A few old charts of Scilly

The Simon Bayly chart of 1680. I found this charming chart in the National Maritime Museum archives while researching something else entirely. I could not believe that noone else had seen it before at Scilly- especially the self professed 'expert of research' that lives still here. Not only did this chart lead me to find one of its previously undiscovered wrecks, (the 'Phoenix' which sank in 1680) and lift its treasure- it also put to rest years of speculation as to the whereabouts of two other wrecks. It also told me there was a new one nobody ever knew existed or was ever wrecked here- the 'Shaftesbury'.

The Dutch named Scilly- Sorlings.  There is a story that Scilly had a 330 year war with Holland and that not one shot was fired. However, when the dutch tried to take the islands in 1667, using this chart to aid them, a battle ensued between Star Castle and the dutch fleet as they rounded the garrison shore line. Two of thier ships were damaged in the engagement. They had already taken St Agnes for a base and got as far as Rat Island in their attempt to land on Town beach St Marys- but finding the tide was too low they abandoned their attack and fought their way back towards St Agnes. They regrouped and planned another assault for higher tide the next day but a storm blew up and thwarted them. They were then blown out to sea and never tried to take Scilly again. They were commanded by the famous Admiral De Ruyter at the time. I found one Dutch cannon close by Woodcocks ledge off the garrison shore. Was it part of this incident? I have placed a mark on this chart to show the rough position of another wreck I found there that was built in Elizabethan times c1585. We have no idea when it sank there though and dont know its identity. I actually believe that this is just part of a much bigger wreck the rest of which lays elsewhere. 

Edmund Gostello

  This is a later more accurate chart of the islands done by Edmund Gostello. It shows the islands in a more accurate formation but still the set global position of the islands was wrong. These islands were shown to be too far north on charts of the period and it took a long time before this problem was corrected-but by then many ships had been needlessly lost here as a result of the wrong position given for Scilly. Ships would pass by here going north east and reach a point whereby they thought the islands were supposed to be- they would then turn south east to avoid disaster but run smack into them heading southeast. Once a chart came out that accurately portrayed where Scilly was it saved many lives. however, more disasters continued to occur until an accurate way of finding longitude at sea was found. There was also the rennel current to contend with and this made the ships go faster towards the north than they realised they were going. You could find you speed over the water fairly accurately but if the ship was moving in an overall current it did not know was present-then it would traverse over that part of the planet faster. The Rennel current did this.  This chart also depicts the 4 shipwrecks of the 1707 Naval disaster. This is what diver teams like Roland Morris used in the 1960's to find the positions of those shipwrecks.

This chart was drawn from surveys taken by T. Kitchen Goerge. Published in 1753. What I like about the charts of Scilly is that they also record the names of the rocks. Some rocks change names others swap names but a few stay the same throughout. Old Wreck Rock is one of them. It appears on most charts as the same thing. So whatever shipwreck it is seemingly making reference to certainly must be an early one. 

Let them salvage.

 

A clear example of what happens to important artifacts if left to rot on the sea floor.

A recent report of a study into damage done to the worlds oceans by shipwrecks, has concluded that they have altered the microbiology of our oceans for the past 80 years at least. This is not suprising given that we have transported everything across our oceans for millennia. So the sea is being polluted by shipwrecks but this is not rocket science. Any fool knows that if you litter the sea with our stuff its going to have an effect.  Drop a car into any pond and see what happens if it is not removed. Billions of tons of iron, lead, copper, aluminum, plastics, just about everything, has gone into our oceans in shipwrecks. This is all pollution. Yet why is it that when a diver or salvage company want to remove some of these contaminants for profit, governments constantly get in their way. The Heritage bodies want the shipwrecks to be left alone to rot -thus further polluting our oceans.  Nature and environmental bodies think that salvage disturbs the eco system if a salvage company removes a contaminant! Our Receiver of Wreck in England is trying its level best not to clear up divers droits when they have removed contaminants- thus making it harder for them to want to remove or declare more.  The Marine Management Organisation is charging extortionate fees to anyone wishing to help remove contaminants also making it harder and too expensive to perform salvage.  Yet our government is continually pushing for us to clean up our environment! Isnt this backwards? 

