Published July 22, 2010 Filed under Events,news By Phil
“We are looking for a black golf ball, in an area the size of two football fields.
However, the fields are covered in brown cricket balls and we are doing it at night with the lights turned off” Dr Iain Murray (17/07/2010) The day of the Highball Discovery
Most people are familiar with the story of the Dam Busters and the Bouncing Bomb, but few people know that Sir Barnes Wallis also designed a smaller version, named Highball, designed for destroying ships. Based on the same bouncing design but smaller in size, the Highball was designed to bounce across the water before sinking underneath its target to explode. The resulting damage to the ship would be below the water line and very difficult to fix.
A Highball Bouncing Bomb on the bottom of Loch Striven
The Highball was primarily designed to sink the Tirpitz, a role which fell to miniature submarines and eventually heavy bombers, thus leaving the Highball without the high profile role that had thrust it’s Dam Busting big brother into fame. No complete (or even recognisable) examples of a Highballs exist in museum collections.
However, over 160 dummy Highballs were dropped in Loch Striven during test flights. Following years of research by Iain Murray from Dundee University, a project was conceived to attempt to locate and later raise these test Highballs.
I was lucky enough to be part of the initial reconnaissance phase of the Project, conducted this July. The aim of the project being to locate the initial test area and any remaining Highballs. Following a shaky start of many dives on Highball shaped rocks, and with the help of an ROV from Sheerwater Marine Services Ltd, we finally managed to locate a number of Highballs on the bottom of Loch Striven.
The intention now is to return back to Loch Striven in a continued effort to record this historic environment, before recovering a Highball for display in a Museum.
You can view the full press release regarding the discoveries made during the Highball Bouncing Bomb Reconnaissance Project here
This 44 second clip shows the ROV and Rob diving near the Admiralty anchor that was found standing 3 metres proud of
the seabed in 30msw. The sheer size of the chain link can be seen, with each link being approximately 40cm in length.
This 27 second clip shows Rob diving over the 3rd Highball found along the anchor chain at a depth of 35msw.
Published March 4, 2010 Filed under Events By Phil
2010 marked the 28th International Shipwreck Conference, and probably one of the best of the last few years.
The first presentation of the conference was from John Riley. Entitled ‘Modelling Shipwrecks’, John presented some of the stunning models he has built of shipwrecks over the years, and gave details of his process of deconstruction, to turn a perfect ship model into a representation of the wreck on the sea bed. An interesting way to produce an accurate model!
Second up was a review of the Salcombe Bronze Age Wreck Site from Jim Tyson, proving the amazing array of shipwrecks available so close to our shores. www.swmag.org/
Sean Kinglsey was able to give an excellent update on the activities of Odyssey Marine Exploration on the wreck site of HMS Victory (First Rate Ship of the Line, sank 1744).
In the afternoon session, Innes McCartney demonstrated his well versed presentation skills with an excellent talk on HMS Audacious, the famous WW1 Super Dreadnought sunk of Malin Head. www.periscopepublishing.com
After being unable to make the 2009 conference due to the terrible snow, David Mearns then followed with details of the discovery of HMAS Sydney. The task of discovering wrecks in such deep water is impressive enough, never-mind capturing such stunning imagery. Certainly a presentation worth waiting the extra year for! http://www.bluewater.uk.com/
In the final session, Dante Batoli gave an excellent summary of 2nd Centrury BC Shipwreck in Capraia, Italy, as well as an interesting insight into the process of marine archaeology within Italy.
Closing the conference with a talk entitled ’Fireships and Firebrand’, Kevin Camidge provided an interesting insight in the use of fireships, something I certainly was not aware off.
Panoramic View on the way to look over the Cattewater Wreck Site
On the Sunday we were treated to an excellent walking tour of Coxside and Cattedown. Starting at the site of an early ropewalk we moved on to overlook Cattewater wreck before heading off to a Pleistocene cave containing early human remains. The tour finished with essential tea and biscuits at the Plymouth University Marine and Diving Centre, along with a guided tour of their facilities.
Published February 17, 2009 Filed under Events By Phil
As in previous years, a few of us ventured down to the International Shipwreck Conference in Plymouth over the weekend of the 7th / 8th Feb.
This years talks turned out to be as good as ever, despite the terrible weather conditions meaning some people couldn’t make it, including David Mearns, who was scheduled to be talking about the discovery of HMAS Sydney.
