ADNG: Diving & Travel 4 Diving

During stormy weather this vessel hit a major rocky formation during the night of the 15th of January 1996.
15 men where on board, but fortunately all of them were rescued by another smaller vessel "O Desterrado" that was in the vicinities, otherwise it would of resulted in a huge disaster and major human loses. They attempted to tow the "Brenha", but the disproportional size of both ships didn´t allow the stroked trawler to budge; during the attempt, the cable launched to connect both ships wrapped it self around one of the crew members of the "Desterrado";the other fishermen were able to get a grip on him, before he ended up in the ravishing waters; the only men in this operation who had to be taken to the nearest hospital due to the lesion on his leg.
It´s about 1.2 miles offshore Mindelo Beach.
On the days after, huge amounts of nets ended up surfacing over the coast line. Moreover, the amount of fuel remaining was around 600L and unable to cause major damages on the local ecosystem.
 

For the first years, it was lying intact in spite of the large opening on the hull. Since it sunk on a Norhwest position fro"Guilhade* ",  in a sandy bottom totally exposed to the North winds, the hull than collapsed into 2 parts, and later on scattered in 3. Initially oriented West-East, lying on starboard. It´s not often that this shipwreck presents good visibility conditions due to it´sexposed position, but, when it does, it´s surely worthwhile to pay it a visit.
The images gladly shared by Casimiro Sampaio, can give you a full panoramic view of the whole structure during the first years.
Nowadays since it´s separated in 3 parts, it´s possible to penetrate the wreck in certain extent; The Danger of entanglement in this area now is a lot more reduced than on the following years after the accident.
Divers usually are found of passing by its propeller, checking the portholes, the remaining bath room, among other fun and interesting parts.