deck, the most photographed fixture on the wreck
Barely dived, so the marine life is settled and unbothered
Ideal as a relaxed second dive of a boat day

Typical plan

Descend the marker to the deck at 15 to 18 metres, work the length of the hull one way at deck level, then drop to the sand at 21 metres for a lap around the keel, watching the plating for eels. Come back up over the deck, spend the back half of the dive on the seagrass shallower than 15 metres and finish with a mid-water safety stop under a DSMB. Around 40 minutes on a single 12 litre of air is comfortable; nitrox 32 buys you a lazier pace and a cleaner second dive.

What the bottom looks like

1Main deck, bow section18 m deep · 20 m out
2Superstructure and the surviving toilets17 m deep · 40 m out
3Stern, keel line on the sand21 m deep · 55 m out
4Shingle and sand apron around the hull21 m deep · 70 m out
5Posidonia meadow off the wreck18 m deep · 120 m out

Cartoon cross-section along the usual route from the boat drop. Depths are approximate.

Seagrass giving way to coarse shingle and sand, with the hull sitting squarely on the bottom.

Who you might meet

Getting in and staying safe

Boat only, no shore option: she is far too far out to swim. Most charters run from Cirkewwa or Mellieha and make the hop in well under half an hour, often pairing her with Anchor Bay or Ghar it-Trozz on the same trip. There is no fixed shotline, so the skipper drops a marker or anchors into the sand nearby. Anchor Bay itself has parking, toilets and a cafe if you are meeting a boat there, but the bay is busy with Popeye Village tourist craft.

Visibility is often poorer than elsewhere in Malta and collapses after bad weather
Penetration of the lower deck is a genuine overhead: silt, no natural light, training and a reel needed
Corroded steel plating with sharp edges and snag points
Boat traffic in and out of Anchor Bay, including tourist craft; carry a DSMB
Exposed swell on the surface can make the pick-up lively
Lost fishing line and net snagged on the superstructure

A bit of history

MV Scotscraig was launched in 1951 from the Caledon yard in Dundee for the Dundee Harbour Trust, working the Tay crossing between Dundee and Newport-on-Tay with room for a handful of cars and a crowd of foot passengers. She was named for a spot near Tayport. The Tay Road Bridge put the ferries out of business in 1966, and she and her sister Abercraig were sold south to Malta, where Abercraig was eventually broken up. Scotscraig found a second act on the Popeye production at Anchor Bay, filmed through the first half of 1980, serving as a supply and camera platform; the film set survives ashore as Popeye Village. Afterwards she was sunk deliberately as a working breakwater while the concrete jetty at Anchor Bay was poured, then refloated and taken under tow. Bad weather caught her in transit, she took water, parted the tow and went down, most likely in 1981.

Divers say

No reviews yet. First one gets bragging rights.

Further reading: Divers Guide: Scott Graig dive site · Wikipedia: Tay Ferries · Wikipedia: Popeye Village, Anchor Bay · Wrecksite: MV Scotscraig