Scuba diving at the Elviscot shipwreck in Pomonte

Let's dive into the sea on the south west side of Elba, or rather, near the Ogliera Rock opposite the small beach of Pomonte. Here, on January 10th 1972, the Elviscot, an Italian freighter weighing 499 tons, left Naples for Marseille, but ran onto the rocks; fortunately no member of the crew was injured.

The wreck ended up with its prow half sunk on the rocks, making it a potential risk for swimmers in the area. For this reason, part of the ship was quickly taken away, and the remaining part was sunk completely. Today the whole of the stern, bridge and part of the side bow lie on the sandy sea bed, east of the Ogliera Rock, only 12 metres below the surface.

The Shipwreck in Pomonte is now completely covered in sea weed, sponges and marine microorganisms like the beautiful sabella spallanzanii, and is thehabitat of many different species of fish.

The fact that the sea is shallow, and that there are hardly any currents means that even those who aren't expert scuba divers, or those who wish to swim down with only their mask and snorkel will have no problem but never underestimate the fact that the sea isn't very deep here, remember you are still talking about scuba diving down to a shipwreck, so go down with the due care and attention.

You can see the bridge, or at least what is left of it, very clearly, and you can go in very easily through the large upper opening. Experts can go down through the funnel, thus arriving straight at the engine room, and see the propulsion machinery which is easily recognised.

Two wide openings on the stern enable you to come back up via a long corridor, and as you go along, the sun rays that filter through the slits and the portholes create magical colourful reflections; from here you get back to the bridge. In some parts, shoals of sea breams, banded breams and the odd corvina go past, while moray eels and conger eels seem to prefer the slits in the contorted ruins of the side bow.

Someinteresting facts: in 1987 the underwater photographer Claudio Ziraldo won first prize in the Nikon World competition, in which eight thousand had taken part
with a wonderful photo of the shipwreck. In September 2015 a unique project was started called Luci dal profondo in the aim of lighting up both the inside and the outside of the Elviscot; this amazing feat meant that for the first time in history a shipwreck was lit up, and tourists were able to watch it sitting on a glass bottomed boat.