EMILY TURTON

Emily Turton is a technical diver, dive boat skipper and lecturer in Maritime Studies based in Orkney – a group of islands off the top of Scotland. She can usually be found aboard her purpose-built dive boat MV Huskyan. Emily has dedicated the last 15 years to the wrecks of Scapa Flow and continues to champion the WWI German Fleet Wrecks. She was the driving force behind the Scapa 100 Initiative, a project set up to commemorate the centenary of the scuttling of the WWI German High Seas Fleet in 2019. Emily organised the HMS Hampshire 100 and HMS Vanguard 100 surveys in 2016 and 2017 respectively and the HMS Royal Oak 80 survey in 2019. In her survey and project work, Emily collaborates with a wide group of people and institutions building expert teams of like-minded individuals. Digital heritage is at the forefront of their work which uses underwater photography, videography and 3D photogrammetry to document shipwrecks and bring them to the surface for the wider community to see.

2024 Conference

Title: New Discoveries from HMS Hampshire 1903

JON ADAMS (Professor)

Professor Jon Adams is a Professor of Archaeology at the University of Southampton. Jon is a specialist in maritime archaeology, with interests in ships as manifestations of innovation and social change, and in the practice of archaeology in the coastal zone and under water, particularly the ethics of the developing field of deepwater archaeology. Jon was a Deputy Director of the Mary Rose Project and has directed several other research excavations including the Amsterdam (UK), and the Sea Venture (Bermuda). He is currently working on medieval and early modern shipwreck sites in Sweden including the Kravel Project, and in Guernsey, as well as prehistoric maritime landscapes in Sweden and the UK. He is Director of the Centre for Maritime Archaeology and a member of the Archaeology Management Group.

2024 Conference

Title: Shipwrecks in Dark Seas

Abstract: While maritime archaeology rightly concerns itself with all types of site in maritime contexts, shipwrecks remain a principal focus because of their special qualities; as David Gibbins put it, their contemporaneity and the higher ‘inferential status’ imparted by these ‘closed finds’. In other words we can ‘see’ things in shipwrecks that we cannot in other archaeological remains. This talk will review some recent work on well known sites but also some astonishing recent discoveries that collectively show that there is a lot more still to come. Howard Carter’s ‘wonderful things’ are matched by the astonishing discoveries being made in the unique preservative conditions of the Baltic and the Black Sea.

MARK BEATTIE-EDWARDS

Mark joined the NAS back in 2001 and since 2015 he has worked as the Nautical Archaeology Society Chief Executive Officer and is responsible for the day-to-day management of the charity.  Mark was the licensee of the HMS m Holland No. 5 submarine (2005-2022) and is currently the licensee of the Normans Bay Wreck protected wreck (2009 to date) and the Unknown Wreck off Eastbourne, now identified as the Klein Hollandia. He has coordinated research and access to both these protected wrecks and in addition has undertaken research on the HMS m/A1 submarine and the Coronation protected wreck site on behalf of English Heritage. In 2014 Mark authored a report for English Heritage on the Local Economic Benefit of a Protected Wreck, establishing the value that could be placed on a historic wreck for the local economy of Plymouth.  In 2018 Mark joined the team working on the protected wreck of The London, which blew up in the Thames Estuary in 1665 and is helping manage the Save The London campaign to save the wreck from the ravages of the Thames.

2024 Conference

Title: Klein Hollandia – Discovery was just the Beginning

Abstract:

Since 2019 the Nautical Archaeology Society, Historic England and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands have been recording and researching a historic wreck found by a dive boat skipper off the Sussex coast. In January 2023 the wreck was named as the Klein Hollandia, built in 1656 and owned by the Admiralty of Rotterdam. Drawn by Willem Van de Velde the Elder, the vessel was involved in all major battles in the Second Anglo-Dutch war before being lost in an engagement in the English Channel in 1672.

In this talk, chief investigator Mark Beattie-Edwards will cover how the wreck was found, the significance of the amazing assemblage on the seabed and outline the research that has been undertaken so far into how the Klein Hollandia sank.

REX COWAN

A former lawyer, wreck hunter, writer and film producer whose varied work includes the award winning science film ‘Chaos’, has spent much of the last 40 years discovering and excavating shipwrecks of the 17th and 18th. Centuries. He served in the Royal Air Force and has a law degree from King’s College London and is also a Fulbright scholar.   He has since become Britain’s most successful shipwreck hunter and worked with John Le Carré on A Century of Images. 

