HMCS Trentonian, the Canadian corvette wreck from which UK divers raised the ship’s bell in the English Channel last year, has been designated as a Controlled Site by the UK Ministry of Defence Navy Command – along with another Canadian corvette, HMCS Regina, and a 127-year-old experimental destroyer, HMS Cobra.
The order, part of a new statutory instrument that extends the designation of vessels and Controlled Sites under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 (PMRA), means that these three warship wrecks can no longer be dived without written permission from the MoD.
“This has to be a direct result of the raising of the bell off HMCS Trentonian and indicates to the diving community that if you raise material from military sites then you will lose access to the site,” commented shipwreck archaeologist and maritime law expert Michael Williams.
The MoD has made no secret of its long-held ambition to designate all military-related wrecks as Protected Places automatically, as already happens with military aircraft.
Some Canadian authorities were understood to have raised the matter of the unauthorised recovery of the Trentonian’s bell with MoD Navy Command, even though it had been carried out in full compliance with existing law at the time.
Tip of the iceberg
Trentonian was torpedoed by a U-boat off Falmouth in Cornwall with the deaths of six crew in 1945, ending up in Channel waters at a depth of 65m.
Prominent UK wreck-diver Dom Robinson had recovered and declared the bell to the Receiver of Wreck before personally returning it to representatives of the Canadian Navy for restoration and display, having waived his legal right to salvage to speed up the transfer.
HMCS Regina, like Trentonian a Flower-class corvette, was torpedoed and sunk to a depth of 60m by a U-boat 15km north of Trevose Head in Cornwall in 1944.
HMS Cobra was a turbine-powered destroyer built speculatively for the Royal Navy in 1899. She did not see action, sinking off Cromer in Norfolk in 1901 after a break occurred between the two aft boilers, causing the deaths of 67 naval and shipbuilding personnel. Divers found the wreck in 2021.
The new designations are thought to be the tip of the iceberg for British wreck-divers. Earlier this month Divernet described in some detail how Clause 47 of the new Armed Forces Bill, currently making its way through Parliament and widely expected to be passed into law later this year, appears likely to transform British wreck-diving.
The updated PMRA will make it an offence to touch or disturb shipwrecks of any nationality that were sunk in British waters while engaged on military service, including armed and other merchant vessels. They will automatically be designated as Protected Places.
Individually designated Controlled Sites exist to provide an extra layer of protection in that the wrecks can be dived solely under MoD licence. At present only 16 shipwrecks are designated as Controlled Sites, including the three new additions.
20 more Protected Places
At the same time as the three Controlled Sites designations, another 20 wreck-sites have been added to the existing list of Protected Places under the order, bringing the total to 113.
The shipwrecks are: HMS Albacore, RFA Cairndale, HMS Coquette, RFA Dinsdale, Emile Deschamps, RFA Gray Ranger, HMS Hawke, RFA Hungerford, RFA Industry, HMS Jason, HMS Kale, RFA Montenol, ML-247, HMS Nottingham, HMS Recruit, RFA Salviking, RFA Slavol, USCG Tampa, TB-10 and TB-11.
Existing Controlled Sites the Scapa Flow battleships HMS Royal Oak and HMS Vanguard have had the no-go areas around them extended to 350m, while the co-ordinates for HMS Natal in Cromarty Firth have been adjusted.
Dom Robinson has joined Receiver of Wreck Stephen White in expressing concern to Divernet about the forthcoming legislation, both fearing that a reframed Armed Forces Act will have the effect of driving the reporting of underwater discoveries such as the Trentonian bell underground.
“Making all wrecks Protected Places will simply return us to the days when people didn’t declare things they found,” said Robinson.
Of the tens of thousands of known shipwrecks around the UK, it is estimated that a quarter were sunk during the two World Wars. The vast majority of the wreck-sites most popular with scuba divers were military or merchant wartime casualties.
Find the new PMRA Order for 2026 here
You can think English Heritage for this absolute ridiculous legislation don’t have a go at people like dom Robinson he would not of dived a ship that was protected if it was protected at the time he was like most other divers gladly spend their time and good money to drive wreck sites to identify them once they’re identified if they are some significance to people in relation to the sinking of the ship gladly give over the artefact to them to remember their lost ones English Heritage they are saving our heritage but what are they saving absolutely nothing there doing nothing to find these lost ships and lost artefacts I just don’t want no one to bring anything up shame on them ignorant people.
98% of fines from ships that have been missing for many years have been found by amateur divers they are just making it go underground stupid people and educated in the efforts of finding discovering and recovery