wreck diving

Finding ‘AFFRAY’

On 16th April, 1951 HMS/M AFFRAY, disappeared while on a training exercise in the English Channel. Failing to make her scheduled radio report, the search for the sunken submarine continued for over three months in an area rich in wrecks…. Read More ›

Raising A Navy

At the conclusion of WWI hostilities, the German High Seas Fleet was interned at the Royal Navy’s northern base at Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands of Scotland.  On learning of the proposal to give the vessels to the victorious… Read More ›

“Oxygen Pete”

Inspired by the successful 1941 attacks – carried out by Italian divers riding ‘chariots’ armed with detachable explosive warheads – on the British battleships, ‘H.M.S.Queen Elizabeth’ and ‘H.M.S.Valiant’, in Alexandria Harbour, the Royal Navy began to devote greater resources to… Read More ›

The Submarine Refreshment Bar

One section of Sir Robert H Davis’ classic work, ‘Deep Diving and Submarine Operations’ is devoted to Divers’ Yarns. One such story concerns a diving operation to salvage the cargo of a sunken merchant vessel. Wearing standard diving dress, a… Read More ›

The Search for X5

Developed by the Royal Navy during WWII, the X-craft were midget submarines manned by a crew of four – one of whom was the designated diver.  Because of their limited range, the smaller X-Craft would be towed by a ‘mother’… Read More ›

‘Under Pressure’

Encouraged by the comments of a former U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt, who wrote that,   “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty…”, I have no hesitation in stating that Gareth Lock’s book,… Read More ›