SS Stavronikita – South Coast – Carlisle Bay Marine Park

Site Overview

The SS Stavronikita is Barbados' most iconic wreck and one of the most photographed ships in the Caribbean - a 365-foot Greek freighter deliberately sunk in 1978 after a fire gutted her interior, now standing proud and upright in the clear waters off Carlisle Bay. She rests on her keel with her deck around thirty to forty metres down and her forward mast reaching up toward just eight metres, so the structure towers off the sand in a way few wrecks do. Eight decades of growth have furred her funnel, rails and cargo booms in plumes of black coral, barrel sponges and gorgonians, while giant moray eel after moray eel lean out of every hatch and window and clouds of sergeant majors and grunts swirl through the upright hull. Because she stands so tall, a single dive can sweep from the shallow masthead down into the deep, and her intact superstructure offers genuine penetration for certified wreck teams - which is exactly why the Stavronikita is the flagship of every advanced diver's Barbados itinerary. Depths run from about 8 m at the shallowest point to 40 m at the deepest, with most of the dive spent near 25 m. Barbados is the easternmost Caribbean island, sitting where the Atlantic sweeps in to meet the calm Caribbean, and that convergence keeps its waters clear, warm and rich - the sheltered west and south coasts hold healthy reefs and a famed cluster of wrecks, turtles cruise the shallows year-round, and the deeper walls can turn up pelagics and the occasional shark.