Deep Wreck Diver

Great to see the BBC covering our identification of the German submarine U-672, which had been missing for 82 years before we finally identified her this summer.

Watch my full documentary about the discovery and identification here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HagGo...

The wreck lies in almost 70 metres of water off the Devon coast and had previously been charted as a First World War sailing vessel. When Ian Taylor and the Skin Deeper team discovered it was actually a German submarine, the Gasperados Dive Team headed out to investigate.

Working with German submarine historian Dr Axel Niestlé, we were able to establish that the wreck was U-672, despite her lying almost 40 nautical miles from her officially recorded sinking position.

U-672 was attacked by HMS Balfour in July 1944 and subsequently scuttled by her crew. Remarkably, all 52 men survived.

It's fantastic to see the story getting recognition from the BBC, and particularly pleasing that a small group of volunteer divers can still help rewrite the historical record more than 80 years after the war.

My documentary includes the actual underwater footage of the wreck, the investigation into her identity and an interview with Dr Axel Niestlé explaining how we finally solved the mystery.

#DeepWreckDiver #U672 #WreckDiving #MaritimeHistory

8 hours ago | [YT] | 42

Deep Wreck Diver

Are the BEST wrecks in Scapa Flow actually the smaller ones?

When people think of diving Scapa Flow, it's usually the enormous German battleships that spring to mind. But having dived all seven of the remaining German warships, I can understand why many experienced Scapa divers actually prefer the smaller light cruisers.

One in particular stands out: SMS Brummer.

Unlike the battleships, which lie upside down with much of their structure hidden beneath them, Brummer lies on her side, with an extraordinary amount of detail still visible. Her original brass bridge survives, along with 150mm guns and even the delicate iris mechanism from one of her searchlights.

There's also a fascinating history behind this ship. Built for speed, deception and mine warfare, Brummer was involved in a devastating attack on a British convoy in 1917 before being scuttled with the German High Seas Fleet in June 1919.

During my visit twelve months ago, Bob Anderson, skipper of MV Clasina, guided me around this remarkable wreck, showing me its most interesting features. I also managed to explore some of the surviving internal spaces.

In my video, I take you around Brummer, explain her extraordinary history and show why bigger doesn't necessarily mean better when it comes to wreck diving!

🎬 Watch the full dive and decide for yourself. .

#ScapaFlow #WreckDiving #MaritimeHistory #DeepWreckDiver

8 hours ago | [YT] | 5

Deep Wreck Diver

Underneath an upside down battleship, pitch black, 38 metres down and this photograph was taken on a TIMER!

This extraordinary image was captured by technical diver, photographer and skipper Bob Anderson beneath the inverted wreck of SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm, a German dreadnought battleship scuttled in Scapa Flow in 1919.

The photograph shows one of her enormous aft gun turrets, with the upturned hull looming overhead. At 175 metres long and displacing more than 25,000 tonnes, the sheer scale of this wreck is staggering. Just look at the size of the divers!

Capturing an image like this at 38 metres requires exceptional diving and photographic skills. Working beneath an inverted battleship, Bob had to manage the lighting, camera positioning, composition and exposure, all while maintaining precise buoyancy and avoiding disturbing the sediment. **And then he had to get himself into position before the timer fired!**

It's a remarkable combination of technical diving expertise and photographic talent.

I was fortunate enough to be diving Scapa Flow with Bob twelve months ago, when he personally guided me around all the wrecks, showing me the most fascinating sights and features that would have been so easy to miss without his extraordinary knowledge of these ships. This remains one of my favourite underwater photographs from the trip.

I've also been lucky enough to enjoy some truly amazing diving from Bob's boat, **MV Clasina**, over the years. His knowledge of the wrecks, experience and technical diving expertise make him an exceptional skipper, and I can't recommend diving with him highly enough.

📷 Photo: Bob Anderson, MV Clasina

Watch my video exploring the seven remaining German warships of Scapa Flow, including their enormous battleships and light cruisers.

https://youtu.be/wqX2-hOU6YM

#ScapaFlow #WreckDiving #UnderwaterPhotography #DeepWreckDiver

1 day ago | [YT] | 167

Deep Wreck Diver

19 OCTOBER 1944: SIX LANDING CRAFT LOST AND 55 MEN DEAD IN AN ATLANTIC STORM

82 years ago today, the Royal Navy suffered one of its lesser known tragedies of the Second World War when six landing craft were lost in a devastating storm off Land's End.

By October 1944, the Normandy landings were over and Allied attention was increasingly turning towards the war against Japan. The Royal Navy's 9th Landing Craft Tank (LCT) Flotilla was being transferred to the Far East in preparation for future amphibious operations.

Nine landing craft joined convoy OS92/KMS66, being towed by five merchant ships on a journey that would eventually take them halfway around the world.

These were not ocean going vessels. Landing Craft Tanks were designed to carry tanks and vehicles onto beaches, not to cross thousands of miles of open ocean.

On 18 October, the convoy encountered a ferocious Atlantic storm, with Force 9 winds and mountainous seas. The landing craft were battered relentlessly, towlines parted and vessels began taking on water.

