Marine Services - Diving and SalvageBack to Overview Marine Services The PLA employs eight commercially qualified divers who are in demand for many different tasks, including clearing fouled propellers, maintaining tide gauges, inspecting lock gates, sluices and flood barriers, carrying out damage inspections of vessels, searching for lost propellers, helping to remove old jetty structures, slinging yachts ready for loading on to ships, and inspecting the underwater sections of piers. In addition, there have been many dives associated with the proposed London Gateway Port development. Before dredging for this project could begin, more than 400 obstructions needed to be identified and investigated for archaeological importance before a strategy could be agreed with English Heritage for their removal or preservation. On sites that are considered of major archaeological significance, the PLA has been working closely with Wessex Archaeology, with whom it cooperated during the 2004 raising of the remains of the bow section of a 16th century sailing ship discovered in the Princes Channel. The obstacles already identified include old wrecks complete with cannon, a lightship sunk at the start of the Second World War, and the remains of a sailing barge thought to have been carrying bricks from Faversham to Deptford in preparation for the start of work on London's railway arches.
Click here to view a short film about the PLA's Diving Service
As well as general debris from historic shipping casualties over the years, the remains of the abandoned submarine boom defences, installed to protect the capital against submarine attack, have been identified. So far the divers and salvage craft have recovered several anchors and five large concrete blocks weighing up to seven tonnes which were used to anchor the nets for this system.
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