'Vasa' salvaged from the sea makes millions in revenue every year.

shouldnt they all be helping those who wish to remove things to do so easily?. In fact these bodies should be paying for salvage not charging for it. If you want to clean up the mess we have made in our oceans then make it easier for us to do so. Make it profitable too by not charging us. The tax made on the billions of £'s to be made from salvage will far out weigh the fees of all these government bodies put together so why charge a fee? The salvage men need to win, so that the government wins with taxation -and the environment wins as the wreckage gets removed.  Every commodity lost in the sea still has a value. /lead/iron copper/ brass etc etc etc. But things wont change because governments are far too short sighted. All they see is heritage lost when the heritage is actually being saved. They think that by leaving it all down there they are somehow leaving it for future generations- when all they are leaving them to deal with is another eco problem. And its stupid to think that you can just leave things for future generations. Why? Well you see its like this-everything rots in the sea. And I do mean -everything................... 

Look at this image of a heavily pitted Bronze statue saved by salvage along with many others from the Antykathera wreck before it was too late. A computer made by Archimedes was also saved by salvage from this wreck advancing our knowledge of our ancestors.

...........................Even gold is worn away by the sea. Every iron gun rots to nothing eventually. If you take a huge iron cannon and drop it in the sea it immediately starts to rot. It's a slow process. First it bleeds iron which attracts the surrounding sea bed to it. This then forms a crust called concretion. This concretion does not save the cannon-because inside this concretion the gun still slowly rots away.  Inside this concretion the cannon gets softer and softer until it turns to mush. I have seen iron items at this stage of deterioration with my own eyes. This mush then seeps out into the open ocean until, eventually, all you are left with is an empty husk of concretion with no gun left inside. It may take 1000 years or more-but as sure as eggs is eggs it will happen to them all. Some rot faster than others depending on where they are situated. Bronze guns rot away to. They become more and more pitted until they eventually turn to dust and disappear. Even if they become buried they rot -just more slowly. One need only look at the bronze (and marble) statues of the Antikythera wreck to see what happens to them over time. Given more time all these thing will disappear completely-dissolving into our oceans. 

Iron cannon worn away by sea action and is still down on the sea floor. So whats being left to future generations here? Everyone looses here- even the sea.

 Some bronze guns that have been salvaged after just a few hundred years under the sea have been found very badly pitted. Yes these things last longer if buried in an anerobic environment but they will just rot away more slowly if left there. If these bronze and iron guns are not buried then they get worn away by the sea or sand- especially if found in shallow water. (See image above) So if they rot away then it must follow that they are a contaminate. If they are worn away by sand and sea, then the particles still contaminate the oceans just at a faster rate. It doesn't just disappear-just because we cant see it!  Yes there are indeed wrecks that need saving for posterity. These are mostly found in places like the baltic sea and the black sea. These wrecks are extremely valuable as very little is known about them as they are so old- but these too should be saved- not left down there to rot but lifted complete and conserved for everyone to study and enjoy and not just- "left for future generations". 

2500 year old shipwreck found in the black sea needs to be salvaged in its entirety and placed on public display.  The revenue from visitors would outweigh the cost of salvage.

To my mind every single wreck needs to be salvaged. Most for the value of the material but some in their entirety for public display. It needs all the nations of the world to do this. The cost would be considerable but the ongoing income from the museum displays outweighs this cost eventually. Shipwreck museums are popular with the public. Shipwrecks less than 300 years old should all be cleared away. We can learn very little more information from these sites. All the artifacts can be studied and recorded and then sold off. The sale of all the artifacts will pay for the salvage costs to these wrecks and the information retained before any sale takes place. Museums to be offered the items first before the public is. Would this be so terrible?  & Contaminant removed.

However slowly the deterioration of any shipwreck- it is all contaminating our oceans and seas and our short-sighted government bodies fail to recognise this fact and are in fact just getting in the way of salvage today.  So ask yourselves- Q. Just what are we leaving to future generations?  Answer- another massive eco disaster hidden on the sea floor?

Media jokers

 This is how the media gets hold of a wreck story and why I cant be bothered with them now unless I get paid.  It begins with your local journalist for your local village rag asking if you have any interesting finds or projects on the go. You innocently reply and give him a story he likes. He innocently publishes it in his local village rag. From there, if the story is of interest, the bigger news outlets pick up the news and use it too -Quite often without asking your consent.  Sometimes you will then get a call from a local TV news out let- who dont only want to report on what has been written, they need film footage of you and maybe of your wreck too. So they ask if they can come and do some filming. In your naivety you agree and over they come with cameramen and sound and lighting men, an interviewer, and sometimes the producer if the location is lovely like Scilly is.  You take time off work to help them because they dont like to work weekends if at all possible, and you take them around on your boat to the wreck site and talk to them about your project and they get it all, including your wreck research, all free of charge. 

