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Diving, 'Blue Rock', Gibraltar, Sep 2011, ID 1149

Oxford University Royal Naval Unit

Situated at the meeting point between the waters of the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and the landmasses of Europe and Africa, Gibraltar is a diving location unlike any other on earth. A last bastion of the British Empire nestled in the shadow of the Rock, it is both bustling port-city and ancient mountain-fortress; a monument to a thousand years of maritime commerce and conflict at the edge of Europe.

It is this unique location and rich history which attracted our intrepid team of twelve divers to the Rock, and we were not disappointed. The Blue Rock 2011 expedition was led by Oxford URNU and comprised seven Officer Cadets, two RN Ships Company, and one RNR Training Officer drawn from Oxford, Southampton and Liverpool URNUs, as well as two Regular Army personnel as Sub-Aqua Diving Supervisors (SADS). The aims of the expedition were:

  1. Introduce two new divers to the sport and obtain their BSAC Ocean Diver qualifications.
  2. Introduce two Ocean Divers to the challenges and rewards of expedition diving and progress their qualification to BSAC Sport Diver.
  3. Extend the diving experience of three Sport Divers and two divers qualified from other agencies towards their BSAC Dive Leader qualification.
  4. Provide a teaching opportunity for a recently qualified BSAC Open Water Instructor, allowing the accumulated skills and experience to be passed on within the URNU.
  5. Focus on increasing the awareness and appreciation of submerged cultural heritage among service and recreational divers.

For the two new divers the sheltered waters of Rosia Bay was their first taste of ocean diving, and by the end of the week both had completed their Open Water qualifications and were comfortably exploring the wreck of the SS Rosslyn, a merchant steamer sunk in 1916 at 20m depth. Similarly the Open Water divers progressed to Sport Diver, completing rescue drills, testing their skills on challenging navigation and leadership exercises and extending their depth qualification to 35m. For the other five members pursuing Dive Leader qualifications the dive sites around the rock offered the attractions of numerous and varied wrecks, and the amazing opportunity to see very different aquatic life from the Mediterranean and Atlantic co-habiting the same stretch of seabed where the two waters met.

To allow the team members to recognise the huge variety of archaeological material that can be found on the seabed, its value for understanding the past, and how divers can help to protect it, special study dives were made on a wide range of wrecks and historic sites around the rock. These included the 18th Century Canon Pile, 19th Century Inkwell dumping ground, and wrecks from the First and Second World War. Divers were encouraged to engage with and understand the sites they were visiting, being taught how to record objects and significant features that can help identify the age and provenance of a wreck, and to record evidence of deterioration and damage that threatens its preservation. In conjunction with the Gibraltar museum historic objects from the Inkwells site were recovered, recorded and photographed for the museum records, and returned to the site, encouraging responsible and sustainable diving activity.

Stand-out moments from the trip for the whole team include night dives among dense clouds of fish on the SS Rosslyn, uncovering and identifying remains of daily life in the Napoleonic Navy on the inkwells site, and encountering the biggest lobster any of us had ever seen in the bowls of the SS Excellent! Each diver of course will have their own memories and we hope the experiences gained on the expedition will inspire the team members to continue their diving adventures in the future.

We are extremely grateful to the Ulysses Trust, whose grant allowed the expedition to be run at the lowest possible price, thus making it accessible to the greatest possible number of students. Without such funding the expedition could not have taken place.
Giles Richardson, Expedition Leader

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Blue Rock/The Team Blue Rock/Exploring the SS Rosslyn Blue Rock/Anenome on the SS Rosslyn Blue Rock/Diving on the Canon Pile Site