Science and the Sea

Context

A lack of high-quality geophysical data and limited research means our maritime heritage remains poorly understood. Thousands of shipwrecks around the UK coastline have been identified incorrectly or remain unknown.

We will develop new methods to help solve this problem. These methods will accelerate maritime research activity and support the development of research tools designed to improve the management of UK wreck sites.

Focussing on vessels lost in the Irish Sea, we’ll create effective processes for refining wreck site identification. We’ll also develop efficient methods for integrating marine scientific data with the historic record and maritime collections.

Aim

We are looking at certain collections with information about specific ships that were lost in the Irish Sea. Working with a range of partners and stakeholders, we’ll identify and link these relevant marine scientific datasets with archives and collections.

Maritime archives and data collections associated with vessel losses in UK territorial waters are currently held in lots of different places. Organisations throughout the UK, including the Isle of Man and even further afield hold digital, analogue, and physical collections. They include the Lloyds Register, the UK National Archive, Coflein (Wales site records index), Wrecksite Eu, and the Manx National Heritage Data Service, to name a few.

Similarly, marine scientific data collections are held by several different organisations. in different forms. Some of this data is linked by purpose-built data hubs and portals, such as MEDIN, UKHO, MOD, BODC, BGS, IMARDIS and INFOMAR.

There are other collections that are relevant to our work and could be included in our catalogue. These are also held in a range of collections – by commercial sector organisations, academic institutions, various NGO’s and private individuals.

Improving the levels of connectivity between these disparate collections will allow us to develop methods to improve how we identify ships and other vessels. It will also make it easier to research the unique physical attributes and long-term integrity of shipwrecks.

Our main goal, however, is to confirm the identity of the majority of shipwreck sites located off the west coast of the Isle of Man. We’ll use a high-resolution multibeam sonar data set of all charted wreck sites in this area, which was collected in 2020 by Bangor University’s research vessel, ‘Prince Madog’.

We’ll also define the physical and hydrodynamical environment at these and other wreck sites of significant historical interest in the Irish Sea. This information will come from the collection of other marine scientific data sets.

This work will ultimately link all relevant and accessible scientific data, historical archives, and associated collections together.

This initiative will increase awareness of our largely forgotten maritime heritage, whilst also making it easier to access. At the same time, there will be more opportunities for a broader range of people to discover, explore, and study these culturally important submerged historical assets.

At the end of this work, we aim to report on the effectiveness and applications of using this new integrated approach. We’ll look at its success in identifying and characterising wreck sites, as well as developing wreck site management strategies. We’ll also report on the potential relevance and applicability of this approach if it were to be applied at a wider UK and International scale.

Outputs

Imaging and identifying wrecks in the Irish Sea

The past two decades have witnessed remarkable advances in seafloor mapping, with high-resolution acoustic imaging now routinely used in archaeological studies. Technological and methodological advances in acoustic imaging and digital rendering now permit shipwreck sites and individual artifacts to be imaged at centimetric resolution in tens or hundreds of metres of water. In response to the 1992 Valetta European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage and the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, archaeologists are encouraged to adopt non-destructive techniques for wreck investigations and consider in situ preservation a priority. Therefore, remote sensing techniques play an increasingly important role in our work. These techniques offer rapid, non-invasive, high-resolution, and cost-effective solutions in all phases of wreck investigations—from initially locating the site to identifying and characterizing the site, through site management.

Interested in finding out more about our work on finding and identifying wrecks?

Please read our StoryMap

Preservation potential of Irish Sea wrecks

Another task for this work package is to investigate the preservation potential of the Irish Sea wrecks, with a view to underwater cultural heritage (UCH) management. As UCH is a finite resource, it is important to understand the risk historic wreck sites are under in response to increased anthropogenic and natural forcing. Human impacts typically include trawling and ocean engineering (subsea cables, pipelines, turbines), while physical, chemical, and biological processes acting in the water column and seabed naturally deteriorate wreck sites. Climate change is magnifying these natural effects. We use acoustic remote sensing to locate and identify wreck sites and use the resultant data to build high-definition digital models of the wrecks. When combined with environmental variables, we can model the preservation potential of these wreck sites and assess potential risks.

Interested in finding out more about our work on assessing the preservation potential of the Irish Sea wrecks?

Please read our StoryMap

Discover more StoryMaps below

Activity collaborators

• Centre for Applied Marine Sciences, School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University (CAMS)
• School of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Ulster University
• Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW)
• Manx National Heritage