The UK Ministry of Defense has imposed a Controlled Site Order on various wreck diving sites.
The order was made under a statutory instrument extending protections in the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.
The newly restricted wrecks are the Canadian corvettes HMCS Trentonian and HMCS Regina as well as the experimental destroyer HMS Cobra. From now on, diving on these sites requires written permission from the MOD.
Alongside the Controlled Site Orders, 20 more wrecks were added to the Protected Places List, bringing the total to 113. In addition, no-go zones around existing Controlled Sites, such as HMS Royal Oak and HMS Vanguard, have been extended. Ships on the list include:
- HMS Albacore
- RFA Cairndale
- HMS Coquette
- RFA Dinsdale
- Emile Deschamps
- RFA Gray Ranger
- HMS Hawke
- RFA Hungerford
- RFA Industry
- HMS Jason
- HMS Kale
- RFA Montenol
- ML-247
- HMS Nottingham
- HMS Recruit
- RFA Salviking
- RFA Slavol
- USCG Tampa
- TB-10
- TB-11
The move follows last year’s high-profile recovery of HMCS Trentonian’s ship’s bell from the English Channel by UK divers. That recovery prompted concern among some Canadian officials and appears to have influenced the MOD’s decision to tighten access.
According to shipwreck archaeologist and maritime law expert Michael Williams:
“This has to be a direct result of the raising of the bell off HMCS Trentonian and indicates to the diving community that if you raise material from military sites then you will lose access to the site.”
