Ethics - Taking items from Wrecks

[Grouty]

[quote=stevechesh;894022]Borrowed these photo's from a mate, but years ago, dive shows used to be about diving and not selling!


Just my point - a brilliant collection nicely and PROUDLY presented.... but where is it all now? can any of it be enjoyed, mused over, etc etc, or do just the privileged few get to see it?

Is there a further record of the items?

The before and after pics definitely show that there is a value in bringing items up... on the sea bed often many of the above look just like the rest of the wreck...undefinable wreckage! Still I wouldn't miss a rummage over any wreck given the opportunity!

Grouty.

[stevechesh]

probably still in the clubhouse at Kingston and Elmbridge i suspect....

[NotDeadYet]

I must admit that I don't understand the obsession with filling your house with tat that would look more at home in a pikey caravan or a run down pub or why anyone would spend a fortune to do it. But then I've never really understood the whole "collecting" thing in general. I had a stamp collection when I was 5 but by 6 I'd discovered the wonders of setting fire to gas cannisters, air rifles and proto-streetluge in a broken pram.

Each to their own, I'd rather look at a lump of shite covered in barnacles underwater than a lump of shite sitting in someone's shed. Birds' eggs, matchboxes, portholes, everyone finds something important enough to go to effort to collect them, I just don't get it.

[warmwaterdiver]

I just collect dive gear

[Diving Dude]

l agree there have been too many agency related rucks recently however l think Dir divers are shite at spidging.

[Paul Oliver]

Originally Posted by stevechesh

probably still in the clubhouse at Kingston and Elmbridge i suspect....

They have a rather impressive club house and i think quite a bit is on show there.

[Druid]

Like wilbo I was taught to "take only pictures, leave only bubbles", but I can see the attraction in recovering stuff particularly when it's restored to the condition of some of the things pictured earlier in this thread.

...then I see what has been done to the Wessex at Stoney and I wonder about the thought processes of some of our fellow divers

[Frankie Price]

I'm waiting for the day when the unknown diver flies into Stoney Cove in the Wessex that is slowly being dismantled. There must be a garage somewhere with a half finished helecopter tucked away inside.
A bit like Johny Cash's 'One piece at a time' song.

[Captain Deco]

I am known for my feeble attempts to gets some shiny stuff, but with me it is so that I can have a living piece of history to touch. I have some nice crockery - all cleaned up, and all on display. I have yet to recover a porthole, but once I have a couple for me, and 1 for my parents then I will stop. The same goes for any other amount of stuff recovered. If every dive in the rest of my diving career is a spidge mission then I might as well pack up and never dive again - I have goals in my diving, and see it as exploration. Having some solid artefacts to moon over, and to impress non diving friends of mine is OK as far as I can see. Collecting mountains and mountains of the same stuff to let degrade in your garden or shed is just pointless. In 50 years it will all be gone forever so I intend to admire the "treasure" I haul.

War graves - well......my view is that spidging on real war grave is tantamount to going down to the local war memorial and wrenching the brass name plate off that.

[Paul Oliver]

Why on earth do people take stuff off of an "attraction" in a puddle? Totally pointless

Now these are a little more attractive and over 100 years old:-







Although this lot is MUCH better