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Book Review: Diving the Thistlegorm

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Diving the Thistlegorm – The ultimate guide to a World War Two shipwreck by Simon Brown, Jon Henderson, Alex Mustard and Mike Postons.

A Review by Jeff Goodman

It’s a real pleasure when I get great books like this to read and review. This book takes the reader on a historic and fully comprehensive journey of the Thistlegorm. A brilliant in depth guide to the wreck and all it’s facets, all illustrated by superb photos and graphics. The detail of research into this ship is impressive and portrayed to the reader in an easy to read style and layout. It is obvious how much hard work has been done to make this book enjoyable to read as well as be educational.

When I first dived the Thistlegorm I knew very little about the wreck except for the brief safety dive talk given on our boat prior to entering the water. I truly wish I had had this book to read before hand. It would have given me such an important insight to what I was diving on and looking at. My dive would have been even more enjoyable. I can only hope that every boat heading out to the wreck in the future has at least one copy on board.  We need more books like this.

I remember the first dive I ever had on the Thistlegorm. It was fantastic. The water was clear, there was an abundance of wildlife and the wreck itself was awesome. Gliding over the decks and the cargo holds, filled with machines and items of war, was an experience never to be forgotten. I didn’t really know just how lucky I was. So you can imagine how happy I was to know a few years later that I was to dive it again. I awoke early on the Liveaboard and eagerly looked off the open stern to the wreck site. Instead of the clear blue open sea I had seen before just a few years previously, there were now twelve to fourteen other Liveaboard dive boats all moored up to the wreck and already discharging divers into the water.

My dive on the wreck this time was truly not an experience I wanted to have again. There were more divers than fish. The decks were busy with criss-crossing people and the holds were choc-a-block with divers who seemed to have little care either for the wreck itself or other people. I was often pushed from behind, had a few fins in the face and lights blazed directly into my eyes.

With this memory in mind it was with a little trepidation that I started to read ‘Diving the Thistlegorm’. Was this simply going to draw more divers to the wreck with no consideration for careful diving practices? To my great relief, the second section of the book was titled ‘Wreck under threat’ and addressed my very concerns about the Thistlegorm being systematically ruined by careless and unregulated mooring of dive boats on the ships superstructure, as well as disregard of the wrecks contents by many divers. The section didn’t dwell too long on this, but the points for wreck preservation were strong and well made.


About the authors of Diving the Thistlegorm

Simon Brown is a photogrammetry/3D reconstruction expert who has documented underwater subjects for a wide range of clients including Historic England and television companies such as National Geographic Channel and Discovery Canada. He is currently teaching police forensic collision investigators the use of photogrammetry for evidence preservation.

Jon Henderson is Reader in Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh where he is the Director of theUnderwater Archaeology Research Centre. With specific research interests in submerged prehistoric settlements and developing underwater survey techniques, he has directed underwater projects in the UK, Poland, Greece, Italy, Egypt, Jamaica and Malaysia.

Alex Mustard is a former marine biologist and award-winning underwater photographer. In 2018 he was made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for “Services to underwater photography”.

Mike Postons pioneered the use of digital 3D modelling to visualise shipwrecks, as well as the processes of reconstructing original ships from historic plans. He has worked with a number of organisations including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Historic England and the Nautical Archaeological Society.


Diving the Thistlegorm – The ultimate guide to a World War Two shipwreck is available now from Divedup.com, online and from retailers. ISBN 978-1-909455-37-5 | 240 pages | 160 × 21 × 240 mm

Jeff is a multiple award winning, freelance TV cameraman/film maker and author. Having made both terrestrial and marine films, it is the world's oceans and their conservation that hold his passion with over 10.000 dives in his career. Having filmed for international television companies around the world and author of two books on underwater filming, Jeff is Author/Programme Specialist for the 'Underwater Action Camera' course for the RAID training agency.Jeff has experienced the rapid advances in technology for diving as well as camera equipment and has also experienced much of our planet’s marine life, witnessing, first hand, many of the changes that have occurred to the wildlife and environment during that time.Jeff runs bespoke underwater video and editing workshops for the complete beginner up to the budding professional.

Blogs

Sharks, Shipwrecks, and Sea Turtles: My Boston Sea Rovers Adventure

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boston sea rovers

by Mia DaPonte

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a conference called the Boston Sea Rovers Symposium, where I met many different people. I was astonished by the presentations and how we can help. Today, I’m going to explain more about the Boston Sea Rovers conference.

