26/04/2026
Coronation Wreck Project: Blog Number 2
Well, that’s Easter over!
It has been a busy year so far for various members of the Coronation Wreck Team.
- Right on the turn of the year planning was underway for the 2026 dive season
- January saw updates and improvements to the Coronation display at Devonport Naval Heritage Museum (Now known as Devonport Naval Heritage Centre) – well worth a visit – details here: https://devonportnhc.wordpress.com/
- In February, some of the team attended the Protected Wrecks Association AGM in Plymouth.
- February also saw a flurry of publicity for the project following the 2025 discovery of the captain’s chamber pot. This was managed mainly by our Trail Coordinator and Team Diver, Mark Pearce. Cornwall live maybe won the best headline competition “Rare 17th century captain's pot to p*e in found in wreck off Cornwall” Publicity continued in March including a feature in SCUBA Magazine
- In early March the now famous chamber pot took a place of honour in the Coronation display at the Devonport Naval Heritage Centre
And them came April, and Easter. While a few of us are crazy enough to dive all year round in the UK, for many divers, Easter heralds the start of the dive season. While some diving has continued all year, this has also been the case formally for the Coronation Dive team
As with all diving of course, preparation started long before the first dives, kit to be checked and serviced – the responsibility of everyone individually on the Coronation team.
Then of course there is the paperwork for the dives and dive safety. Ginge – our Principal Licensee and Project Lead can be seen in the picture making sure all is on order – Safety always comes first.
The plans had been two-days of diving – on the ever-reliable Red Alert, skippered by the ever-laughing Danny Daniels.
As the picture shows, conditions were promising at the start of day one and the team had a good couple of light duty shakedown dives.
During these dives, we relocated and repaired the survey lines and also cleaned the trail underwater station markers replacing any damaged ones.
We also completed more diver surveys of our many unvisited magnetic anomaly locations identifying and recording a variety of interesting metallic objects including a small unchartered barge.
However, as all UK divers know well, the best laid plans…
…After the record-breaking rain over the early part of the year, recent weeks had been a little more settled with slightly warmer than average temperatures but as ever during spring in Plymouth the winds were, at the very least, brisk and there was a significant swell on the wreck site. This, coupled with poor visibility forced the decision to cancel day two.
“Dive another day” is always the sensible approach.
And so, with a good couple of dives and basic diver and equipment shakedowns completed we now look forward to our next dives and a productive and exciting dive season.
Watch this space for more news and updates on future dives.
If you are interested in helping with the project, then please get in touch via the website or page.
If your group or dive club want to dive the site, then please contact us here: https://www.coronationwreck.org/divers.html