 One day it dawned on me just how stupid I was being with these people. There I was doing all the work and getting nothing for it. You do your research; you find the wreck; you take a few days of work to take them out to it and talk about it- and they get what they want and go. They all get very well paid for "their" services- while you have only lost money.  I thought about this for a while and realised that I couldn't charge for using my boat because it wasn't run under a commercial license- and I couldn't charge for giving them underwater footage of the wreck for similar reasons -and they knew all this and so take advantage of it -and these things are usually very expensive indeed in the commercial world. Well, the next time I got the call I was ready. I agreed to them coming over and decided to hit them when they had arrived here and so committed to the job.  The little team arrived to make their program. I requested a meeting before filming went ahead. They agreed and I met them at their hotel.  

Picture the scene- there they were sat in the sun around a big table in the gardens of a posh hotel they were also staying in. On the table was an expensive lunch of lobster and steak and bottles of wine and jugs of fruity pimms- all very jovial and very expensive. "Sit down Todd, and have a glass of Pimms" they said. I did so and accepted the drink. Pleasantries passed between us, then the producer asked what it was I wanted to talk about. "Payment" said I, abruptly- then supped at my Pimms awaiting the inevitable reply.  The table went suddenly quiet and the producer cracked off a lobster claw to put on his plate and spoke-"Errm I'm sorry Todd but we don't have a budget to pay you" he said firmly.  This response I had anticipated and had my answer all ready to respond. "Then why should I help you?" I asked before adding-. "I am having to take time off work for this and my time is money too. I am the only one around this table no getting paid."   To this he stopped eating his posh expensive lunch and looked at me in the eye and said-. "The simple fact is, as I have stated, we have to work to a budget and we simply don't have a budget to pay you. The public don't get paid for their stories. I'm sorry but that's the way it is."  I was hoping for a better response but in my heart I knew this was coming and thus prepared for it. "Then I'm not interested in helping you" I replied, and stood up to leave. We both knew I had them by the balls. The TV company would be very upset having sent their team out to Scilly to suddenly come back without the footage they needed. The guy had no choice but to stop me from walking away and ask me what I wanted and how I could be paid legally- being as I couldn't charge for the things they wanted unless I could produce the relevant paperwork. "I will bill you for my time lost at work and it will come under the heading of 'services supplied as a shipwreck historian'" He knew there was no way out of this one and had to accept my demands or go back empty handed. We then agreed my fee which was no more than covering my time lost by hourly rate- and any expenses incurred. That all sorted we all got what we wanted and they went home happy. 

Now, whenever I get the call, I tell them I charge for my time so they can budget for it. As a result, they dont often bother to come over-and that suits me fine too.  Now don't get me wrong, I am happy to supply my local rag with content on what I get up to with my projects- he is just keeping locals and Scilly lovers supplied with local news. This is all good stuff. But the big boys must pay- as they are just making big bucks off my back and taking the proverbial.........

Buccaneer to bed.

Buccaneer has been put to bed again. She comes off her mooring in october. I take her to the quay to empty all the heavy dive gear out and put her standing legs on. I then run her ashore. This year she was put ashore near the mermaid pub. Here, when the tide goes out, she rests on her standing legs awaiting the lorry to take her off the beach. She is then taken through the town on the flat bed and over the other side of the island to the field where she is put to bed for the winter. I run the engine out with fresh water; put fuel treatment into her tanks; remover her batteries and jack her up level so that the rain water drains out her scuppers. I then jet wash the hull down to remove the sea slime built up over summer and there she'll rest on her keel drying out until next March. :(  

 

Meeting celebs.

Being a wreck hunter and having interesting finds along the way inevitably attracts the media. With that comes meeting a few celebrities along the way. When I found the Colossus stern, I met members of the Time Team and most notably Tony Robinson whom interviewed me during filming. That was my first experience of being in the media but it was not at a good time for me. Which was a shame as I would have liked to enjoyed the experience of meeting Baldrick more than i did but my head was elsewhere. Sadly I cant find a video of the Time Team special on youtube to show you.

I later found myself on radio 4's early music show and was on that for a full hour regarding the story of Ann Cargill & the Wreck of the nancy packet  but this blog wont take audio so, instead, heres a short news video of  (7) Wreck of the Nancy Packet - YouTube   I also got to know Miranda Krestovnikov at this time too who stayed at our house when filming here about the Pirate John Mucknell. She was so dedicated that to save time she even came in to breakfast wearing her wet suit! Later she endorced my Pirate Mucknell book by writing the forward. A really lovely lass.  

