Innes McCartney (born 1964) is a British nautical archaeologist and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

. He is a Visiting Fellow at

Bournemouth University Bournemouth University is a public university in Bournemouth, England, with its main campus situated in neighbouring Poole. The university was founded in 1992; however, the origins of its predecessor date back to the early 1900s. The universi ...

in the UK.

Career

McCartney is a nautical archaeologist specializing in the interaction of shipwreck archaeology with the historical record. In 1999, he discovered the 12-inch-gunned submarine off Start Point in the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

. In 2001, he discovered the wreck of , sunk at the

Battle of Jutland The Battle of Jutland () was a naval battle between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet, under Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer, durin ...

. In the same year he led expeditions to identify some of the U-boats sunk during Operation Deadlight. Fourteen U-boats were surveyed and several new sites discovered. In 2003 he identified the mystery

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

U-boat off Trevose Head, Cornwall, as by scraping the propellers to reveal the shipyard stamp. This proved that even at a depth of , war graves of this type can be identified by divers without the need to scavenge parts from them. This featured in the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

series '' Wreck Detectives''. In 2006 he featured in the documentary ''U-boat Death-Trap'' which followed his search for the identity of three mystery U-boats off the north coast of

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

. In the same year he discovered the German auxiliary raider HSK ''Komet'' in the English Channel. 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 The White Star Line was a British shipping line. Founded out of the remains of a defunct Packet trade, packet company, it gradually grew to become one of the most prominent shipping companies in the world, providing passenger and cargo service ...

transport off the

Scilly Isles The Isles of Scilly ( ; ) are a small archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is over farther south than the most southerly point of the British mainland at Lizard Point, and has the souther ...

. In 2012 McCartney worked alongside wreck hunter David Mearns on an archaeological investigation of the wreck of , sunk in 1941. This project was supported by philanthropist

Paul Allen Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American businessman, computer programmer, and investor. He co-founded Microsoft, Microsoft Corporation with his childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which was followed by the ...

aboard his yacht ''

Octopus An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like oth ...

''. The expedition findings were featured in the Channel Four documentary, ''How the Bismarck sank HMS Hood''. 2015 saw publication of ''The Maritime Archaeology of a Modern Conflict: comparing the archaeology of German submarine wrecks to the historical text''. 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. In 2015 and 2016 McCartney worked as archaeological advisor to the Sea War Museum Jutland on detailed archaeological shipwreck surveys to locate all of the heretofore undiscovered wrecks of the

. This was published in ''Jutland 1916: The Archaeology of a Naval Battlefield'', for which he was awarded the 2016 Anderson Medal by the

Society for Nautical Research The Society for Nautical Research is a British society that conducts research and sponsors projects related to maritime history worldwide. Founded in 1910, the Society initially encouraged research into seafaring, ship-building, the language and ...

. The British submarine was also located during the North Sea surveys in 2016. In 2016, McCartney helped Scottish Power identify a World War I UB-III Class U-boat off the

Wigtownshire Wigtownshire or the County of Wigtown (, ) is one of the Counties of Scotland, historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Wigtownshire was an counties of Scotland, administrative county used for ...

coast which was found during the seabed survey for an undersea power cable between England and Scotland. McCartney has suggested the wreck is , or possibly , which were both sunk after attacks by British patrol boats in April 1918. In 2017 he assisted the Sea War Museum Jutland in a detailed survey of the Scapa Flow naval anchorages. The results were published in May 2019 in ''SCAPA 1919: The Archaeology of a Scuttled Fleet''. In May 2020 it was announced that the wreck of the landing craft ''LCT 326'' had been found off Bardsey Island during surveys by

Bangor University Bangor University () is a Public university, public Research university, research university in Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales. It was established by Royal charter, Royal Charter in 1885 as the University College of North Wales (UCNW; ), and in 1893 ...

, in collaboration with McCartney. The wreck is located over from its supposed loss position. In September 2021 as part of the same project, it was announced that the minesweeper HMS ''Mercury'' had been found in the Irish Sea. It sank in 1940 during sweeping operations. In September 2022 it was announced that the wreck of the liner SS ''Mesaba'' had been identified by McCartney in the Irish Sea during surveys by

. The ship is famous for having radioed an ice warning, picked up by which later struck an iceberg and sank with high loss of life in the

North Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

. SS ''Mesaba'' was sunk by German submarine on 1 September 1918. SS ''Mesaba'', ''LCT 326'' and HMS ''Mercury'' are examples of the 273 shipwrecks surveyed by

and assessed by McCartney in a

Leverhulme Trust The Leverhulme Trust () is a large national grant-making organisation in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1925 under the will of the 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), with the instruction that its resources should be used to cover ...

-funded research project, published as a single-authored monograph, ''Echoes from the Deep''. The project led to the naming of 87% of the wrecks surveyed.

Honours

* The Anderson Medal of the

(UK, 2016) awarded for * D.K. Brown Memorial Lecture of the World Ship Society (UK, 2016) * Reg Vallintine Achievement Award of the Historical Diving Society (UK, 2014) awarded for

Selected bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCartney, Innes 1964 births Alumni of Bournemouth University Alumni of Keele University Alumni of the University of Exeter English television personalities English underwater divers Living people Underwater archaeologists Underwater photographers