In the years leading up to 2015, divers from Southsea Sub-Aqua Club (SSAC) completed three projects to investigate, dive and record wrecks along the South Coast of England that played a part in the WW2 invasion of Normandy.
In 2015 we planned and carried out another ambitious project to survey more than 20 sites believed to be connected to the Mulberry Harbours, which played such a vital role in supplying troops and equipment to the Allied forces. The building of the top secret Mulberry Harbours, each the size of Dover, was the largest British construction project ever undertaken and was completed in less than a year. The various components of the Mulberry Harbours were gathered along the south coast of England before being towed to France and carefully assembled to create two fully functional harbours within days of D-Day, a process that proved critical to supporting the invasion forces and ultimately bringing about the end of WW2.
Along the Hampshire and West Sussex coast alone there were around 30 sites associated with the Mulberry project, ranging from foreshore construction sites and slipways, to exposed or intertidal concrete units, to fully submerged bridges, pontoons and associated concrete caissons. Southsea Sub-Aqua Club set out to provide an accurate and detailed record of these sites, thereby adding to the public record of the Mulberry Harbours in British waters. In our discussions with English Heritage, they confirmed that the data held on Mulberry Harbours was very limited and had the potential to be inaccurate.
We were very grateful that the project was financially supported by the BSAC Jubilee Trust with a grant of £1,250, which helped defray the fuel costs for the club RHIB, Southsea Explorer, on project diving and sonar survey trips.
The team behind this project won the Duke of Edinburgh’s Prize in 2015, Peter Small Award in 2015 and runner-up for the BSAC’s Wreck Award 2015. This was a record-breaking third time that the club had won the Duke of Edinburgh’s Prize.
On 3rd June 2019 Historic England announced that three of the sites (Outer Mulberry, Far Mulberry & the “Park”) investigated by this project will become a listed site and will now be protected for the future.