Among his teams most substantial discoveries are the Hollandia, a Dutch East Indiaman sunk off the Isles of Scilly in 1743, the T’Vliegenthart sunk 1735 off Holland and the Svecia a Swedish East Indiaman sunk off the Orkneys in 1740. His finds have been seen in Museums and Exhibitions by millions all over the world from Japan to Malmo in Sweden. For many years a special gallery in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam housed a substantial collection of his finds from all over the world. He was for 23 years representing independent shipwreck divers as a member of the HM Government’s Advisory Committee on Historic Wrecks. In 1991 The Queen of the Netherlands made him a Knight of the Order of Orange Nassau for his services to Dutch Maritime History.

2024 Conference

Title: Secret Voices from the Sea. Archaeology of Shipwrecks of the Dutch East India Company (VOC)

Abstract: Shipwrecks of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) are today recognized as highly relevant to understanding the impact of early modern global shipping for modern-day society and the history of the VOC and Dutch colonialism with oppression and slavery.

They were among the first wrecks which were discovered when scuba diving underwater exploration started in the early 1960s. The large-scale discovery of shipwrecks marked the birth of maritime archaeology. In the early days of maritime archaeology, the focus was on excavation methodology and the physical properties of shipwrecks. Gradually while more finds became available the research attention shifted to understanding the meaning of their material remains as sources about our maritime past. And as more material has been studied we see the wider story.

VOC ships are to be considered essential multifunctional tools in the power and commercial policy of the VOC in the European-Asian monopoly trade. As wrecks on the seabed, they represent rich material complexes consisting of tens of thousands of different artefacts. Initially, the focus in their research was on identifying the functional meaning of the finds and the historical ship. Archaeology of VOC ships yielded new data on the material and technological properties of equipment, shipbuilding, warfare on the sea, maritime trade or practical daily life themes, like the packaging of food and trade goods, which are merely historically known. In the next stage, integrated historical archaeological research makes it possible to interpret the archaeological finds within the wider historical socio-economic context of the city or society the ship originated from.

Research on VOC wrecks in the last 50 shows how tangible remains together with archival data can produce a rich array of stories on the daily-life functioning of VOC ships and above all about the identities of the historical persons who produced, supplied or used the ship. In this paper some stories will be presented on shipwreck finds and the people behind them to illustrate the wide range of topics on early modern shipping and Dutch and global society that lie hidden within VOC wrecks.

LEIGH BISHOP

Leigh is a world-renowned shipwreck explorer and specialist deep-water photographer. He has been a member of many well-known shipwreck expeditions. As a pioneer of deep-wreck mixed gas wreck diving in and around Europe, his specialist deep-water photography, alongside his research has led to the documentation and discovery of hundreds of shipwrecks including several famous ones. He has been a member of some of the most significant deep shipwreck expeditions over the last two decades, that has utilized mixed gas and modern technology to explore deeper and previously unseen shipwrecks. Some of these include no less than six expeditions to HMHS Britannic the world’s largest sunken liner; RMS Lusitania, RMS Egypt, RMS Transylvania in the North Atlantic and the Nazi liner Wilhelm Gustloff in the Baltic just to mention a few. He has also explored an estimated 400 un-dived deep shipwrecks off the English coastline. He was a member of an Australian-led team to photograph the deep Gold ship Niagara off New Zealand and is currently working on an ongoing project to photograph the deep wrecks of Truk Lagoon in the Pacific. He has also been a photographer on expeditions to the Arctic in search of the lost British Submarine X5. He was the first to photograph & explore other famous lost British submarines such as HMS Vandal and HMS Affray all again in deep water. He was also a member of the 2003 NOAA Titanic expedition aboard the Russian research vessel Keldysh. In 2014 he joined expeditions to Sierra Leone, Africa as well as Mars in the Baltic Sea sunk in 1564. Leigh is recognized as an innovator of black-and-white time exposure photography underwater, using a tripod he has used this method to capture many inspiring shipwreck images like the famous bow of the massive liner Justice and the huge guns of HMS Audacious. Leigh has been used as an expert in several television deep-water shipwreck documentaries and worked as a deep-water cameraman for National Geographic as well as the History Channel, BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and other global networks. He is a prolific speaker and lectures on the subject of shipwrecks globally and over the last two decades his photographs have been used in countless books and major worldwide newspapers. He has published hundreds of shipwreck articles that have appeared in just about every diving magazine around the world. He is the co-founder of the technical diving conference EUROTEK and the idea behind the concept.

2024 Conference (after dinner speaker)

Title: Never Before Told Stories

Abstract: After a few years of not having an after-dinner speaker, IMASS is very glad to have Leigh bring this tradition back which is one of the best additives to the conference. The after-dinner talk is less formal and usually includes some of the best stories that can’t be shared on stage, harrowing tales, dashing-do, hilarious anecdotes, and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Leigh will be sharing with us some of his less-known adventures, the background to some of his best-known expeditions and telling us about his new book still in production. Please join us for the great talk at the dinner following the IMASS conference.