All through the years world renown underwater cameraman Mike Pitts came to Scilly regularly-occasionly to film for news or programs of some sort. Every time he came here, he would look me up and ask if I had any interesting finds he could dive and get photographs of- and so I got to know him fairly well. A nice guy and I have some nice images that he took of some of my finds underwater- like Colossus stern carving  & the huge anchor we found over by Nut Rock. Here he is on my boat Buccaneer.  News video- (7) HMS Colossus shipwreck carving - YouTube

 

Twice I have had the one show over covering projects of mine. Heres one of their presenters Iwan Thomas who was previously an athlete sprinter. He came over to film work being done on a Tudor shipwreck I found in St Mary's Roadstead. Video- Flying Joan shipwreck? - YouTube

One time I was featured on 'Britains secret treasures' with Mary Ann Ococha. Here she is interviewing me at my previous home for that program. This one is on youtube- (7) HMS Colossus shipwreck - YouTube Mike Pitts filmed this one as well and he is also in the picture below.

Mud larking

Mersea mud

I have always walked the mud flats around Essex ever since I was a boy. I used to find all sorts of things. /the usual Victoriana and clay pipes. Also bullets and shell cases from the second world war. However one day I fell upon an area of bits n bobs that all turned out to be roman in date. And from the pottery found there the nationality seemed to be Belgic as all the pottery was all black Belgic ware. As I understand it, the Belgica were basically running a ferry service between the European continent and the east coast of ancient Britain for anyone who paid for the service. I believe that the small area of items were possibly from a small wooden vessel-possibly wrecked there. As a result, I declared everything to the Receiver of wreck at the time and its all in the museums over there still to this day. This find was actually many years ago now but as Mud larking seems to be a popular past time nowadays- I just thought I would do a post about it too. I have been doing this hobby since I was a little kid, whether on the Thames or on holiday off Essex. Seems to be a winters only hobby for me now although I do a lot of beachcombing near my home when not diving. As soon as the tide had gone out I was out there leaving the other kids and my family laying on the beach. I would also be up in the early morning to go catch a low tide and that's real dedication from a young boy. Before anyone else in the caravan was even stirring, I was out there trudging around in the mud before breakfast. I just loved the solitude of it. The wildlife and the morning sun. Its the same feeling of solitude I get now when diving. 

Heres the intact roman period pot I found mudlarking now at Mersea Island museum.

More finds destined for the museum.

Larking on the mud off the Essex coast is not an easy thing. You have to learn to know where you can or cannot go. Otherwise you'll get stuck. I learnt the skill of reading the terrain over my childhood but still occasionally almost walk into trouble out there. Its easily done.  Evenso, I still keep a pair of wellies at my mums house in case when i visit theres a good low tide there. Im the same on land too. I walk the paths and fields and cant stop myself looking for things-even if its just to pick up a bit of pottery so i can identify and date it if possible.  Heres a classic example of how I am- I was walking with 6 others- mostly family members- along a public foot path. The was a bend in the path and I was -as ever- bringing up the rear. Everyone rounded the bend. As I got to it- I stopped. My mum, knowing what Im like asked -

Other items found together on the mud the time I found the pot above.

"what you seen this time?" Everyone then stopped as they had all stepped over the same piece of ground and not seen what I had seen. "Im not sure" -I replied-"but there's something down there"   Everyone had now grouped together to look at the ground. Not one person could see what I could see. "I dont see anything" said mum, as I bent down to investigate. Soon I had removed the top layer of earth to reveal what had caught my attention. I dug it out. It was a soldiers brass Shako hat regiment badge. Mum knew what I was like but still she was stunned. "How did you know it was there?" she asked as she looked at the badge after the earth was cleared off its surface. "The ground told me it was there" I answered, unable to properly explain it. "Well its not staying in my house!" she exclaimed-"I've got enough of your old rubbish already" She was referring to the old bottles and clay pipes etc etc I'd brought home to her over the years that I didnt want to take home as I too had lots of it all! I have numerous such stories like this.   For fun-I will relay two more funny ones here- One time I was walking around a field with a girlfriend. I was in my 20's. I was -as ever- looking at the ground.  "Why are you looking so hard at the ground here?" she asked, knowing it was a well ploughed field. "well you see the years of ploughing forces items over to the edges of fields-also its where people tend to walk and possibly drop things" I replied from experience. She was unconvinced-"There's nothing going to be here" she scoffed. My eyes did not look up, instead I just pointed to spot- something there at her very feet- "then whats that?" I quipped back. She bent down and picked up the object. It was a large copper coin dated 1797. I never said another word but as we walked on together- her eyes were now down to the ground as well looking for things with me.

