Risk, Reward, Shipwrecks & Secrets

National Maritime Museum Cornwall, 14 November 2024

Sharon Austin diving and documenting the ‘Wheel Wreck’ - image courtesy of Kevin Camidge

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.

On 14 November, I’ll be interviewing Sharon as part of the Maritime Museum’s Women and the Sea series, to hear 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…

Real-world and online streaming tickets available. Buy now.