Werfa Wreck

The Werfa was built in Hawdon on the Tyne River in the UK in 1883 and was 71 metres in length and 9.8 metres wide. Her purpose was as a coal carrier.

In 1925 on August 4th she was at Victoria dock (no. 20), Melbourne when the American destroyer U.S.S. MacDonough swung out, rammed her and she sank in around 9 metres of water. It was necessary to raise the Werfa as she was a hazard to shipping and taking up valuable berth space at the dock.

She was later scuttled directly outside the heads in the shipping leads on March 29, 1929.

There are many swim throughs on the wreck, the stern is quite distinct with iron rectangles. You can go down to the stern to investigate the rudder which is fully intact.

The bridge is a also still intact and often has much fish life in and around it. It takes more than one dive to discover the wreck she is quite large, well preserved and offers interesting areas to check out.

As the wreck is ‘on the shipping leads’ it is always subject to shipping.