Welcome To My Website's

Bringing together my closest passions.

The Wreck of the Rohilla

Whitby Art Society was commissioned to create individual works of art to tell the story of the Rohilla's loss, they became part of an RNLI touring exhibition. Thereafter a stunning book was produced which contains pictures of the 64 paintings. The book was limited and available from the Sutcliffe Gallery which has now unfortunately closed.

Whitby Lifeboat Station

The UK has taken a battering of late, even so RNLI volunteers remain ready to take the call day or night. In other parts of the country the RNLI had cause to launch into extreme conditions, sadly with loss of life, please spare a thought for your local crew.

Whitby Historic Lifeboat Trust

The scene above presents the launch of the William Riley based at that time at Upgang. The former lifeboat now tours the UK raising funds for the RNLI and other worthy causes.

Whitby Dive Site

My diving website with elements from my diving career, with GPS co-ordinates and information for popular wrecks off Whitby.

The Galleries

A selection of gallery pages where I have been able to present not only own photographs but also images belonging to those that have helped me when writing my books.

Mary Ann Hepworth

The former lifeboat Mary Ann Hepworth. Whitby's longest serving lifeboat and one with a ongoing passion for Whitby. The boat is no longer part of Whitby's wonderful charter boats and its owner now has a new venture.

** Featured Recommendations **

Clive Cussler

The legendary international best selling author Clive Cussler and his shipwreck endeavors working out of Whitby Harbour.

Ralph Wilbanks

Ralph Wilbanks, a side scan sonar specialist and advisor to Clive Cussler. A genial and amusing gentleman I enjoy meeting.

MV Ocean Dancer

An ex trawler with numerous charters for Clive Cussler and many varied interests. I was so sad to learn it had been put up for sale, as it was such a comfortable boat.

MV Baltic Warrior

The tug Baltic Warrior, an ocean going vessel built to withstand the rigors of Baltic waters. With the Ocean Dancer gone Clive  was forced to seek another charter vessel.

*** My Books ***

1) My first foray as an author in my own right, now out of print Scuba Diving was quite an achievement, the photograph was taken just prior to my first tumour surgery.

2) Invited to tender as an author for a diver training agency for the Sub Aqua Association (SAA) was quite an honour given it was their first true diving training manual of their own.

3) My third book was about the loss of the hospital ship Rohilla and the one I hold as the most dear to me. When I began writing the book I had no idea how much of a journey it would take me on or the wonderful people I would meet. It has seen me through some very serious health issues and one that I am most proud of.

4) The second edition of the SAA Club Diver Manual, was the first of my books to make it into a second edition and has a UK front cover image.

5) Since the first release of my 'Rohilla book' I continued to gather whatever research and illustrative material I could opening new avenues to study and has been a fascinating journey. It took over a year to fully revise the book and it is more of a 'new' book than a revision. I am proud to say that it is a more personal book.

Like the first edition of the Rohilla book I have shared many e-mails with family descendants, the information we shared provided the inspiration I needed to update the book.

The second edition is a book full of revelations including for the first time an accurate figure of the casualties. With so much new material added the size of the book is three times that of the first edition and I am proud to say that it has a more personal aspect to it.

With so much new material added the size of the book is three times that of the first edition and I am proud to have the opportunity to revise the book.

My biggest weakness is finding the time to add more content to the 400 + web pages I presently have, something I hope will prove more accommodating in the future. I have been asked in the past about my website endeavors and what my personal background is? To that end the link in the photograph leads to the "Epidermoid Brain Tumour Society" website, where have a personal page of my hidden disabilities that are comprehensive enough to detail my background, though since it was written there is quite a bit more I could add.

It is fair to say that I have had some problems to overcome and in many ways my website's keep me occupied, leaving me little room to dwell on my past. Having the brain tumour's has meant some drastic lifestyle changes but I remain resolute that at least they are slow growing tumour's.