Dennis Bakhuis

Dive site · wreck · The Var coast and the Îles d'Hyères

🇫🇷 Le Donator (Prosper Schiaffino)

Porquerolles, Hyères, Var, France

Sunk by a drifting mine in November 1945 — six months after the war ended — while bringing wine home from Algeria. The only ship her company still owned.

Dives here
1
Deepest
41.5 m
Water
salt
First · last
2018

Revision 1 · changed 10 Oct 2026

History
  1. r1 10 Oct 2026 Imported from the personal log · Dennis Bakhuis

Site data © divelog-sites contributors (ODbL), descriptions and maps CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf

1 map

Donator (Prosper Schiaffino), 78 x 12 mBow sectionUsual tour: stern to bow, back to the shot line · 126 mPropeller and rudder↓51 mStern castle, iron steering wheel↓41 mAft holds, wine tanks↓45 mAft mast, fallen 1999↓42 mMidships superstructure, coursives↓37 mBridge front↓37 mForward hold torn open by the mine↓44 mForemast, fallen↓44 mBow, detached and leaning to port↓48 mShot line, sternShot line, midshipsN10 m
  • Entry / exit
  • Wreck
  • Other object
  • Dive path
  • Wreck footprint
  • Depth
Site map · 9 objects · 1 path · max 51 m

Plan of the cargo ship Donator (Prosper Schiaffino), 78.3 x 12 m, upright on flat sand at 48 m between Porquerolles and Port-Cros, about 430 m WSW of Le Grec. Position 42 59.592 N 6 16.436 E from the Port-Cros national park Neptune sheet (Wikipedia gives a point 700 m further NE). The stern points south-east (the bow is drawn at 315 deg) per Joncheray and Brunner's Portraits d'épaves as quoted by several club pages; the feature order and depths (propeller 51 m, stern castle 41 m, midships 35-37 m, holds 44-45 m, bow 48 m) come from nicoblon.free.fr. Shot-line positions and all positions along the hull are approximate. The site file's coordinates (6.2023 E) are about 6 km too far west.

Map © divelog-sites contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf

The ship

Built at Bergen in 1931 as the Donator. In 1933 the Compagnie Algérienne de Navigation pour l'Afrique du Nord — the Schiaffino company — bought her and renamed her Prosper Schiaffino, after a member of the family, as was their habit.

The company lost every one of its ships during the Second World War. The Donator was the only survivor.

The sinking

On 10 November 1945, six months after the fighting in Europe stopped, she was on her way back from Algeria with a cargo of wine, having taken out dried vegetables and potatoes. At 13:15, in the channel between Port-Cros and Porquerolles, she hit a drifting mine. It nearly cut her in two and she went down before the boats could be launched. Five men died.

The dive

She sits upright on the sand between 35 and 52 m, and she is one of the most highly regarded wrecks in the Mediterranean — big, intact enough to be legible, and deep enough to be a proper undertaking. Current here can be strong.

One dive, 18 July 2018, to 41.5 m.

Dived here with

Kim

Nearby sites

1 dive at Le Donator (Prosper Schiaffino)

  1. 18 Jul 2018 with Kim wreckdecoboat date18 Jul 2018 depth41.5 m time43 min water—

Sources