KIERAN HATTON

Kieran is a professional technical diving instructor, with a particular interest in wreck diving and the stories that accompany those wrecks. In a bid to share this passion, Kieran can often be found out diving with a camera in hand. Kieran began diving in 1995, joining his local club as a 14th birthday present. Having followed his Fathers diving for many years he was lucky enough to join the club during a very active phase; one club member was among the first to dive the Lusitania. An interest in shipwrecks developed from the beginning and by the late 1990’s Kieran had set out on a technical diving path with IANTD.

2024 Conference

Title: ‘From Scapa to Scrapheap’ – an unhealthy obsession with rust and underwater photography

Abstract: Kieran will be speaking about his scuba diving career of 29 years and share this journey with a stunning visual collection of photographs showing his obsession with metal wrecks and the underwater world. Kieran will be taking us on a photographic voyage of well-known wrecks, some out-of-the-way locations and distant adventures from Scapa Flow, Norway, Finland, Ireland, Truk Lagoon and the magnificent diving you can get in the English Channel.

JERZY GAWRONSKI

Jerzy Gawronski (London, 1955) was professor of Maritime and Urban Archaeology at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) from 2011 to 2021, now emeritus professor, and municipal archaeologist of  the city of Amsterdam from 2020 to 2021, now retired.  From the 1980s onwards he acquired extensive international experience as a diving archaeologist during various ship archaeology projects in the Netherlands, England, France, Italy, Sweden and the former USSR and specialised in historical ships, and in particular those of the Dutch East India Company.

2024 Conference

Title: Secret Voices from the Sea. Archaeology of Shipwrecks of the Dutch East India Company (VOC)

Abstract: Shipwrecks of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) are today recognized as highly relevant to understanding the impact of early modern global shipping for modern-day society and the history of the VOC and Dutch colonialism with oppression and slavery.

They were among the first wrecks which were discovered when scuba diving underwater exploration started in the early 1960s. The large-scale discovery of shipwrecks marked the birth of maritime archaeology. In the early days of maritime archaeology, the focus was on excavation methodology and the physical properties of shipwrecks. Gradually while more finds became available the research attention shifted to understanding the meaning of their material remains as sources about our maritime past. And as more material has been studied we see the wider story.

VOC ships are to be considered essential multifunctional tools in the power and commercial policy of the VOC in the European-Asian monopoly trade. As wrecks on the seabed, they represent rich material complexes consisting of tens of thousands of different artefacts. Initially, the focus in their research was on identifying the functional meaning of the finds and the historical ship. Archaeology of VOC ships yielded new data on the material and technological properties of equipment, shipbuilding, warfare on the sea, maritime trade or practical daily life themes, like the packaging of food and trade goods, which are merely historically known. In the next stage, integrated historical archaeological research makes it possible to interpret the archaeological finds within the wider historical socio-economic context of the city or society the ship originated from.

Research on VOC wrecks in the last 50 shows how tangible remains together with archival data can produce a rich array of stories on the daily-life functioning of VOC ships and above all about the identities of the historical persons who produced, supplied or used the ship. In this paper some stories will be presented on shipwreck finds and the people behind them to illustrate the wide range of topics on early modern shipping and Dutch and global society that lie hidden within VOC wrecks.

CHRIS ROWLAND (PROFESSOR)

Chris Rowland is a Professor and research lead at the 3DVisLab at the University of Dundee.

He has worked extensively on 3D visualisation of historic and environmentally significant shipwrecks.

These have included HMS Royal Oak, HMS Vanguard and HMS Hampshire along with the German WWI High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow.

Other international projects include the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the Italian coast, the oil rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico.

His work involves developing and adapting methods for capturing underwater data with a focus on aesthetic and accurate representation to support understanding of the condition of these wrecks.

2024 Conference

Title: “No Englishman will set foot on my boat”: Revealing UC71

Abstract: UC-71 struck fear into seafarers throughout World War One after sinking more than 60 ships during her reign of terror in the North Sea. However, after meeting her own watery grave in the aftermath of the conflict, questions have remained as to how this killer machine met her fate, including claims that she had been deliberately scuttled.

Launched into action in November 1916, UC-71 conducted 19 enemy patrols, sinking 61 civilian ships throughout the conflict, via either torpedo or mines.

Following the signing of the Armistice on 11 November 1918, the vessel, like others in the German Navy was to be turned over to the Allies. On 20 February 1919, as UC-71 headed for the UK from its homeland, the submarine sunk off the German Archipelago of Heligoland. A telegram from its captain cited bad weather and high waves as the cause. It came to rest 28 metres below the surface, where it remains to this day as a protected site.

Professors Rowland and Hyttinen worked with Submaris, a scientific diving company, to visit the wreck site off the German archipelago in the Summer of 2023. They were able to capture the stricken sub in unprecedented levels of detail.