About Shipwrecks UK

At the heart of Shipwrecks UK is a unique resource. Its foundations comprise the entire dataset of the six volumes of the Lloyd's Register Shipwreck Index of the British Isles (and Shipwreck Index of Ireland) series. The authors of the volumes were Richard and Bridget Larn. The coverage of these volumes represented a herculean achievement, providing the basis for insights that Shipwrecks UK has since been able to extract, covering many centuries of maritime activity in the seas surrounding Britain and Ireland.

In 2004, I (Alan Jones) teamed-up with Richard and Bridget to create a resource that could reveal the myriad themes and patterns in that data and make it fully searchable and mappable.

See the Reviewers' Comments section of this website for reactions to the Shipwrecks UK resource from some very well-qualified commentators.

For well over a decade we were joint partners in Shipwrecks UK Ltd; we then reached a mutually-agreed stage where I purchased their shares to take the enterprise forward as the sole shareholder and director of the company, with ownership of all related intellectual property, including the full copyright of all Shipwreck Index data in electronic and print form and all the subsequent improvements that had been made to this. With the exception of limited uses granted to the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, Wales and Scotland bodies prior to Shipwrecks UK Ltd's formation in 2005, the company retains all rights and will, reluctantly, take action where these are infringed.

The development of the resource has provided a springboard for considerable expansion and enhancement of the shipwrecks data and its search and analysis capabilities so that it is now considerably extended and integrated beyond the content of the Index volumes. It is highly effective as a research tool.

The Index volumes make up a superb bookshelf set with much to be discovered within them as a result of the enormous expertise and dedication that was involved in their expert compilation. They are, however, out of print and cannot be searched or explored in ways possible with electronic information, though there are those who prefer the look and feel of printed books. Only Shipwrecks UK has had rights to re-issue these in any form following their print publication (1996 to 2002); there have been no authorised re-issues and, for the present, Shipwrecks UK has no plans to re-publish them. The Shipwrecks UK resource - and the enhancements that the data has since received - has obvious benefits if these can be fully realised through funding.

If you wish to have the ability to extract permutations and nuggets and answers from expanded and cross-checked electronic data, and want to save weeks or longer in searching through print sources, then making an enquiry to Shipwrecks UK is the way to go.

I started diving in 1966, gaining my Sports Diver equivalent (3rd Class Diver) soon after with Bristol Branch of the BSAC. Since finishing my RAF career, and with an IT background, I have spent most of my years in shipwrecks-related activity, primarily associated with the Shipwrecks UK resource, and have made more than 500 dives. I was a speaker at the annual Shipwreck Conference of the International Maritime and Shipwreck Society (IMASS) in 2006. I have become ever more fascinated and stimulated by the myriad ways in which shipwrecks offer a key to understanding much more about our maritime heritage and this was particularly sustaining during a period of cancer recovery and treatment; the subject is also a great antidote to some of the restrictions of Covid-19.

Alan Jones

"We have now decided to transfer complete control and ownership of Shipwrecks UK Ltd to Alan Jones, who has been our business partner in this venture since 2005. Alan is the best person to take forward Shipwrecks UK. His passion for shipwrecks research is combined with an impressive ability to bring a myriad of underlying themes to life through development of the critically-acclaimed Shipwrecks UK Resource." *

Richard and Bridget Larn

An acclaimed expert, Richard was very deservedly made OBE for services to nautical archaeology and marine heritage in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours.