Innes McCartney

Dr. Innes McCartney
Born	1964
Nationality	British
Education	Keele, Exeter and Bournemouth Universities
Occupation	Nautical archaeologist, explorer, historian, author
Known for	Discovery of historic shipwrecks, archaeology of modern shipwrecks
Website
Academia.edu page

Dr. Innes J. McCartney is a British nautical archaeologist, explorer, historian and author.

Career

McCartney is a nautical archaeologist who over the last 25 years has specialised in the discovery of and investigation into twentieth century shipwrecks including the wrecks of the Battle of Jutland and many British and German submarines. He has appeared regularly on documentaries such as Time Team Special, Deep Wreck Mysteries and Wreck Detectives^[1] and is a popular speaker at conferences.^[2] A key element of his work is the interaction between the archaeology and historical accounts of shipwrecks and how the differences which arise often challenge the historical record.^[3]

In 1989 he became involved in shipwreck archaeology when he learned to dive. By 1994 he was one of Britain's first Trimix-certified scuba divers and in 1998 became the first person to have dived on the three great liner wrecks, SS Andrea Doria, RMS Lusitania and HMHS Britannic.

In 1999 he discovered the 12-inch-gunned submarine HMS M1^[4][5] off Start Point in the English Channel.

In 2001 he discovered the wreck of HMS Indefatigable^[6]sunk at the Battle of Jutland and in 2003 co-produced the Channel 4 documentary "Clash of the Dreadnoughts"^[7] which examined all of the larger wrecks, including detailed surveys of HMS Defence^[8]and HMS Invincible^[9]

In 2001-2 McCartney led two expeditions to locate and identify some of the U-boats sunk during Operation Deadlight. Fourteen U-boats were surveyed and several new sites were discovered^[10][11] including the rare Type XXI U-boat, U2506,^[12] once under the command of Horst von Schroeter and the successful Type IXC U-boat, U155^[13] commanded by Adolf Piening.

In 2003, McCartney was featured in the Channel 4 series Wreck Detectives. In the film he identified the mystery World War I U-boat off Trevose Head, Cornwall as UB65^[14] by scraping the propellers to reveal the shipyard stamp. This proved that even at 60 metres depth, war graves of this type can be identified by divers without the need scavenge parts from them.

In 2006 McCartney featured in a Deep Wreck Mysteries episode which depicted the search for the identity by Innes of three mystery U-boats of the north coast of Cornwall. The film, "U-boat Death-Trap" won the Desmond Wettern British Maritime Foundation Film and Documentary Award. In the same year he discovered the German auxiliary raider HSK Komet in the English Channel after a long search^[15][16] and returned the following year to survey both halves of the wreck . At the time, it was the only known example of this type of warship anywhere in the world.

In 2008 he found the White Star Line transport SS Armenian^[17][18] off the Scilly Isles as part of the Deep Wreck Mysteries^[19] television series. He also featured in the episodes "Death of a Battleship" which investigated the loss of HMS Audacious in 1914 and in "Stealth Sub" which investigated the loss of U480, a sub he had previously identified in 1998.

In 2011 he identified the very early U-boat, UA^[20] off Folkestone. German built in 1912 and destined for the Norwegian navy, it was taken over by the Imperial German Navy in 1914. It was long thought to have been scrapped in France after 1918.^[21]

In 2012 McCartney worked alongside wreck hunter David Mearns on an archaeological investigation of the wreck of HMS Hood, sunk in 1941. This project was supported by philanthropist Paul Allen aboard his yacht Octopus. The expedition findings are the subject of the Channel Four documentary "How the Bismark sank HMS Hood".^[22]

In 2013 McCartney featured as the lead contributor on a Time Team Special entitled "The Lost Submarine of WW1".^[23] This film examines the pioneering submarines of The First World War. He also positively identified the remains of the WW1 U-boat wrecks UC-72^[24] and UB-114^[25] in the waters of the English Channel.

In 2014 McCartney completed his PhD at Bournemouth University entitled "The Maritime Archaeology of a Modern Conflict: Comparing the archaeology of German submarine wrecks to the historical text". It was published by Routledge in December of the same year. It shows the extent to which historical sources relating U-boat losses in UK waters in both world wars differ from the actual distribution of the known and identified wrecks. Over 40% of those investigated had no historical precedent. The accuracy of the historic text fell as low as 36% during 1945.^[26]

In November 2014 research into Admiralty diving on sunken U-boats in 1918 won McCartney the Reg Vallintine Achievement Award for Historical Diving.^[27]

Awards

• Reg Vallintine Achievement Award for Historical Diving (UK, 2014)

Bibliography

• McCartney, Innes (2015). "The "Tin Openers" Myth and Reality: Intelligence from U-boat Wrecks During WW1". Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference of the Historical Diving Society. 
• McCartney, Innes (2015). "The Historical Archaeology of WW1 U-boat Wrecks and the Compilation of Admiralty History: The Case of (UC79)". Proceedings of the UNESCO Conference on Underwater Cultural heritage, 2014. 
• Innes McCartney (2014). The Maritime Archaeology of a Modern Conflict: Comparing the Archaeology of German Submarine Wrecks to the Historical Text. Routledge. ISBN 978-1138814356. 
• McCartney, Innes (December 2013). "Jutland 1916: The Archaeology of a Modern Naval Battle: The Wreck of HMS Invincible, The World's First Battle Cruiser". SKYLLIS, The Journal of the German Society for the Promotion of Underwater Archaeology – Vol.12 No.2. 
• McCartney, Innes (March 2012). "The Armoured Cruiser HMS Defence: A Case Study in Assessing the Royal Navy Shipwrecks of the Battle of Jutland 1916 as an Archaeological Resource". International Journal of Nautical Archaeology. 
• Innes McCartney (2008). British Submarines of World War 1. Osprey. ISBN 978-1846033346. 
• Innes McCartney (2006). British Submarines 1939-45. Osprey. ISBN 978-1846030079. 
• Innes McCartney (2003). Lost Patrols: Submarine Wrecks of the English Channel. Periscope. ISBN 978-1904381044. 

Notes

External links

• Academia.edu page for Innes McCartney