Looking forward to talking about some of our local WWII shipwrecks, victims of the Battle of the East Coast, tomorrow night Thursday 19 Feb at 1900 at the Skateraw Hall in Newtonhill. Its open to the public if anyone fancies an evening at the bottom of the North Sea!

I’m giving an illustrated talk to a local heritage group about some of our local shipwrecks.

The talk is open to the public – poster attached.

It’s a wrap! The edit process is now completed – and the book is off to the printers. Still on track for publication on 30 March 2026.

I’ve just posted a new video about the wreck of HMS Hampshire, lost off Orkney to a German mine on 5 June 1916 on a secret mission to Russia with Lord Kitchener, the UK Secretary of State for War aboard. More than 700 crew were lost in the tragedy, there were only 12 survivors. Although it is a wreck off limits for divers, to mark the 100th anniversary of its loss, I was granted a special diving permit by the UK Secretary of State for Defence to lead a team of deep divers to survey the wreck. The full survey report is available in the Downloads section of this website.

The video can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azxSV8JRSZQ&t=2s

My original manuscript has now been through the 1st edit process. Needs another edit brush up – before it then goes to my publisher’s designer to drop in all the photos and wreck illustrations and bring the book up to a proof stage for checking.

Exciting times – and still on track to publish on 30 March 2026

Orders available here:

Delighted to announce that my new book about the Operation CROSSROADS shipwrecks lying at the bottom of the remote Bikini Atoll lagoon will be released on 30 March 2026. After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world knew what devastation an atomic bomb wrought upon cities – but how would the most important ships of a Navy stand up to an air burst and to an underwater burst? The U.S. Navy would find out at Bikini Atoll with the Test ABLE and Test BAKER devices in 1946 – and today the shipwreck legacy of those Tests lies silently on the bottom of the Bikini lagoon.

This new book features detailed new wreck illustrations by Rob Ward and underwater photography by Ewan Rowell and Mike & Becca Boring. Pre-orders are now available at major online bookshops

The 3rd video about the loss of HMS Prince of Wales & HMS Repulse in the South China Sea on 10 December 1941 to a mass attack by 85 Japanese torpedo-bombers and level-bombers has juste been posted.

Here’s a link to a local radio Desert Island Discs spot I did recently – covering my early days right through to Closed Circuit Rebreather mixed gas technical diving. It was great fun to do. Although the show was meant to be 1-hour long, it became immediately clear when I got to the studio that the tracks I chose amounted to 47 mins. Too much Prog Rock, much chopping of tracks ensued!

I’ve just published (on YouTube) Part 2 of my trilogy about the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, almost 200nm north of Singapore on 10 December 1941 – just days after the Pearl Harbor strike.

This video covers the battle from POW’s perspective, the complicated mechanics of why this modern battleship sunk – and the wreck today, before the illegal salvors starting having a go at this sensitive war grave. The next video will concentrate on HMS Repulse.

The link is below – many thanks to Dr Andrew Fock for his assistance with imagery, and his wise words.

I am saddened to report that despite these two famous K-boat wrecks in the Firth of Forth being designated as Protected Places under our Protection of Military Remains Act, between 2018 and our visit in 2022, there has been significant illegal salvage work carried out by unscrupulous salvors. The detached non-ferrous command bridge of K17 had for as long as I had dived it, been lying on the seabed beside the submarine. It is now gone.

The bow of K4 had been intact in 2018, but it has now had the 4 valuable non-ferrous torpedo tubes ripped out of it.

The illegal salvage of war graves is an increasing phenomenon. Locally, the Battle of Jutland wrecks in the North Sea have seen a lot of salvage work over the years, and some of our local shipwrecks around the north east of Scotland have also had attention from salvors. In the South China Sea, the wrecks of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse have been pillaged, whilst in the Java Sea, the wrecks of British and Dutch WWII warships, along with a US submarine and Japanese vessels have also been heavily salvaged. ,