Dive sites in Bulgaria

Launched in Glasgow as a Romanian passenger liner, the Regele Carol I served as an auxiliary warship and minelayer until striking a Soviet naval mine off Varna. Its steel hull rests upright on the Black Sea sand. Wreck divers explore the collapsed superstructure, exposed deck machinery, and ruptured hull plates covered with Mediterranean mussels.

Resting upright on the silty seabed south of Varna, this Soviet Shchuka-class submarine sank during combat operations in December 1941. The vessel remains largely intact. Conning tower fittings, deck gun mounts, and blast damage appear through the murky water column. A pronounced thermocline brings dark, near-freezing bottom conditions that demand adequate thermal insulation and disciplined gas management.

A Soviet Shchuka-class submarine sunk in November 1941 by a coastal mine off the Bulgarian coast, Shch-211 sits upright on a flat seabed. Mine damage is concentrated around the bow. The conning tower, periscopes, deck gun mounting, and hull lines remain distinct beneath thick mussel growth. Because the site is an official military war grave, diving is limited strictly to exterior observation without penetration.