More Roman Mud larking finds above. Roman Belgic ware & Burnished ware

Another time -years ago- I was with my wife along the coast here. Bored of sunbathing and reading my book I got up and said "Im off to look for stuff" hoping to find something along the shore-another old bottle or clay pipe-anything of interest really. In reply my wife suddenly said- "Well try and find something nice that I would like- like a blue bead!"  She had made the statement randomly, and I took no real notice of it. Well then the day took a turn for the surreal. About 15 minutes later, as I looked at the earth where I was at that moment- I spotted something- a tiny flash of blue. I went over and could straight away see it was made of blue glass. I picked it out of the ground.- And as god is my witness, I was utterly stunned to then be holding a blue glass bead about an inch in length. I recogonised it too- it was exactly of the type she and I had been picking up of a shipwreck over recent years. But unlike those on the wreck which had all been worn dull by the sand and sea- this one from the ground was perfect and still shiny just like new.  It must have been disguarded by someone who- i guess- had got it from the same wreck from the time the disaster had first happened. Here it had laid in the ground from then on. "She is not going to believe this!" I thought, as I went back to give it to her. Questions were indeed asked. She also chastised me saying I took it with me and that I'd had it all along. I convinced her of the truth. Firstly- I had no idea what she was going to request when I left to go hunting for junk. And secondly- In all the times we had dived the wreck and brought up the blue beads-among all the numerous blue beads we had found there-we had never once seen one in anything like this condition. Both things she knew to be true.  Later, once the RoW had handed us ownership to all those wreck beads- I had this one in this tale made into a necklace for her birthday. Since then other people have found beads while beachcombing here too. Mostly they are found on the beaches around our Town. The beads either come from the wreck at Wingletang at St Agnes, or they originated from the wreck we dive. They were all either dropped overboard as they were first brought ashore- or, as is just as likely, because our beaches are littered with much historic debris- they were thrown out with the rubbish. We have declared many such beads over the years and this one from the ground became included with those we found on the wreck. There couldn't be any other source for it -or could there?

 

Say hello to our little friend.

As explained in earlier posts, We do a lot of quick dives over by Nut rock as it can be really interesting. Yesterday was no exception. I found an old ginger beer bottle but my mate found what we think was an old marmalade pot. He put the pot in his goodie bag and brought it up not realising something was hidden inside. We saw it once aboard and poured it out onto the boats engine box. Although I say in the video- 'it dont seem very happy' -I since learned that if that were the case it would change to a more threatening colour from its usual natural shade and possibly even squirt ink about. I suppose I really just thought it looked well out of place in the open air on a hard surface. I know we didnt hurt it as I have seen them walking across very sharp raggedy rocks from place to place while I was on holiday in Malta. One even came up out of the sea at Gozo island and walked right over my younger brothers foot, on its trip from a rock pool to the open sea. Poor ol mick never was good at finding things underwater and when he learned this pot was someones home we felt compelled to let the owner keep it and put it back in the sea. Better luck next time mate Ha ha ha! We dont see these creatures here and for me it was a first in over 23 years of diving here at Scilly. I had seen them diving around mainland England occasionally though but again quite a rare sight.  I have heard fishermen here say that from time to time they do find them in their lobster pots but we never see them while diving here-so it was quite unusual for us.  Click on the video to see our little friendly discovery of a  rarely seen local resident. Enjoy!

 

40+ Anchors

 On the subject of anchors- over the years I have found over 40 of them, and seen many more found by others. Not much one can say about these. Most are there as a result  of it having to be cast awasy in an emergency or the cable parting in a storm. Some mark the spot where a wreck once was- either the wreck was salvaged or rotted away completely. Yes if a wreck was constructed of wood and trenailed together (nails made of wood too) and its cargo was degradable -then nothing is left to survive of the wreck except the odd bits of iron like an anchor. I can swam into an area underwater and can feel that a wreck was once present-merely by the way the weed grows. Its like finding an old dumping site on the land- the things left buried in the ground will tell you something is or was once present there-mostly because the growth is affected in some way. Its hard to explain but when you have been at this kind of thing all your life thus like l have you will understand what Im trying to relay. Go on any old farm land and look for where those of older times used to dump their rubbish. It will be buried and hidden from view but the growth above it will tell you where. Its the same underwater. Heres a few of many anchors found over the years with magnetometer and or sonar survey-or just by chance drift diving-