Pistols, Specials and the bad ol days.

The Cockney Rejects

A change of tack from shipwrecks today. I have been watching 'Pistols' -a TV series about the Sex Pistols and how they came to be. Malcom Mclaren always said 'he invented Punk' But lets have this right- what a load of claptrap. Punk wasnt about north london university students or college kids dressing up in vivian westwards tosh. It wasnt about socialism or had anything to do with politics. It came out of the mean streets of  East london through unemployment and all the shit a country could throw at its young inhabitants. It was a mean time. Fighting and violence was everywhere you went. School, football, street gangs, gigs, night clubs,- everywhere you went there was trouble. Crap piled up on the streets because of the strikes and crime rocketed due to the black outs. All under the labour party. This sparked Punk bands like the 'Rejects' Sham69 and Ska bands like the 'Specials'  Malcom Mclaren and all his entourage of champagne socialists tapped into this but had absolutely naff all to do with it. Dont get me wrong, the Pistols did do some great tracks but essentially they were a made up Boy band all marketed and clothed by middle classed champange socialists trying to sell their wears and it worked- the college types filled their pathetic london designer shops. Punk was rougher and far tougher than that. Real punks were just scruffy lads who had no money for such things. They just wanted to blow off steam. Maclaren my arse!  By the way, my best mate used to be the drummer for the band pictured above, and is still mates with them today. They still do gigs! He also went on to drum for another punk band-the Angelic upstarts- and toured Europe with them. These lads all still go to watch my beloved West Ham United and we meet up most years and reminisce.  

The Specials.

While on the subject of bands and the old days, we hear of the sad loss of  Specials singer Terry Hall recently. Another love of my early days has been Ska and the Specials in particular captured the youth spirit of the time and the skinhead movement in East London (West Ham Skins) before the NF cowardly idiots came on the scene to spoil it all. We grew our hair as a result and went a bit more Mod.  I make no bones about it, in our youth we were little trouble makers but we weren't racist, we just loved a tear up, mainly at football but as I wrote above- you had to fight people everywhere you went back then. It was London culture at that time. Jack & me went to see the Specials live in 1978 and it was an awesome night. Another big memory surrounding this band was in 1980 the night before the FA cup final with Arsenal, we decided to go to highbury and went into a skinhead club there and The Specials tune 'Man at C&A was playing at the time. An awesome track and one of my favourites of all time. It was exciting being among the enemy all night and them oblivious of it. Inevitably they cottoned on who we were and huge fight kicked off with them outside the club. A wild night and the 3 of us were lucky to come away fairly unscathed but that was because we gave a very good account of ourselves. We had no choice! That Specials track has never left me as a result. Top Ska Band. Sad loss of a teenage hero. So many memories.

This is all stuff I have never spoken about before but was a big part of my early life before diving. My mate and me loved going to football. We used to get in to Leyton Orient as nippers at half time because they used to open the gates then to allow people to leave early. We were then taken to West Ham at 10 years old and just loved it over there. A wild place for sure!  However, I got my first real kicking at football away at QPR and I was just 12 years old. (1974)  We were on the tube home when a group of QPR got on and battered us both and stole my mates scarf. All I remember was a DM boot smashing into my head and bouncing it into the train window.  After they were done with us, all bloodied up we moved down the train but ran into some older lads who turned out to be West Ham. They looked after us and we walked up the train to look for our assailants. These lads took good care of the QPR mob for beating up two little West ham kids -and even got my mate his scarf back. They threw the bullies off at the next stop then kept singing "Mile End, Mile End" as the train pulled away. We were jumping up and down with them and joining in. It was all very exciting to me at the time. My ancestors were all from Mile End so I knew where they were all hailing from too, so I felt a bit of a connection.  My mate and I went to school the next week all battered and bruised. I had a huge lump on one side of my face and a big bruise on the other. My mate had two black eyes and a split lip.  In the playground it seemed like everyone thought we were cool but many thought we would never go again thereafter. However, the hooligan bug had bitten us and this was only the beginning. Its a strange occurrence but thats how it works sometimes. We had found out that day that we were not made of glass and the excitement of it all was an absolute adrenaline rush. After that we copped many a blood bath along the way and gave a few out too. It all stood us in good stead for our teenage years on the mean streets of East London. Wild times for sure and the music was all a big part of it. We would wind ourselves right up on the Rejects on match days then go out buzzin for a ruck. This all carried on until I found diving in 1979. Then my life started changing for the better. By 1985 I had backed right away from the hooligan scene. Although we were still season ticket holders in the West Ham south bank, then in chicken run, for years after. I only stopped going footy when I moved to Scilly in 1999.  Most of those in my early days still go now. I join them occasionally, maybe once or twice a year. But diving is my passion and has been since my first sea dive in about 1981.  

