Site Name: Rondo - Sound of Mull

Extensively salvaged before she plunged bow first into deep water, the Rondo is unlike any other wreck dive. Built in Tampa in neutral America in 1917, officially for Cunard but in fact for the British Government, War Wonder 1 was intended to help replace losses inflicted by German U-boats on Allied shipping. However, as the USA went to war it requisitioned all ships being built in the States for its own war effort. War Wonder was renamed Lithopolis and was ready to sail two months before the war ended. She was renamed again in 1930 as Laurie, then sold in 1934 to become the Norwegian Rondo.

In early 1935, the Rondo left Glasgow in ballast, intending to round Scotland, pick up a cargo in Dunstan, Northumberland, and carry it to Oslo. On 25 January she sailed into the Sound of Mull and a hideous blizzard. She took shelter in Aros Bay, near Tobermory, but during the night her anchor chain parted and she drifted down the sound, driven 10 miles by howling winds and strong tides. It was then that the rocky islet of Dearg Sgeir with its little white lighthouse got in the Rondo's way. The wind and waves drove the ship sideways across Dearg Sgeir with such force that she was stranded high and dry, balanced precariously across the island.The 264ft ship with her 42ft beam just missed the lighthouse, but the wind and waves drove her high on the rocks, where she stuck fast. 

Distress flares whirled away in the wind, but at dawn the 22 crew found that although their ship was rock-pierced they were in no danger. They remained aboard for two weeks, as one salvage effort after another failed. Tugs and trawlers couldn't pull her off and it was finally decided to break her up where she squatted. A salvage crew started to cut her up.  Over the following few months, extensive salvaging removed most of the hull and machinery, until eventually the balance of the wreck was disturbed. Rondo screeched as she was bashed by winter seas so big and heavy that they slowly inched the ship across the 100ft-wide island. First her bow dipped, then her decks sloped down and the salvors raced against the inevitable. Finally,  she slipped down the face of the sheer underwater cliff, and there she remains, propped steeply against it.

The Rondo is now one of the classic wrecks in the Sound of Mull. It is also a rather unusual wreck, because of its condition and location. The bow now rests dug into the seabed in 50 metres, with the stern rising to just 5 metres below the surface. It is easy to get the impression that the Rondo is almost vertical in the water, standing on its bow and resting against a cliff face. 

A dive on the Rondo normally begins on the rudder post, the shallowest point of the wreck and where a buoy is conveniently attached. The weed-wrapped rudder is an impressive sight at between 6 metres and 9 metres, and is a potential stop off during your final bit of decompression on the way back up to the surface from a maximum depth of about 50m at the bow. A short way down there are some broken sections of the propshaft tunnel big enough to swim through. The shaft itself has been salvaged. Either side of this, the hull plates have been folded in towards the keel giving the sides of the wreck a rounded appearance. 

Up until a few years ago there was an intact archway of hull and decking spanning the wreck at this point. It gave a good impression of how large the Rondo originally was before it was salvaged. Unfortunately, this has now collapsed, leaving a skeleton of upright ribs projecting into the current. Between these ribs, a small area of deck-plating holds a winch above the tangled remains that fill the bottom of the hull. Also notable in this area of the wreck are the broken remains of an A-frame mast that lies along the inside of the hull. Continuing downhill towards the bow, the sides of the wreck are featureless and sparse until some ribs project from the port side at about 40 metres. The slope is now starting to level off, with the seabed in front of the bow being a coarse gravel and pebble plain at 50 metres. 

The bow stands only about 1 metre above the seabed, but the wreck has dug in below the level of the seabed, enabling a maximum depth of 52 metres to be found just inside the bow at the bottom of the keel. Having followed the inside of the wreck all the way down to the bow, for the return journey follow the outside and admire some of the vibrant marine life that grows from the hull and the rocks around the wreck. At about 36m the keel spans a dip in the slope to form an easy swimthrough to the other side of the wreck.

With the strong currents that flow along the Sound of Mull getting funnelled through this gap beneath the keel, here is where you can find the biggest and densest arrays of plumose anemones. If the current is running and you want to do this swimthrough, it is best to start your return from the bow on the upcurrent side of the wreck, so that you flow with the current beneath the keel. On the opposite side of the hull, you don't have to stay there for long because at 24 metres there is another swim-through beneath the keel though this might be a bit of a hard swim upcurrent if you aren't diving on slack water.

As you approach the stern, the keel actually projects clear above the rocks. You might have time to swim beneath the hull yet again. If not, the rudder provides a convenient point to begin any decompression stops accumulated, with final decompression completed hanging on to the buoy line.

This can be dived at slack water or all the way through the ebb tide.