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Risk, Reward, Shipwrecks & Secrets – Lecture

Cornish writer Clare Howdle interviews Sharon Austin; wreck diver, researcher and founding member of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Maritime Archaeological Society (CISMAS), about a life spent pushing the limits and plunging beneath the surface, in search of shipwrecks.

Thursday 14 November, 7.30pm.

Running out of air 60 feet down. Blood fizzing like cola as helium floods in. Unwittingly abandoned in the middle of the Atlantic. By all accounts, wreck diving is a dangerous business – but for Sharon Austin the reward outweighs the risk every time. One of Cornwall’s few female wreck divers, she’s been discovering and documenting some of the county’s most famous shipwrecks for more than 30 years. And with all that time beneath the waves come a thousand stories and secrets.

Through a series of incredible objects, Sharon will share her perspective on the little-known and fascinating world of wreck diving, the skill, planning and risk that goes into each dive, the endless lure of the ocean floor and the challenges she has overcome to reach it.

With photography and video footage, salvaged artefacts and a recounting of dives that will have you holding your breath, this promises to be a conversation to spark imaginations, shed new light on what treasure really means and leave you thinking differently about what’s still out there, beneath the waves…

About Sharon Austin

Sharon Austin documenting the Wheel Wreck (1780-90), Little Ganinick, Isles of Scilly. Credit: Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Maritime Archaeology Society

Sharon Austin is a wreck diver, photographer and researcher who has been discovering and documenting shipwrecks for over 30 years. Moving to Cornwall in 1988, she fast became part of the wreck diving community here, regularly diving in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, as well as in Europe, Africa and Asia. In 2004, along with some dive colleagues, she set up CISMAS to promote maritime archaeology and encourage community archaeology. Since then CISMAS has undertaken over 20 projects on 16 different sites, including The Association and The Colossus.

About Clare Howdle

Clare Howdle

Clare Howdle is a writer and editor who lives by the sea and is drawn to its tales. She has written for national and local newspapers and magazines and contributed to many Cornwall travel guides. Her fiction has been listed for the Lucy Cavendish Prize, the Mslexia Prize and the Bath Short Story Award and published in the Sunday Times, Litro, Riptide and more. Clare is currently working on her debut novel, ‘Receiver of Wreck’ – set in Cornwall’s wreck diving community – and it was through its researching that she first heard Sharon’s incredible story.