Harbour bomb was found by scallop diver
JUST before the second lockdown, Phil Warry was diving for scallops off St Peter Port harbour when he spotted something on the seabed that did not look right.
It turned out to be a Second World War ordnance.
A Royal Navy disposal team is set to arrive today to deal with the rusted device, which is lying more than 500 metres off the White Rock.
Mr Warry, an air conditioning engineer and keen diver, had been scalloping with a few friends in a different spot to usual.
‘I was halfway through the dive when I noticed a dark shadow on the seabed,’ he said.
‘So I went over the investigate. I’ve been diving over 30 years, so you get an eye for unusual shapes.’
He brushed some sand off the dark lump and found badly corroded metal.
Leaving his scallop bag next to the device, he swam back up to the boat and asked his friends to press the man overboard button, which would give them the exact GPS position.
He made a homemade measuring device out of pipes and painted markers, to show the size of the lump and returned to take accurate measurements.
However lockdown delayed the device being dealt with. A report to the harbour has eventually led to the Royal Navy being called in.
The device is close to where another was discovered in November.
Mr Warry said that it was possible this device, which is in 25 metres of water, was buried and the moving sands had uncovered it, leading to the discovery.
‘With this being Liberation weekend, this is a good reminder that we were occupied,’ he said.
The device is about 4ft long and 10 inches in diameter, but it has not been identified.
A 200-metre exclusion zone has been set up around it.
