The Kyarra, wreck dive, Swanage

"The ship that was made of brass" was what they called the 6953 ton Kyarra, a twin-screw passenger and cargo liner, 415ft long with a beam of 52ft, when she was launched by Denny Bros in Dumbarton on 2 February, 1903.
And it is true that anything aboard her that could be was made of brass, writes Kendall McDonald. From stem to stern, her portholes were heavy brass and her interior and exterior fittings solid brass, as were door handles, navigation lamps, nameplates and even the end-supports of the benches on her decks.
The Kyarra was registered in Freemantle before WW1, and plied the England-to-Australia run for the Australasian United Steam Navigation Co. In the war, she did the same thing as well as helping to land Anzac Expeditionary troops in the Dardanelles.
In 1917 she became a casualty clearing ship, and had a 4.7in quick-firing gun mounted on her stern as a defence against U-boats. But it would not help her when she sailed from Tilbury on her last voyage on 24 May, 1918. She had been ordered to embark 1000 war-wounded Aussie soldiers in Devonport and return them to Sydney. She was also to carry some civilian passengers and a full general cargo.
In the early morning of 26 May, the Kyarra had cleared the Isle of Wight and was moving fast through calm seas around Anvil Point. Captain William Smith didn't know it, but German submarine ace Oberleutnant Johann Lohs was watching him through the periscope of UB-57.
Lohs was having a good mission out of Zeebrugge. Two days before, he had sunk the P&O liner Moldavia, converted to an armed merchant cruiser. This time he used a torpedo to hit the Kyarra in her port side amidships, killing six crew. The rest took to the lifeboats. Seven minutes later the Kyarra nose-dived under.
Ron Blake and his wife Linden were the next to see her when they dived an obstruction they thought was a reef in 1966. A year later their club, Kingston BSAC, bought the ship for £120, though not the mixed cargo, valued at £1500 when she sank.
Since then thousands of divers have put the Kyarra in their logbooks. And they have discovered just how mixed her cargo was - bottles of champagne, red wine, beer and vinegar, bales of silk and cloth, French perfume, lino, sealing wax, medical supplies, cigarettes, silver purses, men's pocket watches, ladies gold wrist-watches and, of course, masses of brass.