Getting Involved

Under the overall project title, Diving with a Purpose anyone can get involved. There are a number of projects so you can decide on the level of your commitment.

The project aims to provide information about maritime sites around the UK for a number of reasons:

• To add information to the records of various organisations.
  These include local organisations such as the Dorset Coast Forum and the Dorset Wildlife Trust as well as national bodies including the Royal Commision on the Historic Monuments of England and the Joint Nature Conservancy Council.
• To provide additional information on a variety of maritime sites for members of the general public.
• To enhance the understanding and appreciation of our maritime heritage by all.
• To help divers get more enjoyment out of their sport
• To help understand the impact we are having on our maritime heritage.

Archaeologists know very little about many of the wrecks that are regularly dived by sport divers. Even the precise location of wrecks is often unknown. It is also important to begin to understand how sites and wrecks are changing.

Many wrecks are beginning to break up and we are losing the opportunity of recording them before they finally collapse. After the point of collapse it might be much more difficult to record these sites. In many cases the only evidence for industrial technological change, or changes in ship design lie on the seabed. It is often a misconception that we possess written records and plans of modern wreck.

Dive Slate

You can choose to use the divers slate on a casual basis, particularly when you want to record details of the dive to enter into your own diving logbook. All we ask is that you send the information to the Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS). This can be done in any format you want, e.g. a photocopy of your slate, or the information e-mailed to us. Ultimately there will be a data-base into which you will be able to enter the information directly. If you really want to take on the full recording of a site you can 'Adopt a Wreck'.

This is aimed at those groups, clubs or individuals who regularly dive a site, and have developed more than a passing interest and are keen to get involved in research or site survey. This scheme will appeal to those wanting to take on a club project which will have a genuine scientific outcome. Information resulting from these projects will then be passed, with the name of the contributer, to the appropriate agency.

Combined Benefit

Whatever the level of commitment all of the projects aim to collect information relating to the 'wildlife' and general site information. The NAS is primarily interested in information relating to wreck structures, while organisations such as the Dorset Wildlife Trust will be concentrating on collecting the 'biological' information specific to the Dorset coast-line.

As the information relating to the 'wildlife' of an area can vary from area to area we intend to design slates which relate to an individual area. We have even designed a slate for 'Horsea Island', the inland dive site we use for some our courses just to the north of Portsmouth. There are examples of these 'slates' on the following pages of this section of the site. It is the intention that the information collected will be added to the Maritime Sites and Monuments Record and the Joint Nature Conservancy Council Databases. The A5 Dive Slate aims to gather information for both disciplines.

Adopt a Wreck

Dive Slate

Dorset WreckMap2001

WreckMap 2000 (Sound of Mull)