Aquanaut

Aquanaut – Episode 13: Bristol Beaufighter; raising a ghost of WW2.

In the midst of WW2, two Bristol Beaufighters were sent to North Africa to see if they were suitable for desert operations.  On their root back they stopped in Gribraltar before heading to Cornwall to land at RAF St Eval, but when they neared Cornwall they hit heavy fog, making navigation difficult. Running out of fuel,  the pilot of one of the fighter bombers decided to ditch in the sea in Mount’s bay. In this final episode we go in search of the missing aircraft.

Aquanaut – Episode 12: Salvaging from the wreck of the Moorview, 18th century style discipline aboard Aquanaut, and my dive on The Mary Rose.

In this episode we return to the Moorview to salvage the heavy rolls of brass and have to smuggle it back to land. There is another funny prank, this time on the people riding the ferry, and then we round up the episode with my last dive, on Henry VIII's flagship, The Mary Rose, off Portsmouth Harbour.

Aquanaut – Episode 11: Brass, greed and the bends, as The Runnel Stone beckons the dive team back into its maw.

Discovering a gun in the forest of kelp, which turns out to be the wreck of the Moorview, from which we salvage brass that had been destined to make artillery shell casings in WW1. A strange experience of being covered in peculiar parasitic worms, and another close call, getting the bends after the lust for treasure gets the better of me.

Aquanaut - Episode 10: The mysterious and perilous waters of the Runnel Stone nearly claim the Aquanaut.

Exploring the Runnel Stone reef, a notorious pinnacle of rock, home to literally dozens of shipwrecks and diving on the wreck of The City of Westminster, a steam-ship transporting maize which sank in 1923.I recount a spooky dive; deep in a forest of kelp, where I get the feeling I’m not alone.Lastly, a day to remember; frantically bailing out to save Aquanaut from sinking.

Aquanaut - Episode 5: Call outs for the police and Lifeboat, and a rough time on research ship Jayne.

Another diverse, and at times rather grim, collection of tales in this episode: starting with the chance discovery of an 18th Century shipwreck off Mullion Island.  Then two tales of searching for and recovering dead bodies from the water, a drowned fisherman, lost at Coverack, and diving in a flooded quarry for the police.Plus: a rough time diving for the research ship Jayne.Content warning: This episode contains descriptions of decaying corpses in the sea.

Aquanaut - Episode 4: The tragic loss of a dear friend, and my own close shave, disorientated, lost and alone inside a shipwreck.

This episode reminds us of the dangers of SCUBA diving with two stories. The first is a description of the tragic death of an experienced diver and a very dear friend.In the second, we dive inside the shipwreck of a scuttled warship and experience a new definition of claustrophobia, lost and disorientated inside. When the wreck is upside-down, will that ladder take you up to safety or even deeper into the darkness?

Aquanaut - Episode 3: Exploring the wreck of The Heleopes, cannons on The Low Lee Reef, a close brush with nitrogen narcosis and a prank with a dead fish.

We have a diverse collection of underwater adventure stories in this episode: To begin, we take our first dive on the wreck of the enormous steamship, Heleopes which sank in 1911. Why would we find cannonballs and musket shot whilst searching the shipwreck of a coal boat, The Primrose, which sank in 1906?  The intoxicating effects of nitrogen narcosis endanger the life of one of the team and lastly, to lighten the mood, a prank involving a dead fish.

Aquanaut - Episode 2: WW1 Ammunition Ship, The Juno, The Volnay, and the mysterious and tragic story of The Darlwyne.

Our SCUBA diving adventures continue, exploring the shipwrecks of a German barque named The Pindos, Steam Ship Juno and The Volnay. What do young men do when they find explosives on an ammunition ship, under the sea?Lastly, some local fishermen have caught their nets on something, right on the route that a pleasure craft, The Darlwyne, was taking, when she tragically sunk with the loss of all those aboard. They need some SCUBA divers to go down and free the nets. Who wants to be lead diver?

Aquanaut - Episode 1: WW2 Minesweeper and the Steam Ship Mohegan

In this first episode I provide some background to the series, recalling how I got the bug for SCUBA diving. I share my first experiences diving with the Penzance Sub-aqua Club in Mount's Bay and get a shock when exploring the contents of a sunken minesweeper.  We'll visit a graveyard of shipwrecks on The Manacles, a set of treacherous rocks off The Lizard Peninsular, to dive on the immense wreck of the steamship Mohegan, which sank in 1898. 

Aquanaut: Adventures from the early days of SCUBA diving. (Trailer)

Explore shipwrecks with me as I chronicle my real-life adventures during the early years of SCUBA diving, off the Cornish coast in the 1960's. Discover a world where shipwrecks litter the ocean, diving with the Penzance Sub-Aqua Club and then, in further episodes, join me as a semi-professional salvage diver, searching for previously undiscovered ship wrecks, using explosives and risking life and limb in pursuit of big money and the hunt for treasure!