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A Decade In Wreck
Diving
The deep wreck diving team collectively known
as the Starfish Enterprise have made headline shipwreck exploration
now for a decade, team member Leigh
Bishop looks back at the ten years he spent with the team.
Click various images to enlarge
(above montage by Leigh Bishop)
The new millennium marks the 10th anniversary of the British
deep wreck diving team known as the 'Starfish Enterprise'. Although
some faces have changed over the last decade the team, as a
whole remains strong. Our story is one of adventure, friendship
and a driving passion to explore some of the world's most fascinating
maritime heritage. Attitudes have matured over the last decade,
as have the skill and confidence of the team to produce results
in order for others to learn from and enjoy. It has not been
the intentions of the team to be the first; neither has it been
to capture depth records. Today Starfish Enterprise will always
endeavor to bring back images from the depths of shipwrecks
never photographed before.
The story of how these like-minded individuals from around the
UK came into being begins when three of them met in London.
|
| Simon and Polly Tapson made their
first dives whilst on their honeymoon back in 1986, then 'without'
as they claimed the need for further training booked a package
holiday to the Med the following year with an out of date 'learn
to dive book'. Learning through BSAC clubs back home, they now
took on increasingly serious study in theory and practice of
their newfound passion, diving. At the end of 1989 the Tapson's
joined the Chelsea & Fulham BSAC where they |
|
| would meet Christina Campbell. Christina had
moved down to London from her native roots of Edinburgh. Having
studied at St Andrews University, Christina spent many years
diving there with the University club, mainly on underwater
archaeology sites. Christina was now the diving officer of Chelsea
& Fulham and the Tapson's approached her for their advanced
qualifications. In 1991 the Tapson's, Christina, and another
friend Lin Broadbridge formed a breakaway club with the view
of recruiting experienced divers to undertake more adventurous
diving. |
 |
Polly was the Leader and would soon dub the new
team Starfish Enterprise. They would soon meet up with 23-year-old
Jamie
Powel at Swanage Pier. Diving with a set of twin 12ltr cylinders
Jamie was naturally an advanced diver of his time. He had a
wealth of experience behind him despite his youth, having dived
deep wrecks such as the Medina at the age of 14. Jamie was exactly
the type of diver the breakaway team had been looking for. On
separate occasions, also at Swanage pier they met up with Richard
Tully and Paul Owen. Paul was a policeman from Coventry, whilst
Richard worked in electronics at Brunel University. |
| Both were up for a bit of deep and adventurous
diving. Nick Hope, an old friend of Christina's from the Chelsea
& Fulham club now came into the equation and was invited
to join the new team on their first organised trip to Girvan
in Scotland where they would undertake 50m diving on virgin
shipwrecks in the Clyde. During 1992 Polly had heard about the
deep and adventurous reputation surrounding the Kingston BSAC
branch, and decided to check the club out. After several visits
to the club the Tapson's met up with Dave Wilkins. Dave had
been diving since the 1970's and was one of the leading wreck
divers in the UK. Dave would now join the intrepid youngsters
on their path of adventure. |
| Christina and the Tapson's now decided
to take things a step further and completed a Tech Nitrox course
with Rob Palmer - the first Tech Nitrox course to be taught
in the UK. The course was conducted in Rob's back garden at
his Somerset house and was then under the banner of the European
Association of Technical Divers - soon to become the IANTD.
Rob Palmer was very much as adviser to the team in those days.
Throughout 1992/3 the team would now be advancing in technical
diving using alternative breathing mediums for decompression
as well as a complete deco station for tidal hangs. |
|
| The late Weymouth skipper Andy Smith, who was a friend and
advisor of the Group, had the original idea of having a free-floating
deco station. The Starfish Deco Station was a modification of
Smith's original idea, and has been copied by many other groups
since. Tragically, in June 1993, Lin Broadbridge died whilst
diving on the Merchant Royal off Weymouth with Christina. The
loss of Lin was a major set back for the team, however, after
much discussion it was decided to carry on their deep approach.
During mid summer |
| of 1993 Polly came up with the idea that the
team make an attempt to dive the famous ocean liner RMS Lusitania
sunk in deep water south of Ireland. Thinking originally that
the wreck was sunk in 70m diving on air was briefly considered.
However, with closer thought it was decided to make the attempt
using mixed gas. At the time, gas diving was practically unheard
of on British soil and with no instructors available, the UK
based the team had to teach themselves how to trimix dive. With
a set target to dive the wreck in June of 94 the winter season
prior was blessed with not only having to learn the logistics
of mixed gas but to put it into practice as well. The practice
ground was Dorothea Quarry in North Wales, and it was here they
now met up with Rob Royal. Rob had also begun to use mixed gas
in an effort to locate the deepest point of the quarry. Having
also been trained in nitrox by Rob Palmer around the same time
he had been advised by Palmer to join up with the team. Rob
with his friend Rich Field would now join the team over in Ireland
for the Lusitania dives. During the early days Simon Tapson
came across the Michael Menduno publication "Aquacorps".
