On 4 September 2018, a former Portuguese Navy warship went to the bottom of the Atlantic off Cabo Girão, on Madeira's south coast, in well under two minutes. It was sunk on purpose, upright and intact, to become an artificial reef and a dive site. Today the corvette Afonso Cerqueira is one of the most popular dives on the island: in 2023 the Portugal Dive organisation named it among the five best dive sites in the country.
This guide explains the ship's story, what the dive is like, the experience you need, and how to join a corvette trip with Mero Diving Center.
The Afonso Cerqueira (pennant number F488) was one of the four Baptista de Andrade-class corvettes, designed in Portugal and built in Spain in the 1970s for the Portuguese Navy. The ship was decommissioned in 2015, after about four decades of service.
Instead of being scrapped, the corvette was handed over to become an artificial reef. The project was led by the Madeira Institute of Forests and Nature Conservation (IFCN), working with the Portuguese Navy. Before the sinking, the ship was cleaned and prepared for divers.
To sink it in one piece, Navy explosive ordnance disposal divers used precision cutting charges to open 16 holes of about one square metre each in the hull below the waterline. The corvette went down about 450 metres off the coast in less than 100 seconds, settling upright on the seabed inside the Cabo Girão Marine Park.
The Afonso Cerqueira is the third ship sunk in the Madeira archipelago to create a reef and a dive site:
| Wreck | Sunk | Location | Depth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Madeirense (cargo ship) | 21 October 2000 | Porto Santo | about 34 m |
| Corvette General Pereira d'Eça | 13 July 2016 | Porto Santo, near Ilhéu de Cima | 28-30 m |
| Corvette Afonso Cerqueira | 4 September 2018 | Cabo Girão, Madeira | to about 32 m |
The investment paid off. According to figures reported by RTP Madeira in 2024, the region spent more than 400,000 euros on the sinking, and the corvette recorded nearly 9,000 dives in its first three and a half years.
The wreck is about 85 metres long and sits upright on a sandy bottom. Standing upright, its superstructure is the shallowest part of the dive, while the hull rests on the sand at just over 30 metres. When the Madeira volunteer firefighters' dive team trained on the wreck in February 2025, they inspected it at 32 metres.
A typical dive follows the outside of the ship: the bow, the bridge and mast area, the decks and the stern. Before the sinking, the ship was prepared so that divers could look into its decks and compartments, but entering a wreck is a separate skill. Recreational divers stay outside the structure unless they are trained and equipped for wreck penetration and the guide has planned it.
Since 2018 the steel has been colonised by marine life. Divers report anemones and reef fish such as grunts, groupers and parrotfish around the hull, and visibility off Cabo Girão is often good, typically somewhere between 10 and 25 metres depending on the day.
Because of the depth, your time on the wreck is limited. Many divers choose nitrox to extend it, if they hold the certification.
The Afonso Cerqueira is a deep dive, which shapes who can do it:
Ask the team about the exact requirements when you book. They will want to see your certification card and logbook.
The wreck lies off Cabo Girão, the high sea cliff west of Funchal, so it is reached by boat. The south coast is the sheltered side of Madeira and the island can be dived all year, but swell and weather can still move or cancel a trip, so keep a spare day in your plans.
Water temperatures are mild year-round, from around 18 °C in winter to about 24 °C in summer, which is warm for a deep Atlantic dive.
Mero Diving Center is based at the Praia do Garajau, in Caniço, inside the Garajau Partial Nature Reserve, the first marine reserve created in Portugal. The centre's everyday dives take place in the reserve, home to its famous resident dusky groupers (meros).
The corvette Afonso Cerqueira is one of the centre's special events, alongside night dives. Trips are organised on set dates, so contact the team to find out when the next corvette dive is scheduled, the price, and what is included.
A good combination for a dive week in Madeira:
A whole corvette standing upright on the sand, just off the south coast of Madeira, is a rare thing in Europe. If you hold an Advanced certification and are coming to Madeira, it belongs on your list.
Contact Mero Diving Center to ask about the next corvette Afonso Cerqueira trip, or about a dive in the Garajau reserve.
Sources: DNotícias (29 September 2023): sinking dates and depths of the Madeirense, General Pereira d'Eça and Afonso Cerqueira, and the Portugal Dive ranking; Times of Madeira (9 May 2024, citing RTP Madeira): investment and number of dives; Madeira Island News (24 February 2025): firefighters' training at 32 m and IFCN's role; Andrew Lambert, "Warship sunk by specialist explosive to create artificial reef" (11 December 2018): 450 m off the coast, 16 holes, under 100 seconds; Wikipedia, "Baptista de Andrade-class corvette"; Mero Diving Center (services and special events).