 | ex Majorca, ex Leopold De Wael
Sunken: 5 miles south of cape Kamenjak
Depth: 39 - 49 m
Navigation time: 70 minutes
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At the very beginning of this story I should said that from most of the divers SS Luana is wrongly named SS Giuseppe Dormio. Booth ships are similar size, and build. Sunken in almost same period hitting an underwater mine and they lay relatively close to each other. It was an easy mistake. Among scuba divers SS Luana is still named SS Giuseppe Dormio and will be probably forever. These errors are frequent and hard to correct.
Luana was yard no 177 in S.P. Austin & Son shipyard in Sunderland. She was build in 1892 like Majorca for Leith, Hull & Hamburg shipping company. Mostly was transporting cargo from Hamburg to Leith. 77 meters long and 10 meters wide was a typical example of well deck build. Luana had three cargo holes. One on the bow and two on the stern part. Even today you can admire a beautiful wheel on the stern of the ship. Luana were equipped with a 136 HP triple expansion steam engine. In 1924 Majorca was sold to Belgium and she changed her name in Leopold de Wael.
In 1933 finally were sold to an Italian ship owner Raffaele Romano from Naples and renamed SS Luana. In March 1947 she were transporting bauxite from Manfredonia to Venice. Five miles south of cape Kamenjak hit the mine and sunk rapidly. Unfortunately 12 crew members were lost in tragedy. How is possible that Luana sunken just of Pula when this wasn’t really the shortest way from Manfredonia to Venice. What went wrong? On this and other questions about this wreck will answer the time that’s coming.
Today the wreck is lying on 49 meters depth. Strait up with bow toward Pula. A bow part is largely damaged from mine explosion. There is always a line that links the surface to a wreck. This is were we start our dive. Few minutes later we are at main bridge, witch is the shallowest part of the wreck, 39 meters. Maximum depth is 49. Always excellent visibility, often more then 30 meters. Diving on this wreck you can frequently meet a large swells of fish witch are literally hiding the wreck. Main wooden deck is no more in places so we can easily see what is hidden in cargo holes. With careful planning it is possible to penetrate the wreck from inside. Beside that the most beautiful part is to admire the wheel on the stern still in place. A few moments later we are on the way back toward main bridge and slowly ascending to surface. Mostly on the main bridge you can easily find congers, lobsters and other inhabitants that are real owner of this wreck.
Whenever we dived on this wreck we had an excellent visibility. This is the reason why this dive is always a spectacular event. One thing to pay attention are sea currents that sometimes can be really strong.
Fotogalery:
Fotka 1 |
Fotka 6 |
Fotka 5 |
Fotka 4 |
Fotka 3 |
Fotka 2 |
Biography:
Marijan Zuvic
Paul de Keijzer
Andrea Moro
TWAS
WWW
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