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WORK TITLE: The Shipwreck Hunter
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 8/10/1958
WEBSITE:
CITY:
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COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born August 10, 1958.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, chartered marine scientist, oceanographer, historical researcher, and deep ocean expedition leader.
MEMBER:Explorer’s Club, Royal Geographical Society.
AWARDS:Medal of the Order of Australia (honorary), 2010, for service to Australia for locating shipwrecks; Sir Robert Craven Award, Britannia Naval Research Association, 2015; Distinguished Alumni Award, University of South Florida; Maritime Fellowship, Maritime Foundation, for outstanding lifetime contribution; Seatrade Award for contribution to safety at sea.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
David L. Mearns is a writer, historical researcher, chartered marine scientist, and expedition leader known for leading deep-ocean research projects to find shipwrecks. “He is one of the world’s most experienced and successful deep-sea shipwreck hunters, having located twenty-four major shipwrecks with an overall success rate of eighty-nine percent,” commented a writer on the Blue Water Recoveries website. Mearns is particularly well known for his success at finding wrecks that were considered to difficult to locate or that were thought to be beyond the hope of recovery because of age, condition, or depth in the water. He has found several World War II-era ships, including the Australian HMAS Sydney, and the British HMS Hood, the battleship that engaged with, and was sunk by, the German battleship Bismarck, the most powerful ship in Hitler’s fleet.
In The Shipwreck Hunter: A Lifetime of Extraordinary Discovery and Adventure in the Deep Seas, Mearns presents readers with an “at times riveting, at times ponderous collection of his experiences planning, funding, and executing successful searches for sunken ships,” commented a Publishers Weekly reviewer. The author includes “stories that would befit an adventure novel” as he relates how he prepared for his expeditions, conducted the actual search, and dealt with the aftermath of finding a particularly important or notorious vessel. Some of his finds include commercial ships, such as the Lucona, which sank in 1977 and needed to be found in connection with an insurance claim by its owner—a case that also included potential insurance fraud and murder. He describes locating a fifteenth-century ship that belonged to early explorer Vasco de Gama. He gives a detailed account of the technical side of finding and recovering a ship. He also relates plenty of stories that illustrate the human side of the search for shipwrecks, such as being able to find the HMS Hood and show the ship’s last surviving crew member, Ted Briggs, the location of the wreck.
In an interview in Military History, Mearns explained why it is important for modern persons to be interested in shipwrecks. “Shipwrecks are an important part of our history and cultural heritage. They are reminders of what life was like in the past, and they generally describe extraordinary and tragic events. The stories told by shipwrecks educate new generations and help in commemorating the lives of people lost,” Mearns said in the interview.
Shipwrecks and the stories of the people on those ships help create an important link between the past and the present. “In order for people to care about a shipwreck, they need to connect with the human dimension that comes from these stories,” Mearns further remarked in the Military History interview. Since many shipwrecks also contain human remains, it is important that they be respected as the final resting places of those who died when the ship sunk. Shipwrecks “need to be treated with a high degree of sensitivity, and great care is taken to avoid the disturbance of human remains” during exploration and recovery operations, Mearns noted.
In the interview, Mearns notes that one of the most sought-after wrecks on his yet-to-find list is the Endurance, a ship that was involved in Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expeditions. He also endorses an expanded program of mapping of the floors of the world’s oceans, expanding human knowledge and at the same time increasing the scientific record about the planet Earth.
In reviewing The Shipwreck Hunter, the Kirkus Reviews writer stated, “Mearns deserves a spot in the upper echelon of deep-sea explorers,” and noted that the book is a “touch overlong but required reading for any maritime enthusiast.” The Publishers Weekly writer called the book “fascinating reading.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Mearns, David L., The Shipwreck Hunter: A Lifetime of Extraordinary Discovery and Adventure in the Deep Seas, Allen & Unwin (Crows Nest, New South Wales, Australia), 2017.