As the convoy scattered, desperate calls for assistance were sent out. Escort vessels struggled to reach the stricken craft, sometimes having to take survivors off in appalling conditions.

By the time the storm had passed, six of the nine landing craft had been lost:

LCT 480, LCT 488, LCT 491, LCT 494, LCT 7014 and LCT 7015.

Some crews were rescued before their vessels sank. Others were not so fortunate. Both LCT 494 and LCT 7015 disappeared with their entire crews.

Despite extraordinary rescue efforts that saved more than 100 sailors, 55 men lost their lives, including men from the ships attempting to rescue them.

The tragedy was largely forgotten, overshadowed by the enormous events of the Second World War.

In 2023, the Gasperados dive team discovered the remains of a landing craft in approximately 100 metres of water off Cornwall. Working with naval historian Dr Harry Bennett from Plymouth University, the team established that it could be one of the six lost vessels, possibly LCT 488.

The discovery brought renewed attention to a tragedy that had received remarkably little recognition, and to the men whose lives were lost not through enemy action, but through the overwhelming power of the sea.

Lest we forget.

#RoyalNavy #LCT488 #Gasperados #DeepWreckDiver #WW2 #MaritimeHistory #Shipwrecks #WreckDiving

3 days ago | [YT] | 16

Deep Wreck Diver

⚓ **SHIPWRECK MYSTERIES THAT STILL NEED SOLVING!** 🔎

Imagine descending onto a shipwreck that has been lying on the seabed for more than a century, knowing that nobody can tell you what ship it is.

For me, that's one of the most exciting parts of wreck diving.

Over the years, I've been fortunate enough to be the first person to dive on around 100 wrecks, and I've helped identify quite a few of them.

But some are still mysteries!

Sometimes there's a clue in the wreckage, perhaps a maker's plate, a distinctive engine, a piece of cargo or even a bottle. Other times, there's almost nothing to go on.

I've put together a YouTube playlist featuring some of the unidentified wrecks I've explored, the clues we've uncovered and our attempts to put names to ships that history has forgotten.

🎥 **Watch my Unsolved Mysteries playlist here:**

www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

And here's where you might be able to help!

Somewhere out there, somebody might recognise a detail that finally solves one of these mysteries.

**Have a look and tell me which wreck you'd most like to see identified.**

#DeepWreckDiver #Shipwrecks #WreckDiving #MaritimeHistory

6 days ago | [YT] | 5

Deep Wreck Diver

835 DEAD IN JUST 13 MINUTES. IN THE HEART OF BRITAIN'S MOST IMPORTANT NAVAL BASE.

On 14 October 1939, the supposedly impregnable defences of Scapa Flow were breached by a single German submarine. Within minutes, the battleship HMS Royal Oak was sinking, taking hundreds of men and boys to their deaths.
Today marks the 87th anniversary of one of the Royal Navy's worst disasters of the Second World War.

Royal Oak was at anchor when U-47, commanded by Günther Prien, penetrated Scapa Flow's defences and attacked her with torpedoes.

835 men and boys lost their lives, including 134 boy seamen. Many were trapped inside the ship, while others escaped into the freezing, oil-covered waters of Scapa Flow.

**What fewer people realise is that there were once serious plans to salvage the wreck.**

In 1950, the Admiralty carried out a survey to establish whether the battleship could be raised and salvaged. Some salvage work was undertaken, including the removal of her four enormous bronze propellers and sections of anchor chain.

Then, in 1957, the Admiralty actually invited tenders to scrap the wreck.

This might seem astonishing today, but Royal Oak would not have been the first Royal Navy war grave to be commercially salvaged.

HMS Vanguard, which exploded in Scapa Flow in 1917 with the loss of 843 men, was subjected to commercial salvage operations from the 1950s into the 1970s.
HMS Natal, which exploded in the Cromarty Firth in 1915, killing hundreds of sailors and civilians, was also extensively salvaged. Operations began in the 1920s and continued intermittently for decades, leaving much of the wreck dismantled.

Attitudes towards these wrecks, and the men who died aboard them, were very different in those days.

The proposal to scrap Royal Oak met fierce opposition from survivors, relatives of those who had died and the people of Orkney. By early 1958, the plans had been abandoned.

There has, however, been further salvage work of a very different kind.

For decades, fuel oil leaking from the wreck threatened the environment of Scapa Flow. Specialist diving teams subsequently undertook a remarkable operation to remove more than 1,600 tonnes of oil from the upturned battleship, using techniques designed to minimise disturbance to the wreck and the men still entombed within her.

Today, Royal Oak is a protected military wreck and diving is prohibited without special permission.

From a wreck diver's perspective, Royal Oak is somewhere very special indeed.

I've been fortunate enough to dive some extraordinary historic Royal Navy warships, including HMS Victory, HMS Formidable, HMS M1 and HMS Audacious, but I've never had the opportunity to dive Royal Oak.

Those who have been privileged to visit her tell me that she is an absolutely magnificent wreck, and I can well believe it.

She lies upside down in around 30 metres of water, with her enormous 15-inch gun turrets, secondary armament and the devastating torpedo damage still visible.