Return to Steval

Steval is a point around the Garrison shore line of St Marys Island. Its a rock that juts out into the sea and by it is the remains of an old fort. On top of the fort they built an ugly concrete search light emplacement which I think went up during world war 1. Well the old fort used to be totally buried in the earth but now, due to natural erosion of the cliffs, the walls of the old fort are becoming exposed and these too are crumbling into the sea. See images below. I used to walk around this area with my dog and as I went I used to see small bits of pottery that fell from here and laid thereabouts among the rocks below. One day I found a small cannon ball there in the earth that had also fallen away. I got into trouble for taking it home and putting it into conservation. The police came around and accused me of stealing it. I gave it to them along with a small box of pottery fragments I had also saved over the years from thereabouts. These items they took to the local museum- whom Im told, (suprise, suprise,) - didnt want them. What happened to these few items is a mystery to me. As a result of this stupid saga I no longer pick up the bits that fall from the cliff there any more, instead I let them get lost among the rocks and taken by the sea. Then when these walls started becoming exposed to a point of degradation- I ignored it. Not my business. I stopped caring about it all because it got me into trouble. Well recently coastal erosion here claimed one of our ancient kelp pits. I took pictures of it and sent them to an archaeologist. He was disturbed by this fact but seemed strangely uninterested about the Steval fort being exposed and lost in the same way. I found this odd but sent him these pictures of it crumbling away anyway, and I think he was a  little shocked as to what was on show and so decided to send my images on to Historic England. I had told them years ago this was happening and noone cared- until I saved that cannon ball and then they only seemed interested in getting me prosecuted for saving it.  After they failed in that regard they stopped caring about it again. They have a strange logic. Its ok for artifacts to fall away and be lost, but its not ok to pick them up and store them for posterity. The Police asked me what I was going to do with the small collection. I said at the time that  " I didnt know." and that I simply thought it wrong to just let them be lost.  The last time I tried to do something with them was when Historic England sent over archaeologists to excavate a trench in a random spot about 200 yards away along the cliff...

......I went to where they were working and pointed at the Steval nearby and told them they should be recording what was there rather than disturbing a new place and offered them my bits n bobs to show them what was being lost nearby. They seemed totally disinterested in the Steval fort and found very little in the way of archaeology where they were digging. They could have recorded this fort before it started falling into the sea and have a record of how it originally looked before degradation occurred to it. My images are the only record taken thus far and my collecting of the pottery sherds the only collection of items saved from the site. Yet I was wrong for doing it!! I could have carried on recording and collecting but the fact that it got me into trouble put me off continuing -now all has been lost. The fort, the artifacts, and with it all went the information too. I was told that by picking up items from around the base of this fort I was stealing heritage. Well if that was stealing from an historic monument then so is every single beachcomber that hunts for and picks up artifacts from around St Marys old quay every day which is also an historic monument. 

 Seeing this old fort being lost is heart breaking but noone cares unless you try to save something. And then they only seem interested in prosecution rather than recording whats there.  All the items I could have saved had I been left alone, but as I walk over them today I just say to myself- "Not my problem" and the sea takes it all.  Ever since then our museum lost its home and was forced to farm out most of its displays and is still in transition. It had to have a good clear out. They are currently getting rid of books. I have no idea what happened to the items I collected that were given to the police. All I know is that the museum wasnt interested in them at the time- so it possibly all went into the police bin.  So now that an archaeologist is finally interested in sending my images to Historic England, they may finally decide to send someone over to record whats remaining of this old civil war fort.  Had the police returned the items I collected back to me- I could have given them to the archaeologists when they eventually turn up- as they now surely and finally must do.  However, all my information is probably now lost forever due to the stupidity of government workers being over zealous with the small things, when the bigger picture was always right there in front of them- yet they totally ignored it until it was too late. How utterly Typical.  

The 'Duchy take'.

When years of searching & research pays off.

