Go Diving Show 2025 Tech Stage Speaker: Rich Walker
Technical instructor trainer Rich Walker will be taking to the Tech Stage at the GO Diving Show in March to talk about the 2024 expedition to the shipwreck of the HMS Exmouth.
On 21 January 1940, HMS Exmouth was torpedoed by U-22 some 20 miles off Wick, in the Moray Firth, while escorting Cyprian Prince from Aberdeen to Scapa Flow.
She sank with all 190 hands.
A probable position was identified by Bob Baird and Kevin Heath, and in 2001, divers from the European Technical Diving Centre confirmed the site was HMS Exmouth. In 2002, she was designated a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.
In 2024, a licence to dive the site was obtained from the MOD, and in August of 2024, a team of divers assembled to document the site and pay their respects to those lost. Diving took place from MV Clasina, and Kevin Heath from Lost in Waters Deep was also on board to direct side-scan sonar surveys.
Rich Walker and Jen Smith will present a short history of HMS Exmouth, and then show a combination of sketch, video, photography and photogrammetry media to reveal this important war grave to the audience. Rich said he hopes that the people present will feel some of the same reverence the divers felt on the dives and join them in paying respect to the brave crew of HMS Exmouth.
Go Diving Show 2025 takes place at the NAEC Stoneleigh Park, Coventry, on the 1st -2nd March.
