el-grillo-british-oil-tanker-world-war

El Grillo

Sunken oil tanker

Dive into history

This dive site is not available at the moment due to oil spill in the area.

Seyðisfjörður is a little fishing town in the very east of Iceland. It’s named after the fjord in which it lies and still has a lot of the old fishing village flair and many old houses.

In World War II, german fighter planes sunk the British oil tanker “El Grillo” in the fjord on February 10th, 1944. This is one of the few instances in which the fighting of World War II actually came to the shores of Iceland. Thankfully, there were no casualties.

The wreck is about 150 meters long and weighs over 7000 tons. In 2002 the rest of the oil inside the tanker was pumped up after having leaked out for many years.
Today it’s free and clean of oil and is a fantastic dive site.

The ship lies at a depth of about 45 meters and the shallowest point is reached after descending about 28 meters.

In order to dive El Grillo divers need to be certified PADI advanced open water divers or carry a comparable certification from another organization.

Since El Grillo is all the way at the other end of Iceland, we dive it only on our 10-Day Tour and on tailor-made tours around Iceland.

If you are interested in joining a tour or you are a group of divers that would like to do a trip together, contact us and we will lay out a tour for you.

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