Wave Shape
Wave Shape

Event Report: The Story of Four Bottles

Waves Shape

On Thursday 25 April, experienced National Instructor and long-time Dacorum Scuba member Clive treated club members to an enthralling and very entertaining talk about four bottles he has found over his many years and thousands of dives.

An inkwell, likely from the ships office of the very popular James Eagan Layne, out of Plymouth in Devon, kicked off the session, with Clive giving members a detailed and very memorable history of not only the ship but also the dive related to the finding of the inkwell. Members also picked up some little-known knowledge about the relation of that ship to the Esso Baton Rouge to boot.

Next up a was a perfume bottle, complete with glass stopper and perfume, from the very well known and much-dived Kyarra, out of Swanage in Dorset. It was exciting to see and hold and smell this amazing find.

A quart-sized beer bottle, much heavier to hold than most of the audience were expecting, was the next item passed round for members to look at. The largest of the items discussed during the talk, made its way to us from the Truman’s Brewery, a large East London brewery founded in 1666, via the wreck of the Dakotian in Milford Haven, West Wales.

A twisted tale next of cannons by way of Dr Sharp & Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland took us to Gun Rocks in the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast, another favoured haunt of both divers and naturalists. Reminding us that instructors passing on good DSMB deployment skills to their students is paramount for reasons we’d never before considered (needing both your hands to hold the treasure), Clive brought out the star of the show, a dark glass onion bottle dating from around the 1600s. Likely for storing wine, yet with no known wrecks recorded carrying any, it was a most intriguing and mysterious object and members took time to examine it carefully.

Clive’s gave a very enjoyable and entertaining talk for both diving and non-diving folk in the  audience. From his first forays into considering the ocean deeps at age 10, via a Ladybird book, to the modern twists and turns of registering his finds with the Receiver of Wreck, he kept members enthralled and excited to learn more by the time the session sadly had to finish.

Thanks to Clive for his presentation. It was a night enjoyed by all and we hope to be lucky enough to hear another of his talks again soon.

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