In an area of South Australia best known for great white sharks, one diver is braving the depths to uncover a 94-year-old ship with a celebrated war history.
The sea at the entrance to Spencer Gulf is notorious for strong ocean surges and precarious diving conditions, making the resting place of the Yandra one of the more challenging shipwrecks to visit.
But after more than a decade, diver Steve Saville got a chance to view the remains of the steel, single screw motor ship, which was built in Denmark in 1928.
It ran aground in dense fog in 1959, off the South Neptune Islands, south of Port Lincoln.
"It's like visiting the countryside, underwater. It's phenomenal," says Mr Saville.
A South Australian diver and shipwreck enthusiast, Mr Saville has discovered many of the wrecks that dot the coast of South Australia.
He says his dive to the Yandra was one of the most challenging he has ever done.
Mr Saville says the wreck scattered over a large site so there are still many parts to be found.
The underwater terrain consists of gullies and submerged offshore reefs, which drop away to much deeper water.
Vessel involved in daring attack
Yandra arrived in Australia on October 23, 1928 to run as a passenger ship with Coast Steamships Ltd.
In June 1940 it was requisitioned into the Royal Australian Navy for the war effort as the minesweeper and anti-submarine vessel HMAS Yandra.
Mr Saville is passionate about researching the wrecks he dives.
"During the war, she was used off the Western Australian coast to pick up stranded German sailors from one of the lifeboats off the Kormoran," he says
The Kormoran had sunk the HMAS Sydney before disappearing beneath the waves itself after the battle.
The Japanese vessel M21 made a daring night raid on Sydney Harbour on May 31, 1942.
Yandra rammed the midget submarine at least once and followed through with six depth charges.
The submarine did make it further into the harbour but could not release torpedoes, because of damage to its hull bow cage.
After the war, Yandra resumed peacetime merchant activities, servicing the South Australian gulfs.
Mr Saville says she ran aground in heavy fog on a rocky island off the Neptune Group near the entrance to Spencer Gulf on the January 24, 1959.
"After she ran aground the crew managed to get to safety, but the vessel was stranded across outlying rocks and was taking on water," he says.
"Other vessels were called in to salvage as much as possible."
Mr Saville hopes to return soon, and downplays his bravery in battling hazardous conditions in shark-infested waters without a shark cage.
"We passed a 14-footer [4.3-metre shark] on the way out to the wreck site."
