Protection of Military Remains Act 1986

Scubascooby

During 20 years of diving I have learned so much about the bravery
of our seamen in both peace and wartime. Now, sadly, we are being
denied the opportunity to pay our respects at these battle sites.

No doubt, in a few years, they will have been forgotten. No-one will
remember the crews, no-one will remember their fate and no-one
will even remember the vessels.

This ia an insult to their memory.

I still cannot understand how a wreck dive is any different to
visiting the Somme or the Normandy beaches.

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"dove" is NOT the past tense of "dive"

Better off OUT of the EU !

Mdemon

As with just about anything these days, emotion triumphs over common sense.

• 4x4's scare the tree-huggers? Slap an extra tax on it, regardless of logic.
• Killing pests which happen to look cute to the tree-huggers? Ban fox hunting.
• Someone dies/hurts themselves through their own stupidity whilst [insert activity here]? Over-regulate or ban said activity.
• Divers have the timerity to dive a wreck which was transporting a human being who may or may not have actually died in that wreck? Listen to the minority non-divers or avaricious marine archeologists with an agenda. Let the wreck disintegrate un-explored and un-recorded. Ignore the same historic information gleaned from any other possible source of information for no reason other than emotion.

When you can turn the television on and almost guarantee to find some "Time Team"-like archeological program investigating, for our entertainment no less, the contents of actual tombs, burial mounds, ossaries and battlefields, the concept of banning divers from wrecks where 99% of the population will never go is as farcical as leaving a milk van by the side of the road because the milkman got hit by a bus delivering milk.

You can visit Aushwitz(sp?), Flanders, Cu Chi and the pyramids for that matter. But you can't visit a rusty old ship at the bottom of the sea because it might "upset" someone.

Well, bollocks to that.

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www.southwestmafia.com

"small minds talk about people, Average Minds Talk About Events, GREAT MINDS TALK ABOUT IDEAS!"

The WRONG Attitude will get you killed.

"Once the agenda-monkeys and perfect-worlders have moved on, perhaps we can do some diving?"

PeteS

So does this mean that if I dive a wreck outside the UK, and live outside the UK, but I am a UK citizen, that I'll be extradited by the PC's?

Respect should be paid to our war dead by all means, but this is stupid and unenforceable.

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Pete S.

http://www.steggle.co.nz

Every silver lining has a cloud

PhilSiswick

What concerns me even more is a recent trend to publicise the digging up of WWII aircraft wrecks by amateur archeologists. Compared to sunk ships, you're probably more than 50% likely to find human remains in the cockpit of a Spitfire (and way more for a bomber), but this is seen as legitimate historical research and is lauded by the press. Diving on a wreck where the remains, if any, have long been consumed or disappeared is not and is dammed by the press. Crazy.

As with so much policy and law driven by emotion, this comes down to politicians being seen to be doing something about something a vociferous minority have raised as an issue. That's not to denigrate the pressure groups or to doubt the importance of the cause to them, but to make the point that it is the image of the thing that counts.

Divers need to clean up their public image and this kind of problem will not occur as often. BSAC and other organisations in the UK have been very effective in countering previous campaigns to restrict diving, but we may need to use the power of the press to our advantage more this time.

Back to my comment in another thread that we need a strapline along the lines of 'take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but bubbles' that emphasises the fact that we may be the only people who remember the losses..

Cheers,

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Phil (WSKD 0001)

I have always felt that the dive I am on is not nearly important as the dives I plan to be on the rest of my life. Tom Rose, 2007

The person who gets the farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure thing boat never gets far from shore. Charles A. Lindbergh

www.hugsac.org.uk

Scubascooby

Perhaps we should start a campaign to apply the MOD's policy to land
based battle sites or any location where people died in combat. Then they might, just possibly, realise the insanity of these policies.

Protect-Our-Battlefields:
------------------------
Exclusion Zones:
Northern France
Italy
North Africa
London
Dover
Coventry
Liverpool
Glasgow
RAF airfields
etc.

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"dove" is NOT the past tense of "dive"

Better off OUT of the EU !

PhilSiswick

:-)

That would of course assume that people in general and politicians in particular were susceptible to logic. There isn't enough room, even on the Internet, to chronicle the examples that disprove that!

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Phil (WSKD 0001)

I have always felt that the dive I am on is not nearly important as the dives I plan to be on the rest of my life. Tom Rose, 2007

The person who gets the farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure thing boat never gets far from shore. Charles A. Lindbergh

www.hugsac.org.uk

Mdemon

As it happens, a Hurricane was dug up on TV just as you describe. For our entertainment. Human remains included.

Ironically, there is now the "Right to Roam" in the UK which allows the public to wander through some areas that are privately owned by individuals. Funny how the reverse seems to be happening at sea.

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www.southwestmafia.com

"small minds talk about people, Average Minds Talk About Events, GREAT MINDS TALK ABOUT IDEAS!"

The WRONG Attitude will get you killed.

"Once the agenda-monkeys and perfect-worlders have moved on, perhaps we can do some diving?"

Abbo

If it were possible to meet the HM Jollies that went down on these ships I for one would have no problem looking them in the eye. Before you dive you tend to study. Once you've studied you can't help but respect. Once you respect you wouldn't consider abusing the wrecks. I dare say I shall continue to dive where I see fit, confident in the belief that I'm far more likely to meet a flying pig down there than a police officer. Here's to you, orrificer:

Diving Japanese wrecks at Truk and elsewhere in the Pacific, I'm a little disappointed how many people think it's funny to get the "alas poor Yorick" shots with the Japanese remains - plenty of them on this site. You enter some holds and the holds are piled to the rafters in alcohol. It reminds you that by that stage of the war it was like the Children's Crusade: almost all the sailors were well under 18 and drinkng heavily to take their minds off the inevitable turkey shoot as these merchant ships were necessarily abandoned by the Navy. Poor kids. How they could do with a fraction of the political correctness shown the British tars.

divetheworld

Is there such a thing as a stainless crow bar?

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abowie

Sure is and in fact you gan get a titanium one as well.

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Andrew Bowie

Rebreather-friendly Buddy