Im always on the hunt for treasure wrecks and found a couple of nice sites in my time and I'm often asked-"So what happens when someone in the UK finds treasure?  This is a big question with too many variables  to be able to it answer easily. However, one thing is for sure- it depends on where you find your wreck and whom owns it. In the past a salvor would gain possession of his wreck and because the original owner no longer exists-or the owner exists but does not want to pay the salvor for what he brings up -then the salvor usually gest the material in lieu of salvage and rightly so................ 

                                             

                                         The small treasure currently held by the Receiver of Wreck

.....................Im the one going home empty handed each night while feeling queezy from all the rolling around, going back and forth at sea through, all the hours god sends. Then, also, all alone, I go out when its calmer and safer, to dive all the anomalies I have identified during the survey. All that dive kit is also expensive to buy and maintain and even more so when you live on a tiny island as everything has to be sent to the mainland for servicing and repair.  Not to mention all the years of dive training to get me to this point. I even have to spend hours on end filling my own dive cylinders, with my own compressor, in order to perform the many dives it takes to actually find a wreck. In this case one of those anomalies identified in my survey turns out to be the wreck I'm actually hunting for. I then place myself in mortal danger for over two years mapping the wreck site and identifying everything on the sea bed that is all but hidden from view under thick weed. The tides flow fast over the wreck site. I can enter the water when it is slack tide but by the time the dive is over I come up in the tide and dare not let go of my rope to the boat for fear of being lost at sea. Sometimes the visibility is lousy, and sometimes the swells come over making the diver feel like he is in a washing machine. Sometimes I have to make a decision to abandon a dive for any of the many reasons above. Amidst all this I eventually identify an area on the site worthy of further investigation and amazingly find a small but not insignificant treasure. All I can think when that happens is that for once Im actually going to get paid!! I have been diving for 43 years and found 18 new wrecks in that time. So I can tell the reader that more often than not, the work is seldom profitable and thus far, when added all together- I am in financial deficit. The only way to make money is to find a big site like the Merchant Royal.

Government archaeologists on site.

 I salvaged that small treasure and nothing else on the sea bed has been disturbed. No artifacts are moved aside as they always did in the old days. I then call in the Government archaeologists to come and asses the wreck site as a whole. They get to see it pretty much as I found it. They get the benefit of my research and of my site plan of the wreck. I ask for nothing in return. Now is when the authorities suddenly take a great interest in what I am doing.   

Diving the site alone.

                                          A cropped version of my site plan of the wreck site.

There is one last thing to consider here- The RoW thinks it fit to allow a museum the advantage to buy the collection of artifacts without going to auction to bid for it. The RoW think it is fairer to get 3 independent valuations and to take the middle amount of the three and offer the collection to a museum at that middle price. This is neither legal, nor fair, on either myself or the original owner or the crown. Let me explain- A while back I took this material to Spinks, who are the biggest coin auctioneers in the world, and I was told by them that 'valuations are completely subjective'. That any valuation of this kind of material could never be accurately predicted. I was told that such items are most likely to go for far more money than any valuation undertaken. So if the items are likely to be worth far more than any valuation-then it stands to reason that someone will be unfairly treated if a museum has the benefit of buying it all without having to go to the auction- with the price paid by them based solely upon a subjective valuation only. Only an auction can set a true value of anything.  Similarly, if the valuations have been 'over estimated' then the auction will set the price here also. Better to let the Museum bid along with everyone else on the day- that is 'the' only fair way to proceed. 

Association debris Trail?

There was a time when I longed to find an intact onion bottle. Found many broken ones over the years. In fact, found a whole gulley of broken ones near the wreck of the Coronation in plymouth once. Little did we know that we had landed on the then unknown deeper site  which had not been found yet at that time. We had no idea how close we were to a great find. But thats diving.  As for eventually finding a whole onion- I  have since located numerous and on one occasion even two at once. Whilst 99 per cent of my bottle finds over the years have came from anchorages, basically debris thrown overboard at that moment in history. Occasionally I find old bottles in very different circumstances. Found a few nice ones on or close to wrecks and so have to be declared from that wreck just in case. Heres a story of 3, that many years ago, came from deep water out by the Wreck of Association that sank in 1707. Two of them on one dive... As so often happens in my life, a local fisherman asks me to help him retrieve some trapped lobster pots.  Two questions are my inevitable response- 'Where are they stuck and how deep'?. Quite often the fisherman will tell a little white lie to both questions. Firstly they will always underestimate the depth. In this instance I was told 30m max. Secondly- they always say that they have been getting rusty crabs from that particular spot; implying there must be iron down there and thus must be a wreck. This is said in an attempt to get me more interested into going and nothing more. If this is said tongue in cheek and the guy is a friend I will go along, but if I think its a genuine attempt to dupe me -then I think twice and sometimes decline as a result. In this case, I liked the guy and his answer being 'near the gilstone' and thus the Association wreck site, made the decision for me. Any offer to be looked after on a dive out west here is acceptable terms. 

