Sport diver and RNLI supporter Brian Minehane gets bitten by the maritime archaeology bug thanks to a sunken antique lifeboat …

I am an Irishman from Dublin, born in Kent, England, and who now lives in London. I am also a scuba diver. My love for the sea developed at an early age during family holidays spent in Cobh (pronounced Cove), Ireland – my mother’s birthplace as well as the final sailing port of the Titanic (see page 48) and where the Lusitania survivors were brought after their rescue in 1915 – and Bantry – my father’s birthplace and scene of the Whiddy Island oil disaster in 1979, which claimed 50 lives. My grandfather was a fisherman/pub owner and my father was a radio officer during the 1950s, sailing out of Liverpool on a merchant ship called the Liverpool Packet. Today, one of my cousins is Captain of an Irish naval vessel.

As such, I have always had a love of the ocean, which has followed me into my adult life. For over a decade I have dived and taken underwater photos and video in Australia, South Africa, the Red Sea and Israel among others, but I love cold water and most of my diving is in England and Ireland. Spending so much time in and around the ‘briny wave’, and having been left in open Atlantic water by a dive boat at one point (luckily, my buddy and I were picked up by another boat), I am more than aware of, and greatly appreciate and support, the work of the RNLI. So what’s that got to do with a 106-year-old lifeboat you may ask?

Well, while I work in the Information Technology industry full-time I will finish a degree in Oceanography and Archaeology with the Open University (OU) in October this year. I am also undertaking a Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) certification for practical experience. In seeking a project for my NAS Part II qualification I wanted a subject both dear to my heart, formed part of national heritage, required both practical and research aspects and was pertinent to modern life at sea. I could find no better subject than RNLI lifeboat ON-547, Elizabeth Austin.

Archaeological survey 

The NAS Part II requires me to carry out a survey on a submerged or semi-submerged structure. This survey builds on previous studies focused on locating, assessing, planning then recording, measuring, photographing and writing a report. There are not many easily accessible/permissible submerged subjects of antiquity around London but I happened to remember a vessel I dived on at Wraysbury Dive Centre in Middlesex (close to Heathrow) in 2008. I didn’t know it at the time, but she was the Elizabeth Austin.

I revisited the site in September 2011 and asked Richard Major, who owns the dive centre at the lake, about her history. He had been told that she is the last of a few self-righting lifeboats from the early 20th century. That made my mind up. The Elizabeth Austin would allow the perfect mix of history, importance to maritime heritage and research required for me to undertake my NAS Part II survey.

The challenge
Wraysbury is a 15-acre freshwater, spring-fed lake with a silty mud bottom. The water temperature on my first survey dive in September 2011 was 18°C but had dropped to 8°C on my last survey dive on 4 December 2011. This meant drysuit diving throughout the project. Depth was not an issue since the lifeboat lies in 8.2m of water, which meant that I could get two or three 1-hour dives each day. Visibility could be an issue, especially if other divers were in the water at the same time but the good news is that the dive season tends to ease off towards the end of the year so not that many divers were around.

The biggest challenge of all for me was planning and completing an archaeological survey before my self-imposed Christmas deadline. I live close to London Bridge and work in the City so free time is limited so, with my OU and NAS studies as well, the survey dives would have to be opportunistic. Fortunately I had completed my Scuba Diving International solo diver qualification at Wraysbury Dive Centre so had permission to dive there on my own. That was the easy bit. The question was how to carry out tape measurements with one person! The answer was simple.

NAS training dictates that you place control points on your target survey site and then measure between them. By including strong plastic ties at the control points I could connect a tape to one point and then carry out a direct line of sight measurement to the other. By taking multiple two-dimensional measurements off a baseline, and through trilateration as well as three-dimensional measurements from other control points, I could carry out detailed measurements over multiple dives.

In total I completed 13 dives on the Elizabeth Austin, took 396 photographs and recorded over 317 measurements. What’s more, between my dives in May 2008 and December 2011, she has accumulated sediment but suffered very little other damage or degradation. Some of her original colours still exist.

The report
ON-547 (Official Number), named the Elizabeth Austin, was a standard design self-righter pulling lifeboat built by the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company (1837–1912) located on Bow Creek (Blackwall), London. Built and paid for at a cost of £846 11s and 4d through a legacy left by Ms Sarah Austin of Tottenham in London, she was 10.8m (35’ 6”) in length with a beam of 2.6m (8’ 6”) and held a crew of 13 with 10 oars. She saw service from 1905 to 1932, operating out of Cardigan from a lifeboat station at Poppit Sands. She launched 16 times and saved 23 lives, the largest rescue being the 10 crew of the steamship Conservator in March 1919.

The Bowen family has a long connection with the Elizabeth Austin. Tom Bowen was awarded the RNLI Bronze Medal as Coxswain for his part in the rescue of the Conservator crew and Tony Bowen, his grandson, still lives in St Dogmael’s, Cardigan, and has photographs of the boat from the early 1900s in his private collection (below).

After her years of service she was sold into private hands and was a cabin cruiser in Conwy, Castleford and Hull. She was renamed Meridian, then Jeanie and finally back to Elizabeth Austin. However, there is very little information on her between 1932 and 1989. She now lies at ordnance grid coordinates 500009/170745 at Wraysbury Lake and Dive Centre and lies 49m off the floating pontoon at a compass bearing of 40° and a depth of 8m.

My survey measurements confirm her dimensions, and along with photographs and reference points from the Lifeboat Enthusiasts' Society, the RNLI archives, Lloyd's Register and Tony Bowen, I aim to complete my report for submission to NAS by the end of March 2012 – wind and wave permitting.

Divers can find more features, practical and technical information and sea safety advice in the pages of Offshore magazine. Go to rnli.org.uk/offshore to sign up today.