The Stanegarth was originally built in 1910 as a steam powered tug

Tugboat

A tugboat is a boat that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugs move vessels that either should not move themselves, such as ships in a crowded harbor or a narrow canal,or those that cannot move by themselves, such as barges, disabled ships, or oil platforms. Tugboats are powerful for...

 by Lytham Ship Builders Company for service with the British Waterways Board. She was converted to diesel power in 1957. The tug used to tow 3 dredging hoppers, each crewed by two men, on the trip to and from Gloucester

Gloucester

Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....

 to Purton

Purton, Berkeley

Purton is a village on the east bank of the River Severn, 3 miles north of Berkeley, in Gloucestershire, England. The village is in the civil parish of Hinton. It lies opposite the hamlet of Purton on the west bank of the river....

.

On 6 June 2000 she was scuttled

Scuttling

Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull.This can be achieved in several ways—valves or hatches can be opened to the sea, or holes may be ripped into the hull with brute force or with explosives...

 at Stoney Cove

Stoney Cove

Stoney Cove is a large flooded quarry which is a popular inland scuba diving site. It is between Stoney Stanton and Sapcote in Leicestershire in England. There is a diving shop, a pub selling beer and hot food and a diving training facility there.-Background:...

 to produce an artificial reef

Artificial reef

An artificial reef is a human-made underwater structure, typically built to promote marine life in areas with a generally featureless bottom, control erosion, block ship passage, or improve surfing....

 suitable for wreck diving

Wreck diving

Wreck diving is a type of recreational diving where shipwrecks are explored. Although most wreck dive sites are at shipwrecks, there is an increasing trend to scuttle retired ships to create artificial reef sites...

. The wreck now sits in 20 metres (65.6 ft) of fresh water and measures more than 18 metres (59.1 ft) long with a beam of 5 metres (16.4 ft). A plaque attached to it reads "Stonegarth project by Stoney Cove and Diver Magazine June 2008".