This magazine was like a Bible to the Group, and showed them
that there were divers on the East Coast of the States; doing
deep diving of the sort the Group aspired to, and most importantly
with the same adventurous mind set. Simon was in contact with
the US deep wreck diver Gary Gentile in order to purchase his
published material on wreck diving, which again was not available
within the UK. Polly decided to form the UK Gary Gentile fan
club of which only two members existed - Polly and Christina.
Gary was invited to join the team over in Ireland accompanied
by US divers John Chatterton, John Yurga and Barb Lander. The
Lusitania 1994 expedition was thus a success and set down a
firm foundation that all others would follow. Both sides of
the Atlantic would receive a fair share of publicity over the
exploits as well as much political controversy, a story that
can be found in detail by reading Gary Gentile's Lusitania Controversies
book 1 & 2. |
|
By the end of 1994 'Starfish Enterprise' had become
internationally respected through the deep wreck diving community
after the success of their groundbreaking 'Lusitania' expedition.
Interestingly enough deep mixed gas had proved itself as an
ultimate tool for further exploration, amongst amateur divers,
the question was would others follow and where? Back from Ireland
the team would now turn their attention to their own backyard
the English Channel. Quite literally hundreds of virgin wrecks
lay in deep water along the south coast of England and the Starfish
would now continue to explore some of the UK's richest maritime
history. Innes McCartney had met Jamie on a nitrox course at
Runnymead dive center. Innes was part of the High Wycombe Syndicate,
another gas team that the Starfish continue to dive with regularly.
Innes then left the UK to work in the US but kept in contact
and would now begin to dive with Chatterton and Yurga on the
US east coast, and it was here that he found his new passion
Submarines. Leigh Bishop
had also been trained in the use of mixed gas by Rob Palmer
and was diving with a small-established group of gas divers
from Poole in Dorset. |
| He had met up with Polly at a conference and
after a brief interview was invited to join the team during
a weekend at Salcombe. Subsequently Polly had invited him to
join the team on another occasion however this time asked if
he would like to bring his friend at the time Chris Hutchison
along, thus after a telephone interview Hutch would also join
the team and would partner Leigh on mixed gas dives. The original
UK members of the team would return to Ireland during 1995 for
further dives on the Lusitania this time however with no publicity
simply to dive the old liner. Innes was back from the US on
holiday was then invited by Polly to join them on the Lusitania.
|
Retro images of the King Edward VII expedition the
first expedition of its time to
venture down to wrecks beyond 100m/330ft in European water click any
image to enlarge
| After the Lusitania 94 expedition Nick Hope set his sights
on a deeper and bigger wreck than that of the Lusitania, the
'Britannic' sister to the 'Titanic' sunk in 400ft of water off
south of Athens. Simon had obtained a video of Cousteau's 1976
expedition to the wreck and begun to figure out exactly how
the team would approach such a venture. Little did he and Nick
know that to attain the correct permissions to explore the wreck
and mount such a large scale project would take another four
years. Several members of the Starfish were by now also members
of the Kingston BSAC club and their links would now bring Geraint
Ffoulkes-Jones into the picture. Geraint's friend John Oldham,
a member of the Kingston, had joined the Starfish on a weekend
at Salcombe and had brought Geraint along. Geraint was no unusual
face to those members of the team, having bumped into members
of the Starfish team on several previous occasions. Subsequently
Geraint was asked by Simon and Christina to join the group on
following dives and having much to offer would become one of
the Key players on future expeditions. Apart from return trips
to the Lusitania the seasons of 1995 and 1996 saw no such major
expeditions. Quite frankly many were financially recovering
from 94 and although something big was bubbling in the pipeline
the group would spend both seasons diving deep virgin wrecks
in the English Channel. Innes was now back living in the UK
and would join the team during the 97 seasons. Polly was a film
producer by profession and had begun working on the production
of her feature film "Amy Foster". For some time the
group felt that Polly's enthusiasm for deep diving had dropped
off and her job commitments would now take over. We would rarely
see Polly during subsequent dives. During 95 Leigh had set his
sights on the King Edward VII an ultra deep wreck that lay off
the north coast of Scotland in cold water. By the end of 1996
he had press-ganged a total of nine exploration divers together
for the project mostly being made up from the now experienced
Starfish Enterprise. Chris Hutchison some years previously on
a trip to Oban had met up with Kevin Emans - commonly known
within the group as 'Murder' (not because he "has",
but because he "IS"). Kevin had dived with Hutch on
several occasions during deep dives organised by Hutch from
Brighton with Tim Benetto. Murder would join the other group
members in June of 1997 to dive the King Edward. The expedition
would become the first of its kind to explore European Ocean
wrecks deeper than 100m. Richy
Stevenson was one of the guys who responded to an Email
to join the Edward project however was unable to make the trip
due to prior cave diving commitments in France. Richy
Stevenson would now stay in contact with group members and
would join them as a guest on several channel wreck dives. |
| Simon Tapson once said "we were all out there
somewhere, we just didn't know each other in those early days".