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2018, review of The Shipwreck Hunter: A Lifetime of Extraordinary Discoveries on the Ocean Floor.
Military History, July, 2018, “Interview: David Mearns Shipwreck Hunter,” p. 14.
Publishers Weekly, April 16, 2018, review of The Shipwreck Hunter, p. 85.
ONLINE
Blue Water Recoveries website, http://bluewater.uk.com/ (August 9, 2018), biography of David L. Mearns.
David L. Mearns
David Mearns OAM, MSc, is a chartered marine scientist, historical researcher, author, and expedition leader of deep ocean projects. He is one of the world’s most experienced and successful deep-sea shipwreck hunters, having located 24 major shipwrecks with an overall success rate of 89%. His formidable reputation has been built on a career finding notoriously difficult wrecks that others predicted would never be found or their mysteries solved. David’s most important discoveries include MV Lucona, MV Derbyshire, HMS Hood, the Portuguese East Indiaman Esmeralda, HMAS Sydney, HSK Kormoran, AHS Centaur, and Rio Grande, the Guinness World Record for the deepest shipwreck ever found at 5,762 metres. David was also a key member of Paul Allen’s team that located and filmed the iconic Japanese battleship Musashi in 2015, based on the research and search area analysis he conducted.
In 2010 David was awarded an honorary Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to Australia for locating the wrecks of HMAS Sydney and AHS Centaur. In addition to his honorary OAM, David has been awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of South Florida, a prestigious Maritime Fellowship by the UK-based Maritime Foundation for an outstanding lifetime contribution, the 2015 Sir Robert Craven Award from the Britannia Naval Research Association, and a Seatrade Award for a highly commended contribution to Safety at Sea in relation to finding the wreck of the Derbyshire.
David has worked in all the world’s oceans, and has travelled to more than 50 countries. He is a long-standing fellow of the Explorer’s Club and the Royal Geographical Society. David is currently serving as a Judge for the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, a global competition challenging teams to advance deep-sea technologies for autonomous, fast and high-resolution ocean exploration.
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Print Marked Items
Interview David Mearns Shipwreck
Hunter
Military History.
35.2 (July 2018): p14+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 World History Group, LLC
http://www.historynet.com/magazines/military_history
Full Text:
American-born, U.K.-based marine scientist, oceanographer, author and historical researcher David Mearns
is also one of the world's most experienced and successful hunters of deep-ocean shipwrecks. In his new
book, The Shipwreck Hunter: A Lifetime of Extraordinary Discoveries on the Ocean Floor (2018), he charts
the course of the quarter-century career that has led to the discovery of more than 20 major shipwrecks,
including the British battlecruiser Hood and Australian light cruiser Sydney (both sunk during World War
11) and the early 16th century Portuguese East Indiaman Esmeralda. His company Blue Water Recoveries
[bluewater.uk.com] has chalked up three Guinness World Records, and he was a key member of a team led
by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen that located and filmed the World War II Japanese battleship Musashi
in 2015.
Why is it important to locate and examine historic wrecks?
Shipwrecks are an important part of our history and cultural heritage. They are reminders of what life was
like in the past, and they generally describe extraordinary and tragic events. The stories told by shipwrecks
educate new generations and help in commemorating the lives of people lost.
How do you research ships you intend to find?
I rely heavily on public and private archives and libraries like the U.S. National Archives. Newspapers and
books are helpful, but 1 primarily focus on the primary source accounts created by eyewitnesses to a sinking
event. They almost always contain the most credible and accurate pieces of information.
What is the most interesting part of the process for you?
The historical research is the most interesting part, as this is when you learn about the history of a ship, the
people on board and what caused the loss. It is also interesting when you can locate survivors or
descendants, because then you hear people's personal stories and anecdotes. In order for people to care
about a shipwreck, they need to connect with the human dimension that comes from these stories.
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What is the biggest challenge?