Opening the day was a presentation by Nigel Overton on the History of the Eddystone Lighthouse. Nigel is obviously very passionate about the local history, which came across in a very interesting talk. Following Nigel was Bob Peacock talking about recent finds in the English Channel, particularly around the Goodwin Sands, and making you realise just how many wrecks there are out there! The next talker was one for the inner archaeologist in everyone, Professor Ufuk Kocabas talking about the excavation of the Yenikapi Byzantine Shipwrecks, which included some excellent finds and some stunning photography. The afternoon started with two talks based on a more legal footing, with Mike Williams talking about the Heritage Bill and how it will affect divers, followed by Alison Kentuck talking about the duties of the Receiver of Wreck. The final main slot went to Mike Rowley, talking about deep wreck exploration off Lebanon and the story of HMs Victoria.
Over all another excellent conference, despite the snow on M5 on the way down.
Published October 27, 2008 Filed under Events By Phil
Title: DIVE08 Location: NEC, Birmingham Link out: Click here Description: DIVE08 at the NEC, Birmingham Start Date: 2008-11-01 End Date: 2008-11-02
As usual, members of the Tech Pursuits Team will be at the Birmingham Dive Show, DIVE08 over the weekend of the 1st and 2nd November. Why not pop over and see us our stand to find out what we have planned for 2009. Scuba + Outdoor will also be there with there usual array of stock at amazing prices, so why not see if you can’t pick up a bargain on that new rebreather?
Published July 17, 2008 Filed under Events By Phil
This November sees the launch of a brand new event in the Midlands Catering solely for Technical Diving. Eurotek.08promises to be
a dedicated emerging Technologies Conference and Exhibition aimed specifically at the European advanced diving community
Taking place on the weekend of the 15th and 16th November at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, Eurotek.08 features an all encompasing line up of speakers and presenters from the worlds creme of technical diving. Through a process of talks, presentations and workshops, it will be possible to learn about everything from the basics of technical diving to underwater imagery to deep mixed gas diving from people who really know their stuff.
Organsied by Leigh Bishop and Carl Spencer, who will both be on hand throughout the weekend, confirmed speakers included:
Dr Simon Mitchell
Rick Stanton
Jarrod Jablonski
Eduardo Pavia
Phill Short
Teresa Telus
Martin Parker
To name but a few, as well as many company exhibiting.
The organising are keen to point out that this is not a ‘Dive Show’ style retail event, but a conference to share in skills and knowledge.
Published March 10, 2008 Filed under Events By Phil
Thanks to everyone that came and spoke to me and the other Tech Pursuits guys at the London International Dive Show this weekend.
From a technical diving point of view, there was plenty on offer with the talks from Innes McCartney on the HK Komet, Carl Spencer and Richie Stevenson on the Carpathia, Mark Ellyat on HMS Victoria and Jarrod Jablonski on Wakulla Springs meaning you could go from 11am to 3:45pm without leaving the seminar room! Having seen Innes’ talk previously, I can safely say it would have been a good one. I found both Richie & Carls Carpatia presentation and Mark’s Victoria presentation excellent, and was reliable told by Gary (one of our other Tech Pursuits instructors) that Jarrod’s talk was well worth the visit.
Published March 3, 2008 Filed under Events By Phil
Just a quick reminder that if you are planning to vist the London International Dive Show this coming weekend, why not pop over and say hello. We will be there representing Tech Pursuits on the Scuba + Outdoor Stand all weekend.
Published February 13, 2008 Filed under Events By Phil
Last weekend a few of us attended the International Shipwreck conference in Plymouth (www.shipwreckconference.org).
A number of talks were given on a variety of subjects, although there did seem to be a bit of a submarine theme running through most of the talks. In my opinion, the conference was a success and very interesting, and I learnt quite a few new bits of history.
I would recommend a visit next year to anyone who is intersted in shipwrecks and shipwreck history
Published January 5, 2008 Filed under Events By Phil
The first Tech Pursuits TechSped of 2008 went off without too much of a hitch on Sunday 27th. Despite a lower than average turnout due to the cold (wimps) it was still an excellent day.
The bad new of the day was this year Gary did remember to zip up his drysuit. The good news was that he did drop a stage cylinder, so there was still plenty of chances to give him a good ribbing.
Over the previous week the fine folks of the NDAC had put in a lot of work on the site. The consequence of this was some remarkably poor visibility for the time of year, but the benefits of a smooth journey down for you kit made it all worth while. Development on the site continuous, and I’m sure it will become an even better training site than it is now.