Having spent so much of my diving career exploring warships, I'm fascinated by the opportunity to see these great vessels as they actually lie on the seabed. There is something extraordinary about swimming alongside a ship of this size, seeing the engineering, the damage and the details that photographs and drawings can never quite convey.

I've dived wrecks that have been extensively salvaged, and others that remain remarkably intact. The difference can be extraordinary. Royal Oak offers something increasingly rare: the opportunity to see a largely intact British battleship, rather than the scattered remains left behind by decades of salvage.

Maybe one day!

#HMSRoyalOak #ScapaFlow #Shipwrecks #RoyalNavy

1 week ago | [YT] | 368

Deep Wreck Diver

*From a YouTube competition to a battle with Portuguese customs! 🇬🇧📚🇵🇹*

Back in August, I ran a competition to win a copy of Shadow Divers, one of my favourite books about wreck diving.

The lucky winner was Miguel Silva Rocha from Coimbra in Portugal, who sent me a lovely message saying that my videos make him dream about diving and exploring wrecks.

It's messages like that which make creating content so rewarding.

I posted the book off in early August, thinking it would arrive fairly quickly.

Unfortunately, Portuguese customs had other ideas! 😂

After a rather lengthy battle with customs, Miguel has finally got his hands on his prize and very kindly sent me a photograph.

It's great to see the book has finally reached its new home, and I hope you enjoy reading it, Miguel!

#DeepWreckDiver #ShadowDivers #WreckDiving #Shipwrecks

1 week ago | [YT] | 99

Deep Wreck Diver

50 YEARS AGO TODAY: THE SINKING OF THE INGRID FREM

On 12 October 1976, the Danish coaster Ingrid Frem sank in the Celtic Sea, carrying a cargo that included barrels of herring.

Fifty years later, we're sharing the story of her sinking, our discovery of the wreck and some remarkable footage from the seabed.

The Gasperados Dive Team found Ingrid Frem whilst searching for the US Coast Guard cutter Tampa, sunk by a German U-boat in 1918 with the loss of all 130 aboard.

One of the most fascinating features of the wreck is the distinctive blue barrels associated with her cargo. During the sinking, the crew desperately tried to lighten the vessel by cutting loose barrels of herring, but it wasn't enough to save her.

Even more remarkably, one of the eight survivors, who was just 17 when the ship sank, has since shared his personal account of that terrifying night with us.

He describes the desperate struggle to keep the ship afloat, abandoning her in worsening weather and their eventual rescue by a Soviet trawler.

All eight survived.

It's a wonderful reminder that every wreck we explore has a human story behind it.

Watch the video attached to this post to explore the wreck of Ingrid Frem.

#DeepWreckDiver #IngridFrem #Shipwrecks #WreckDiving

1 week ago | [YT] | 10

Deep Wreck Diver

**An oxygen cell failing HIGH at 90 metres? That's not something you see every day!** 😳

One year ago, I experienced a rather unusual oxygen cell failure while diving my AP Inspiration rebreather at 90 metres.

Most CCR divers are familiar with the dangers of oxygen cells failing low, but this one did something rather different. It failed HIGH, indicating more oxygen than was actually present.

At that depth, an incorrect oxygen reading is potentially a very serious problem.

It was an excellent reminder that oxygen cells don't always fail in the way we expect, and why understanding their behaviour, recognising unusual readings and knowing how to verify them is so important.

To mark the anniversary, I thought it was worth sharing this video again. I explain exactly what happened, how I recognised the problem and what I did about it.

**Have any other CCR divers experienced a cell failing high rather than low?** I'd be interested to hear your experiences.

#CCRdiving #TechnicalDiving #RebreatherDiving

1 week ago | [YT] | 2

Deep Wreck Diver

**WE WERE LOOKING FOR A LOST WARSHIP. WE FOUND SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!**
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One of the joys of wreck diving is that you never quite know what you're going to find!
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In 2023, while searching for the missing US Coast Guard cutter Tampa, sunk by a German submarine in 1918, our Gasperados Dive Team investigated an unidentified wreck off the North Cornwall coast.
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We had high hopes that it might be the warship we'd been searching for.
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But when we reached the seabed, we found something rather different. A relatively modern fishing trawler!
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Further investigation revealed that we'd discovered the **MFV L'Ebauche (O.66)**, a Belgian fishing vessel that sank on 6 February 1996 after taking on water.
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Fortunately, all four members of her crew were rescued.
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The dive wasn't without its excitement either. Rick managed to get himself tangled up in fishing gear on the wreck, a reminder that even relatively modern wrecks can present some serious hazards!
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Although she wasn't the Tampa, we'd still managed to put a name and a story to another wreck lying on the seabed.
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And that's one of the things I love about this sort of diving. Every unidentified wreck is a mystery, and even when it isn't the ship you're looking for, there's still a story worth uncovering.
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Of course, the search for Tampa continued, and we eventually found her too!
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Sometimes you have to kiss a few frogs!
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#DeepWreckDiver #Gasperados #WreckDiving #TechnicalDiving #Shipwrecks #MaritimeHistory

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 18