Finding and filming a shipwreck in thousands of meters of water is extremely challenging, but raising the
money to pay for such expensive expeditions is arguably more challenging. It is impossible to make a
financial case to find every shipwreck, so you need to choose the ones with the most compelling stories--
balanced against the funds required and the confidence you have that the wreck can be found.
How do you fund your searches for military shipwrecks, given the lack of treasure?
It requires a lot of creativity. In the past television companies, foreign governments and philanthropists have
funded me. Solving mysteries or commemorating anniversaries are often used as reasons for finding
wrecks.
What technologies are most important in your searches?
Many technologies are used, but the most essential are those that actually detect shipwrecks. I generally use
side-scanning sonars, but wrecks can be found using magnetometers, multi-beam echosounders, human
divers and drones, and even satellites have been used in special cases to pinpoint wrecks in coastal waters.
My job is to choose the right approach for each shipwreck.
Which emerging technologies are you excited about?
Autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) technology has fundamentally changed the way we work, as the
sonars we use to find wrecks are no longer connected to the surface ship by a long tow cable. We can now
envision a time when these AUVs will either swim out from the coast under their own power or be
delivered to a work site far offshore by an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV). The combined use of AUVs
and ASVs will at some point eliminate the need for sending ships and people to sea. For those who love to
work at sea this might seem a sad thing, but it is unstoppable progress that will benefit all of us.
Which is more useful--a manned submersible or a remotely operated vehicle?
Each has its advantages and disadvantages. ROVs are more commonly used because they are less costly, are
greater in number and can be operated from different types of vessels. You can also run an ROV 24 hours a
day for days on end, with many people viewing the video in real time, whereas a manned submersible is
limited in the small number of people it can carry, and the bottom time is limited by the endurance of the
batteries and the people.
Are there ethical differences between exploring a warship and a commercial vessel?
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If people have died in the ships, there really shouldn't be any ethical difference between how you treat the
wrecks of a warship and a merchant vessel. Both need to be treated with a high degree of sensitivity, and
great care is taken to avoid the disturbance of human remains. There are fundamental legal differences,
however. Warships have sovereign immunity, which in theory should provide a greater degree of protection,
although there have been recent cases in Indonesia, for example, where entire warship wrecks have been
salvaged for scrap metal value [see P. 9].
How do you celebrate the discovery of a ship and still memorialize its lost crew?
I treat these as two separate things. Finding a wreck lost for decades or centuries is an achievement
deserving celebration. Also, sometimes the precise moment of discovery is so sudden you can't help but
become ecstatic. Afterward, however, is the time to honor those lost by holding memorial services. I care a
great deal about the people lost at sea and don't feel I disrespect them at all because of the happiness I feel
when their resting place is found.
Have any particular discoveries struck a chord with you?
HMS Hood, a wreck I found in 2001, is closest to my heart. That's because I had such a close personal
relationship with Ted Briggs, the last living survivor from Hood's crew of 1,418 men. Two of the proudest
moments in my life are when I was able to bring Ted on board our search vessel when we found Hood, and
in 2015 when we recovered Hood's bell, which Ted asked me to do before he passed away in 2008.
Is there an undiscovered shipwreck atop your list?
At the top of my list is Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance. In fact, it has been top of my list since 2003,
when I met Shackleton's granddaughter Alexandra and received her family's blessing to find and film the
wreck, which is 3,000 meters below the ice-covered Weddell Sea in Antarctica. I was first attracted to
Endurance because it is the ultimate challenge in terms of looking for a small wooden shipwreck in one of
the most remote and hard to access places in the world. Since then I've become a student of Shackleton and
a lover of the Antarctic landscape and icescape.
Would you prioritize efforts to map in detail the ocean floors?
Absolutely. We like to think we know everything about our planet, but the fact is that 71 percent of the earth
is covered by water and only a tiny fraction of the seabed has been mapped in any great detail. So we
literally know more about the surface of the Moon and Mars than we do about the surface of our own
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planet. That is a staggering level of ignorance about the seabed and oceans on which we rely entirely for
life. As [marine biologist and explorer] Sylvia Earle likes to say "No water, no life. No blue, no green."
