Briefing the team
PHOTO : CATHY DE LARA
When Tom and Graham surfaced from their dive and told Dave what they had found on the seabed , Dave decided to call me at the Nautical Archaeology Society ( NAS ). Dave and I have worked together for nearly a decade , primarily on the Holland No . 5 submarine and the Normans Bay 17th century historic wreck , so I suppose I was the logical choice to report their discovery .
At the time I had just returned from my Easter holidays abroad and recall turning my phone back on at Heathrow Airport to receive a message from Dave saying that they have found something that I was “ going to be interested in ”. Intrigued I called Dave back . After the conversation we arranged to put a small
“ On that first dive they found five bronze cannons and at least eight iron ones ”
group of divers together to come to see the site with our own eyes . That first dive on the site on the 29th April , I buddied with Martin Davies from InDepth Photography . The underwater visibility at 32m was not great , but it was enough to see the iron cannons ( that would explain the magnetic anomaly ), a small number of bronze cannons , lots of wooden ship ’ s hull structure and very unusually some large rectangular shaped stone blocks that can only have been cargo . It was evident on my first dive that some of the bronze cannons had markings on them – letters and numbers – markings that could help identify the nationality and the age of the ship .
After the first two dives on the wreck , and with Dave ’ s blessing , I sent an email
once told me , “ nine times out of ten turns out to be nothing important , but you do it for the 10th one .”
Dave asked Tom and Graham if they fancied diving the new mark and they were both keen . It took Dave three attempts to hook the shot into the wreck . When they eventually went down the line , in visibility of one metre , it became clear the shot had locked into a large stone block that was clearly not natural . After swimming along for a bit , they came across a cluster of iron cannons . Tom had never seen historic cannons on the seabed before , but from the shape of them it was clear they were significantly old . Then , Tom ’ s torch picked out the turquoise green colour of a bronze cannon . Tom remembers shouting out through his rebreather mouthpiece to Graham with excitement . He grabbed Graham ’ s hand to help him feel it . On that first dive , they found five bronze cannons and at least eight iron ones .
Showing the site photogrammetry
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