2 onions circa 1710

 

....I generally think twice if the pots are lost in water deeper than 35meters but for this friend I said I'd try. He didnt lie-as the down line was located at the foot of the eastern side of the Gilstone reef at the foot of east'ard ledge. This is normal as a good fishermen will always try to lay his pots at the foot of a reef where the rock meets the sand. That is where the lobsters are. I followed the 'up line' down and  found it passed by an old anchor in about 30m off in the distance to my right. Thats interesting I thought, not seen that one before! Further down I found where the 'up line' joined onto the line of pots. I went along this and passed by two pots to where I found the 3rd one in line was caught among the  boulders in that exact depth of -35m as stated. I soon released the offending pot and moved it out onto the sand nearby. I then followed the line further checking the rest of the pots were free too.

Close up of an onion circa 1710

 Being a shipwreck hunter, as I went along, I naturally kept my eyes open for anything else that may be of interest to me.  Heading in a SSE direction, pulling myself along the rope, hand over hand, I swiftly moved along the line of pots checking on each one as I passed them. Very soon I found myself in almost 40meters of water and started to think about not wanting to go any further down.  Having cleared the earlier obstruction I felt I was now free to go up if I wished as every pot was now in sand. However, me being me, I decided to use what little time and air I had left, to have a quick look around in the sand. There was the odd unidentifiable bit of iron work on show,  and also quite a few bits of broken glass from what were clearly once onion bottles. Mooching along and still following the same direction, it felt like the pot line was following a trail of bits n bobs. I soon came to the other end of the line where the other 'up rope'  marked the end of the line of pots. The sea was gin clear and there was no tide to speak of.  As an experienced diver I knew I was most likely a bit narked now, as I felt totally at ease- even when realising I had ended up in well over 40meters I still felt completely in control. This was not unusual to me at this time, as over the previous couple of years I had been performing an ongoing search of  deep water while looking for the wreck of the Romney off Isaacs ledge; the Crim; and also Retarrier; where I often ended up alone in these kinds of depths or even more. This time was actually easier, as today I had a fisherman to look out for me up top and so I was not totally alone.   I was just about to ascend the 'up line' when I spotted the neck of a black glass bottle poking up out of the sand. Thinking it was just a broken off fragment I went to pick it up to make sure. To my utter surprise, as I pulled it from the sand, I found it to be totally intact. After seeing so many broken bits I was utterly astonished; as well as thoroughly thrilled. 

German impression of the disaster drawn in late 1707.

  We are talking only minutes in time here- and now being so deep I had only a  very short bottom time before incurring some serious decompression stops to do. I was now all but out of time. This is when seconds start to feel like minutes. Again I was about to leave when just a few meters away I could see another possible intact bottle-and felt I couldn't leave without checking it out. 'It couldn't be another one'- I thought,  as I again moved and pulled at the bottle. Again it was as intact as the first. I was now trying to think how I was going to carry these 2  up to the surface and do all I needed to do with my hands, at the same time, as I went up. There was keeping an eye on my wrist depth gauge while holding onto the 'up line' - all the while trying to hold two fragile bottles and trying not to drop or break them was not going to be easy.  I dashed back to the up rope and again moved to go up. However, I noticed that right by that last pot on the sand, there was yet another buried bottle. Feeling I couldn't possibly now stay to check it out too, let alone carry it, I kicked out at the sand with my fins. As I did this, some of the sand moved aside and it too looked likely to be an intact bottle as well.  "Bloody hell" I thought-"the one time I don't bring a goody bag along is the one time I needed it most" Sods law! With that I left the bottom and looked at the 3rd bottle as it receded away into the distance below. I never thought I would ever have to do such a thing and it was heart breaking!  