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Interview David Mearns Shipwreck Hunter." Military History, July 2018, p. 14+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A537853450/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0a17260e.
Accessed 14 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A537853450
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The Shipwreck Hunter: A Lifetime of
Extraordinary Discoveries on the Ocean
Floor
Publishers Weekly.
265.16 (Apr. 16, 2018): p85.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Shipwreck Hunter: A Lifetime of Extraordinary Discoveries on the Ocean Floor
David L. Mearns. Pegasus, $28.95 (448p)
ISBN 978-1-68177-760-3
Shipwreck hunter Mearns provides an at times riveting, at times ponderous collection of his experiences
planning, funding, and executing successful searches for sunken ships. Mearns succinctly summarizes the
historical contexts for each of the ships he locates, from his early search for the Lucona (which sank in
1977) to determine the innocence or guilt of the owner, accused of insurance fraud and murder, to his
explorations of historically important ships lost in war, such as the HMS Hood and HMAS Sydney. The
book is at its most exciting in recounting the search for the ships and relating the events that led to their
sinkings, including the heroic efforts of crews to protect their ships and ensure the safety of all on board;
one second mate of a hospital ship managed to rope together 50 survivors on various pieces of debris to
create a "survival island." The narrative flounders, though, when the focus shifts to the complex efforts and
political maneuvers needed to secure funding from governmental bodies and the BBC to document his
explorations. Mearns's unique perspective on the art and science of locating shipwrecks makes for
fascinating reading. Agent: George Lucas, InkWell Management. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Shipwreck Hunter: A Lifetime of Extraordinary Discoveries on the Ocean Floor." Publishers Weekly,
16 Apr. 2018, p. 85. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A536532763/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6328a92d. Accessed 14 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A536532763
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Mearns, David L.: THE SHIPWRECK
HUNTER
Kirkus Reviews.
(Apr. 15, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Mearns, David L. THE SHIPWRECK HUNTER Pegasus (Adult Nonfiction) $28.95 6, 5 ISBN: 978-1-
68177-760-3
In his first book to be published in the United States, famed shipwreck hunter Mearns (The Search for the
Sydney, 2009, etc.) provides an engrossing collection of his most exciting undersea finds.
With stories that would befit an adventure novel, the author recounts seven of his dramatic shipwreck
journeys, including a number of famed World War II ships (like the HMS Hood and the HMAS Sydney), a
15th-century vessel belonging to Vasco da Gama's fleet, and commercial freighters featuring sordid
histories straight out of a soap opera. Beyond the stories of the ships themselves, Mearns, a fellow of the
Royal Geographic Society and the Explorers Club, shows how the life of a shipwreck hunter is itself
dramatic and fraught with risk. "I have experienced," he writes, "just about every emotion imaginable for a
person in charge of such costly and technically complex adventures....Searching for shipwrecks is basically
an all-or-nothing proposition, where you either find what you are looking for or go home empty-handed."
The chapters are only loosely connected, with little overarching narrative arc, but the author does well to
keep his tales highly entertaining and understandable for lay readers. Mearns doesn't ignore the necessary
technical detail, but he smartly keeps it to a minimum. At the end, the author includes two ships he'd yet
like to find, but one of them--the USS Indianapolis--was located in 2017. While Robert Ballard's 1985
discovery of the Titanic remains the most famous individual shipwreck find (and therefore made him the
most famous hunter as well), Mearns deserves a spot in the upper echelon of deep-sea explorers, not only
for his work of finding lost wrecks, but also for his continued efforts, along with the oceanographic
community, to map the entire ocean floor.
A touch overlong but required reading for any maritime enthusiast.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Mearns, David L.: THE SHIPWRECK HUNTER." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Apr. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A534375041/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6bd6e752.
Accessed 14 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A534375041