The Gallery section of the website will focus on our collection of visual media, so if you don’t want to read; you can sit back and drift through a number of sections looking a different aspects of Scotland’s shipwrecks through images and video. Each section is dedicated to a particular part of the collection which includes old photographs of shipwrecks, underwater pictures of the wrecks today, images of some of the sea creatures that inhabit the wrecks and finally view a few short videos which record some of our dives over the last thirty+ years. We should note that wrecks are continually degrading in the marine environment from corrosion, effects of wind and tide and from human intervention. So as divers today, the wrecks we all like to visit and explore are unlikely to be in the same shape and form in say another 50 years time, so maintaining some record, albeit haphazard must be worthwhile for future reference. The gallery contains the following sections;
VINTAGE VIEWS
As the name suggests, this gallery is a collection of old black and white photographs of vessels wrecked around the coast of Scotland. Most pictures are of ships that have gone aground in bad weather and are probably the last record of that vessel in as near intact condition. The decision to try and recover a ship was generally governed by location and accessibility, logistics, weather and financial e.g. cost of salvage and repair versus value, either for re-use or scrap. In most cases they were either raised and removed, salvaged and dismantled in-situ or destroyed by the sea and wind. Very few of the ships in this section were successfully removed and most will appear in the pages of this website. If you would like further information on a particular wreck just insert the name of the vessel in the search box at the top corner of this page and follow the link. If you cannot find the wreck on the site, do drop us a post and we will endeavour to add to the site in the future. VINTAGE VIEWS.
WRECKSHOTS
Wreck photography is very dependant on two key aspects, underwater visibility and the three dimensional form of your subject. While offshore areas around Scotland and its islands generally have good visibility, areas closer to the mainland do tend to be affected by freshwater run off or perhaps pollution from industry and large conurbations. There are also annual plankton blooms that affect all areas, which can reduce visibility over a short period of time (5-10 days). Reduced visibility and light levels will affect the distance you can shot and hence your field of vision, here wide angle lenses and powerful lights or strobes come into play, its always a trade off.
The 3-D form of a wreck also helps to create a shot with interest, especially if it say shows the layout of part of ship, how machinery is laid out or perhaps just an interesting feature of the wreck. Intact wrecks freestanding in tidal water are perhaps the best subjects, they will probably be inhabited by dense and colourful marine life and fish as the wreck acts as a man made reef. Most of the pictures below have been taken on intact wrecks in the Sound of Mull or around the Mull of Kintyre, most are covered in brightly coloured marine life of many species.
Photographs for the gallery have been taken by either using a stills camera, or frame grabs from old VHS and GoPro video cameras, so some will be better than others. WRECKSHOTS.
WRECKLIFE
This section will focus on the life that adheres too, or swims around the many wrecks in Scotland’s waters. Wrecks and wreckage in tidal areas will attract a wide variety of marine creatures, some will use the wreck for protection, others will grow on the surfaces of wreckage and feed on smaller organisms as they float past the semi stationary predator. WRECKLIFE.
WRECKCLIPS
Most of the videos within this section were shot during the period 1995 – 2015 and are hosted on Youtube with links from this site. The videos can be accessed by clicking on the links on the WRECKCLIPS main page, e.g. not the images below.
