UKDIVING
Intricately measuring the timbers
PHOTO : MARTIN DAVIES
Recording one of the bricks
32
PHOTO : MARTIN DAVIES
to Historic England , whose role it is to recommend to the Secretary of State at DCMS whether the site should be protected . Thankfully they agreed and the site was designated a Protected Wreck under the Protection of Wrecks Act ( 1973 ) coming into force on the 5th July 2019 . That is pretty swift work for any nation ’ s legislature . Protected wreck status means that access to , and work on the site is regulated by licence . Dave and myself were named licensees so that we could both undertake dives on the wreck and continue to gather the evidence needed to identify it .
Diving the wreck
Diving any site in 32m requires some planning . To some this is not deep , while for others this is a pretty demanding dive . Diving to 32m to take a look around is quite different to undertaking work at 32m . On the team we have a mixture of closed circuit and open circuit divers , with bottom times for the twin-set divers , even on a 32 % mix being reasonably limited , with most people doing around 40-50 minutes on the bottom and decompressing on a richer mix , for safety or to reduce their stops .
On occasion we have invited an air diver to join us for a little look around , but what we really need are people with the desire to investigate and document the site , with sketches , measurements , photographs and video . When you have a job to do in the