It took a while to ascend so some deco stops were needed. There hovering in 6meters I wondered how to get back aboard the boat without breaking either find. I had to try. Luckily I got them home safely and vowed to return for the 3rd another day. Yes I returned to the spot and got it eventually along with a small clump of coins.  So are these just a few random lucky finds?- or were these part of a trail to the Stern of Association? There are those that believe that, because they never found much gold when excavating the Association site back in their day, that the stern of this wreck must have broken off and thus lies elsewhere. Totally understandable thinking when you see what has happened to other wrecks here. And when you look at from where the prevailing swells over this wreck emanate- then these items could well tell their own story. So is it just a small area of items from the famous wreck nearby? or does the stern of Association lay in even deeper water and this is a debris trail leading out to it? Or were the items I found above from another wreck incident entirely? There have been so many out that way its hard to tell!

(Everything I write about has always been declared to the RoW first. In this case I wrote them up as merely- "possible Association")

The lost cargo.

Its pretty much shore dives only now for winter as my boat came out a couple of weeks back and my mates came out just recently too. The only other news I have is that I went away for a bit to see my mum on Mersea Island-oh and a spell in the sun on Lanzarote. I did some mudlarking on Mersea during the recent low spring tides but now back to beach combing Scilly. Theres a couple of shorelines here that are being very disturbed indeed at present, as they are doing sea defence work there and it is currently totally changing the whole dynamic of the beaches involved. Therefore, its worth a little look every now and again to see if anything of interest turns up.  The piece of pottery below was found on a recent dive and its the sort of thing that im hoping will turn up with all the disturbances. To the untrained eye, the sherd below dont look like much but it is in fact a fragment of ancient Greekware over 2500 years old and its the sort of thing that can be found at Scilly diving or beachcombing. If you look at the sherd you can see two legs and a hand of a figure holding a round object to the left. On the right is another hand holding what I now know is a bunch of grapes. The hand with the grapes is actually the arm of a second figure that is even less on view on the far right hand side. I know this because you can just make out the figures thumb which shows it to belong to the figure on the right.  So how did ancient greek pottery get here? Well this has to be a fragment from a vase from the cargo of the shipwreck of HMS Colossus. It was found while bottle hunting due south of Nut Rock.  I know from experience (and research) just how far the vases travelled away from the wreck site. There were 1500.............

...............such vases on the wreck returning from Italy in 1798; a cargo collected by and belonging to Sir William Hamilton.  The vases were wrapped in putty which made them bouyant; so that when the ship had broken up, many of them simply floated off on the tide. Many went out to sea to be lost forever, whereas about 10 vases floated ashore onto the beaches of St Martins Island. Sir William Hamilton had to get his nephew to come to Scilly to buy those vases back off the locals whom had saved them in the surf. Many other vases would have eventually sank and thus are still hidden on the sea bed around Scilly somewhere. Many others would have come to grief on the rocks and reefs here too. This is also bore out by the fact that most of the fragments I have found over the years have all been well away from the Colossus wreck site. As I remember, the one immediately below was found many years ago about 400 yards away to the south of the site where some other items of wreck had come to rest too. Just look at the fabulous face on the right in this picture below- Going by what looks like a horn by his head, it could be the head of Theseus looking at the Minotaur; the half man half bull creature he defeated in Greek mythology.

My brother first alerted me to the fact that bits could be found high and dry on rocks away from the wreck when he found a sherd on a rock called the 'Hulman' between Tresco and Samson. From then I have been looking for them on the shore line here ever since while beach combing- and eventually I found a fragment, also near Tresco Island, on a reef called 'Tobaccomans Ledge'. The big curved piece below was the furthest I have found a sherd away from the wreck. I found it while drift diving between the North Bathlomomew reef and the Garrison shore line. Thats about a mile and a half away from the wreck!  The diversity of places these bits and pieces have been found just proves that sherds could be located absolutely anywhere here. I believe some will one day be found by the eastern isles or in Crow Sound as that seems to be the direction many of them travelled first.

