UK
ProMare funded and ProMare team actively supported a successful local project, SHIPS (Shipwrecks and History in Plymouth Sound), between 2010 and 2016. For details of the work conducted please visit SHIPS project. Other projects supported by ProMare in the UK include the search for HMS Whiting off Padstow in north Cornwall, consultancy for the Mary Rose Trust, survey work on the hulks at Purton in Gloucestershire, assisting and funding CISMAS for their investigations of a Medieval Wreck in the Isles of Scilly, as well as providing advice to a number of licensees of the UK’s designated shipwrecks.
Currently (2024), ProMare is working in partnership with a number of organisations on marine exploration and ocean science projects, such as the Oceanus Project with the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML).
PLYMOUTH
Plymouth has a long and varied maritime history that stretches back to the arrival of the first humans in the south-west of England. The evidence of this can be seen on land in its buildings, monuments, docks and harbours but there is also much to be found on the shoreline and underwater. The waters of Plymouth Sound and the adjoining rivers have seen hundreds of maritime events, accidents and disasters; some witnessed and recorded but many more happened unseen and undocumented. In 2009 the SHIPS Project (Shipwrecks and History in Plymouth Sound) was started by a group of shipwreck enthusiasts and divers in Plymouth with the aim of recording the maritime history of the area.
ISLES OF SCILLY
In Tresco Channel, the presence of medieval pottery has been long recognised. In 2011, diver Dave McBride discovered French medieval pottery near yacht moorings, prompting a survey by CISMAS (Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Maritime Archaeology Society) and ProMare. Over 250 sherds were recovered, dating mainly to the late 13th / early 14th century, concentrated around mooring buoys. The pottery likely surfaced due to mooring chains disturbing seabed sediments, suggesting a single event like a medieval shipwreck. CISMAS plans excavations to locate the source and any surviving wreck material. This discovery holds significance for understanding maritime history in Scilly and rare wrecks from that period in the UK.