Newbie Starting out in UK

[andystephens]

Hello Everyone,

Firstly let me see that this is a great website, and I am learning loads already. Basically I have an interest in shipwrecks and wondered how I can get started. Does anybody have any links or any advice at all to help me start out? Also I am interested in wrecks around the UK before I venture out into the real world so any help/links will be appreciated.

Thanks

Andy

 

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[rgecy]

Andy,
Great to have you!? Treasurenet is an excellent place to get started.?

My first bit of advice would be to talk with local divers about wrecks in your area.? They will probably be very vague at first, but will eventually put you on a site they have already worked.? Next, head to the library or archives and start doing some research on wrecks in your area.? You will either need to pick a specific wreck or search a time period and choose a wreck to look for.? Finding your own wreck is more about the research than it is the actual hunt.? And when you think you have done enough research, go back and do some more! The more you know about the wreck and the circumstances leading up to its sinking, the easier it will be to find.

Next, get certified.? If you are SCUBA certified, you may want to work on getting your wreck diving cert. Pair up with a friend or an experienced diver in your area and go see if you can't find something.? Have some fun.?

This is just the tip of the iceberg.? I have yet to mention anything to do with Magnetometers, Sidescan Sonars, Metal Detectors, Boats, and equipment.? Keep reading and ask lots of questions!? We were all Newbies at one point.

Good luck and let me know if I can help!

Robert in SC

 

[Cablava]

Welcome to the board. UK has so many wrecks it is unbelievable, of course they were not all treasure ships. Check out an earlier post I did on a wreck at http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,22019.0.html She was a real treasure ship and was partly salvaged by the locals in the early 1800'S. she is a virgin wreck as far a divers go, even though well known she has been left alone. You could start your research on this one and maybe eventually find her. She lies about 20 miles west of Swansea. Whatever there are not to many real ships which have as much possibility at the start of a venture.

If you do ever go there or in your research you find that there were also a few moidores found about 1 mile down the coast near Blue pool, its possibly a body drifted from the wreck to this locations as there were only a few coins. However I found a large anchor about ten feet from Blue pool itself many years ago. I did not have anything recover it nor had the time then, however I believe Robert Shefford who owns much of the land there, took a tractor at at later date and dug it out. If so it will be on his farm, which is actually a large caravan site. His house has huge history in the smuggling world.

This is just one wreck there are many, but do not get to well spread or you will just find out a few things about many ships and not a lot about one or two ships. If your research dries up then carfully file the information you have and move onto another ship. But when you continue researching sometimes you uncover things which make you open up old cases again, once you get bitten by the bug you are in for life so you make sure you file everything. (even things that do not seem important), have a complete file as best you can.

As for the physical part, get qualified, get fit, keep safe, take advice from experienced guys, this board is full of them who are willing to pass on information and help, there are many areas that some of the guys here are not just experts on paper but they have actually done it.

I hope your appetite is wetted, we do not see much activity on the board from UK and there is lots of stuff there.

Belgian Archaeologist Robert St?nuit, found The Girona's treasures after searching for while at Giants Causeway but he found the location after reading a local tourist guide it just said "Spanish rocks", he looked and found a gold chain almost immediately, and the rest is history.

Good Luck

 

[Narked1]

Andy,
As a Newbie myself, I have to totally agree with RGecy and Cablava's posts. Have been working on a wreck from WW2 (see the post LCM MK1) and am using the wreck, which I have already dove on a few times, in order learn more about the process of wreck identification. I've spent more time doing research on the wreck than actually diving on it. As Rgecy said: "And when when you think you've done enough research, go back and do some more!" is entirely true. In my research for my "pet project" wreck that I am using to increase my knowledge of wreck diving, research, etc., I have learned that what I thought was entirely true was actually only about 25% accurate. As a result of extensive research I now have a better idea of what my wreck is, where it is located (for proper documentation purposes), and what it's involvement was at the Battle of EL Alamein.

Have learned some of how to do this by just reading this forum and reading the advice that posters like Cablava, Cornelius, RGecy, and Oldman freely provide (and there are others as well.....I thank you all :-)

Pick your target, do all the research on it....then do it again (and again), and then go out and see what you find.

Narked1