Aquanaut

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.

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.

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.

In this thrilling episode we ditch our tanks and crawl inside a shipwreck, holding our breath, to plant explosives.Then we steam out to meet the Penlee lifeboat and help rescue a ship stranded on the rocks in a gale.

In this episode we are introduced to a new member of the diving team: Beaky the dolphin! Then we have our first attempts at using explosives and need to tweak the quantities a little. A large explosive charge is detonated before I’m back safely aboard Aquanaut, and we meet a mermaid.

The purchase of an echo sounder enables us to find unexplored wrecks. Firstly, salvaging an un-dived wreck off Land’s End with the help of friends and family, then a tip-off from another local diver sets us in search, across Mount’s Bay, for the wreck of a sailing ship, near the HMS Warspite. In search of The Boy-David, sunken on The Bucks near Tatter Du, and lastly: freeing an anchor on The Heleopes nealy costs me my life. 

Before delving into the world of salvage-diving I’ll share my first experience of a night dive, where we surprise the sea-life.Then I’ll introduce our dive boat “Aquanaut” before we head out on our first scrap dive on the sunken trawler, Vierge Marie. Salvaging scrap from the Juan Ferrer while being thrown around by “ground sea”.  Lastly, returning to The Heleopes for salvage and discovering that working at depth is a little different from recreational diving.

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.