In some ways he was right. The season of 97 would also be a
good year for the Starfish divers out in the channel. By now
they where finding more and more unknown wrecks and turning
them into well basically known wrecks! From the Weymouth location
alone 14 bells came up a great many of them identifying the
wrecks in question. Of course it's the skippers that find the
wrecks and the group had spent many a season with notable skippers
such as Ivan Warren from Littlehampton, Tim Benetto from Brighton,
the late Andy Smith from Weymouth, the Manley with Steve? as
well as Pat Deans from Salcombe. The summer however would not
pass without upset and thus during a deep team exploration wreck
dive in the Hurd Deep Simon would encounter equipment problems
at depth and through a sequence of events came very close to
drowning. The encounter would be enough for Simon to lay off
deep diving with the team and we would no longer see him on
dive boats. |
|
| By now some serious experience was developing amongst the
divers and several were looking for new and exciting paths to
take. Perhaps now, it was time to bring home some unseen images
for others to enjoy too. During the winter months the group
would often be seen hanging out at joints such as the Ministry
of Sound or the Coliseum but the same question would crop up
from time to time, would Nick and Rob be able to take the pace
in those cords and expensive silk shirts? Who knows maybe Simon
could answer? On the more serious side of things Nick Hope had
finally secured a licence to dive 'Britannic' during the summer
of 1998. The wreck's owner was very helpful, and Nick's hard
efforts with the Greek Authorities now paid off. The core team
would now train together in the channel all season before setting
off for Greece during Sept of 1998. 1998 also saw the exploration
of the famous British submarine Affray. After research by Innes,
Christina would lead a series of dives that resulted in Weymouth
skipper Andy Smith locating the wreck of the Affray in the Hurd
deep which the Starfish team would survey and film. Greg Buxton
was a friend of Geraint's, both having been members of the Swansea
Mavericks club together. Where Geraint had advanced in his diving
unfortunately for Gregg he was unable to follow due to a severe
case of decompression sickness back in 1995. However now he
was now back and would join the team as a support diver on the
Britannic project. Greg would go on to lead the Struma project
in search of his grandparent's grave. |
|
For many seasons Dave Wilkins had always been
one step ahead of others in the Group with technological advancements
as well as equipment. He was hardly ever seen on a dive without
his predator DPV. Now during 98 he would not be alone as each
team member took custody of their own Aquazepp DPV. By the time
the group got to Greece scooters and cameras became the norm.
The result of the 'Britannic 98' expedition was phenomenal,
regarded as one of the biggest wreck diving projects of modern
times with more man dives and images produced than ever before.
Time magazine was now looking closely at the Starfish Enterprise
as well as Rob's excellent photography. |
| During the winter of 98/99 the group paid back those Britannic
sponsors by presenting many talks at various shows and clubs
up and down the country while our US counter parts covered the
east US coast and Canada. It was now back to the drawing board
and a meeting in London to see where the group went from here.
Again just like Polly had done some years previous Innes suggested
we be the first to explore the then untouched HMS Dasher however
most snubbed the idea due to impractical conditions as the wreck
lies in an area of very poor visibility. One of the main points
here was the Starfish Enterprise was not about being the first
to do something it was about achieving final results as its
previous results had shown. No the group would once again financially
recover before setting off again and enjoy the company on those
channel wreck dives. This wasn't to say events wouldn't happen
they would! Innes and Hutch along with skipper Graham Knott
found at long last and dived the M1 submarine; also on the very
same day Leigh's daughter Amber was born. Jamie married Becky
with Richard Tully as best man. Dave had now gone closed circuit
with a Cis Lunar and would be soon followed by Geraint; Nick
had packed his rucksack and headed for the Far East. Rob had
joined him later in the year down under in Australia. Both had
travelled to the other side of the world with a look at diving
what was supposed to be the best wreck dive in the world only
to be blown out! For the seasons of 99/2000 the team continued
to dive together on UK channel wrecks as well as attending Greg's
Struma project out in Turkey. |
| During 99 Geraint, Hutch and Leigh would join
Mark Jones for their first dives on the Lusitania, the first
dives in fact since the Starfish team back in 95. During 2000
members of the Starfish team, chartered Richie Stevenson's new
boat, the Loyal Watcher, in order to complete a very successful
expedition to dive the Jutland wrecks. During the summer of
2000 the Starfish Enterprise would learn of the tragic death
of its founder Polly Tapson. Her funeral marked a sad occasion
in the history of the team and would see team members carrying
her coffin into the ceremony. Polly's firm leadership will always
be missed. The Starfish Enterprise continues to push the envelope
and to change and develop as an organisation. |
|
New people have come in to the Group, among them Alan Boness,
Kevin Pickering and Teresa
Telus. Alex Vassallo also joined the team. Alex had known
the team from the beginning and had joined them on several UK
wreck dives over the years. Vassallo had met the Tapson's back
in 93/94 and thus sponsored the Lusitania 94 expedition. In
95 he had met up with Hutch through a bizarre sequence of events
at sea.
In November of 2003 Leigh
Bishop [author of this website] made the sad decision to
unfortunately leave the team to pursue a career as an independent
undersea photo journalist.
If you're not the lead dog the view never changes. (Florida
car bumper sticker)
Words and text ©Leigh
Bishop 2002
Images ©Leigh
Bishop/Geraint Ffoulkes Jones 1995-2002
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