The three fragments below all came from the Wreck and all from the Bow site which is over on the Southard Well Reef.  Strangely, I never found any on the Stern section of the wreck which is out in St Marys Roads, 400 yards away from the reef bow site. I dived the stern for years after finding it but strangely/sadly not one fragment turned up there-possibly buried out of sight in the deep sand.  I went searching around the bow site for bits before it was re-protected and found two of the pieces below at that time. The other fragment (with the face on it) was gifted to me by a good friend who sadly died. He did not dive himself but had a fascination for Greek pottery. He told me he got it from a member of the salvage team who first found the bow site of this wreck back in 1979. It looked rather too perfect to me but I had no reason to doubt that it came from the ship. Then one day I found one small fleck that was just as crisp as it. (That fleck is shown below just above the gifted one). What I mean by 'crisp' is that it still retains some of its white decoration which is something that normally disappears first when under the sea; whereas the black slip on the vases is far more hard wearing-sometimes almost indestructible by comparison-which is why the black slip is clear to see on every piece. Also the edges are still sharp like its only just been broken-whereas most fragments found have slightly sea worn or rounded edges. This is encouraging as any whole vases still out there could well be found totally intact with perfect decorations still remaining. One can only dream! I say that but Scilly is one of the only places in the..

 ....world where one can find this type of 2500 year old type of pottery. Out there somewhere on the sea bed, will be whole vases buried in sand or just laying in bits among the rocks of the islands or reef tops here.  I am convinced that one day I will accidentally drift over a whole vase. However, it may not look like a vase -no- I think it will look like a blob- a big ball of putty protruding from silt or sand and containing an intact vase. I wouldnt be at all surprised if the putty will be hardened by it being in contact with sand and reacting with it. Either that or an exposed vase, partially showing above the sand, will be sea worn- and that part of it still buried will retain its putty and thus still be in perfect condition beneath it.  On my travels I never stop keeping my eyes open for this pottery every time I dive out in the Roads here or am walking the coast line. I expect to find bits during every dive but the reality is, its a very rare occurrence indeed- the few I have found over the years have gained over the 20 or so years.  So when I do locate a fragment I am 'cock a hoop'.  Bit sad really. Each to their own!

(All those fragments I have found and raised myself were declared to the Receiver of Wreck even when they came from nowhere near the wreck site itself.) 

Aksai

 

We went walking on White Island in the summer and came across the remains of this iron anchor on the rocks on the north side of the island. As soon as I saw it I took note of the position and thought about which wreck it may have come from. I knew of no shipwreck in the bay where it lay. There was, however, wrecks further out and around both the outer corners of the cove. The wreck of the Tobasco lay around the other side of the carn to the right and the Aksai lay around to the left. When one notes which way the direction from which the sea swells prevail in this area, being from the Northwest, leads one to conclude that it most likely came around from the Aksai. To my mind at the time both seemed a fair distance away with the Tobasco being closest of the two. I knew where the Tobasco lay as I'd dived it before many years ago. However, the exact position of the Aksai was unknown to me. The local books placed this wreck in two different places, one was out in 40m depth and north of the Bakers Rock. The other was in 25m depth west of the Bakers. Im not that interested in steel wrecks but being a shipwreck hunter, I do like to know where these wrecks are situated. Just in case this rudder came from something else entirely and from a wreck closer to where it lay, I decided to check it out and Mag* the area to find out. (*search with a Magnetometer) Maybe there was something else laying nearby in the shallows. That day I magged the bay where the rudder was seen but nothing turned up. Then I went along the very shallows of the island around to the left and in the direction of the Aksai. It wasnt long before I got good hits and these were in no more than 4meters of water. Then I got a huge hit in no more than 15m in close between the Bakers rock and the shore of White Island.  The deepest hit being in no more than 15m made me wonder what it was. So I dived it with a friend. The first thing we found at that exact depth was a huge iron propeller suspended in the air still on the end of its shaft. The rest of the wreck was smashed to bits in very shallow water. Disappointingly it was the Aksai and not somthing new. As has happened so many times for me here at Scilly The evidence on the sea bed shows the local shipwreck books to be wrong. It just goes to prove that if you want to find somthing do your own research and go find the wreck using it instead of relying on someone else who probably never bothered to visit the wreck before publishing. Below is a nice painting of the wreck. Even this picture places the wreck a tad to far towards the east. She is closer this way as we view it and more in line with the nearest figures on the shoreline. Tobasco lays on the other side of the big carn in the distance-(East Withan). The rudder above is in the bay between the two wrecks. It lays on the rocks behind that small rising mound that is to the far right and behind the furthest figures. The water splash on the most extreme right of the painting behind that mound is closest to it.

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?

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-