As I mentioned, I met many different people. I met Dan Dolan, who I’ll talk more about in my next blog. He told me he could take me to the New England Aquarium rehab center—which isn’t open to the public—to see the behind-the-scenes work. I also met Jenn Sellitti, who gave an amazing presentation at the film festival about discovering an old ship named Le Lyonnais. She wrote a cool book about the ship, The Adriatic Affair, which my mom is reading. She even offered to take me on a dive in New Jersey to recover an anchor! Jenn and her team love finding underwater boat parts and anchors.

boston sea rovers

Mia with Jenn Sellitti

I also got a picture with Cristian Dimitrius, who’s known for his photography and cinematography for National Geographic. And I met Greg Skomal, who is a marine biologist—just like I want to be! He’s a white shark expert, and I loved his presentation on Jaws: Fact vs. Fiction.

boston sea rovers

Mia with Cristian Dimitrius

We attended many different presentations at the conference, but I was especially inspired by the underwater terrariums. These H2O terrariums are designed for underwater farms, where plants grow and thrive under a bubble-like protection system. I was also fascinated by the coral restoration project. The presenter explained that millions of corals are getting sick and dying, but we can help by cleaning up the ocean and avoiding toxic waste. She shared that they’ve developed a medicine that sticks to corals, kind of like toothpaste, to help heal them. They’re also trying to save coral by removing young ones, growing them in labs, and reintroducing them to prevent disease. This technique is working, but there’s still a long way to go. We all can pitch in to help save coral reefs and our beautiful ocean.

boston sea rovers

My absolute favorite part of the conference was the film festival. Chris from Dive On It Scuba let my mom and me sit in the front row with all the Sea Rovers and interns. My favorite presentation was Jenn’s—she talked about the deep ocean and discovering all kinds of things. Cristian also presented at the festival, showing a National Geographic video he filmed about baby turtles hatching on the beach. The video followed their journey to the ocean, where they had to dodge not just birds but even crocodiles waiting in the water!

The Boston Sea Rovers was an amazing experience. I can’t wait to go back next year and share my new blog. Thanks for reading—until next time!

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Blogs

Making a Splash: My Path to Becoming a Master Scuba Diver at 12

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mia daponte

Meet Mia Daponte, New England’s youngest female Master Scuba Diver and Scubaverse.com’s latest blogger!

Hi, I’m Mia DaPonte, and this is my first blog! I am New England’s youngest female master scuba diver. I did my training in Jamestown Rhode Island and I’m 12 years old.

I’m also black belt in karate, and I also play soccer, basketball, and love to race my sailboat named “Beluga”. My journey to become a master diver was amazing, not all of it was easy but with the help of my friends and family they supported me so much.

When I turned ten years old, I wanted to scuba dive for my Birthday. After learning diving in the cold murky waters near my home, I wanted to start my training for this Master Diver certification. I met my instructor Seamus on my first day of diving. He was a very good influence on me and always supported me. He taught me everything I know about diving.

I also got to go to new tropical places and dive for fun. We went places like Puerto Rico, Punta Cana, Bermuda, and Bahamas. For the first time I could see far. I saw stingrays, lion fish, coral reefs, tropical fish, and lots of other animals. My favorite animal that I saw was an octopus.

Finally, it was time for my certification trip. The trip came so fast, and I eventually succeeded. In February, I went down to Cozumel Mexico and went diving at Blue Angel Resort. To get my certification, I had to do a deep dive of a max depth of 60ft, and I had to do rescue training. I also had to do an online e-learning test to qualify for this certification.

On the first day I only worked in the pool to practice and perfect rescue techniques for the next day. It was fun putting the online learning to reality. The first part felt harder than the second because I didn’t have as much room in the pool as the open ocean. On the second day, we did it in the ocean. It was hard for me to do the rescue breaths, and bring the adult diver from the bottom of the ocean to the surface. But I was able to do it after hard work.

Cozumel was a lot of fun. We made so many friends down there and hope to see them again. Diving down there was truly magical. I can’t wait to go back someday.

After hard work and dedication, I was able to achieve this accomplishment. It took me 2 years of studying and practicing, but in the end it all paid off. I can’t wait to share my next adventure with you.

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