Shipwreck Expeditions

Shipwreck Expedition Association

Our diving adventures have spanned many years.  We started at a time when diving equipment was a rarity and difficult to come by.  There were no dive centers and no one was offering dive trips. In the ensuing years the dive industry has expanded exponentially and there are dive shops in virtually every city.  Dive equipment and techniques are light-years ahead of what they were when we began.  Now you can go online and book a diving adventure in every corner of the globe.  The seas and oceans are open for us to explore!

Our website was created to pique your interest in underwater exploration and  history and show you where the two  meet. The history and exploration of shipwrecks are for us much more than a passion. For a long time people have looked at shipwrecks from a different point of view. Over the years this changed from looking at wrecks for what we could get from them to looking at them as living history to be photographed, video-taped and studied for their historical significance.  Many of the wrecks we survey are a mystery.  Often times we don’t know how they arrived at their resting places and often do not even know their names.

For divers who enjoy history and who have a desire to take it to the next level there is still an entirely new world waiting to be discovered. Diving as a detective is perhaps the most difficult type of diving because it takes a great deal of time and effort and does not guarantee success.  For those who simply love a mystery and what goes into solving it the reward can be very great.

We don’t see shipwrecks as steel or wooden debris littering the bottom of bodies of water, we view them with the respect they deserve and work towards their protection.  Every shipwreck is a living museum behind which is an amazing story that is waiting to be discovered.  We can all make a contribution to saving the white pages of history, and the inaccessibility of the environment in which we operate gives us an advantage and opens up amazing possibilities.  Let’s use it because there is still so much to discover.

We encourage you to take the plunge and explore the deeper history of shipwrecks and to document and publish your discoveries. Please contact us to share your findings today!

Team members

Peter Wytykowski

Born in Lodz, Poland. Lives in Michigan, USA. Since 1990, an active scuba diver with many levels of certification such as technical, professional, CCR and underwater archeological diver.  For several years a journalist and correspondent for a scuba diving magazine in Poland. Professional underwater videographer.  Since 2010, a co-organizer of the Shipwreck Festival in Lodz, Poland. This event is nonprofit and concentrates on helping the Children’s’ Hospice Home in Lodz, Poland with purchasing medical equipment for the children. Has been recognized and honored as a “Friend of the Hospice Home” for all of the support. Member of The Explorers Club in New York, as well as the Polish Chapter. Vice President of the Shipwreck Expeditions Association. Organizer and team leader of 15 scientific expeditions.

Significant expeditions as a team leader: 2006 – Lofoten Islands, Norway 2007 – Scapa Flow in Orkney, Scotland 2008 – Sardinia-Corsica 2009 – U-260 Baltimore, Ireland 2010 – Narvik, Norway 2011- First Polish Scientific Gallipoli Expedition 2012 – Sierra 2012 Expedition – honored by the Flag of The Explorers Club. 2014 – The Vanishing Dutchman – Sierra 2014 Expedition – honored by the Flag of The Explorers Club. The two expeditions led to determine the name of the shipwreck as Diemermeer, a ship which belonged to the Dutch East India Company. 2014 – Malta 2014 “The Hunt for L72” expedition – honored by the Flag of The Explorers Club. On September 22, 2014 the Polish destroyer ORP Kujawiak was found after being missing for 72 years.

Roman Zajder

Leader of the expedition and underwater photographer. President of the Wreck Expedition Association: www.wyprawywrakowe.pl and co-organizer of the Lodz Festival. of Wreck Diving: www.festiwalwrakowy.com. Member of The Explorers Club and the organizer and participant in 14 shipwreck expeditions, Roman  collaborates with experts from academia bringing a major contribution to historical knowledge.
Major projects: 2000 – Loch Ness – Scotland. Aland 2005 – exploration of the wreck of the last metal sailing ship S/S PLUS. 2007. Scapa Flow, Orkney – exploration of battleships and cruisers from the period of WWI. 2008. Sardinia – Corsica – the exploration of shipwrecks sunk during WWII. 2009. U-260 in Baltimore, Ireland – exploration of the U-boat U-260 2010. Narvik, Norway – exploration of shipwrecks and ships sunk during the two naval battles in April 1940. 2011-First Polish Expedition Dive at Gallipoli – Turkey, exploring shipwrecks sunk during the Battle of the Dardanelles in WWI. 2012. Banana Island, Sierra Leone- the exploration of the wreck of a sailing ship of the seventeenth century. This Expedition was honored with The Explorers Club flag . 2014 – Malta 2014 “The Hunt for L72” expedition – honored by the Flag of The Explorers Club. On September 22, 2014 the Polish destroyer ORP Kujawiak was found after being missing for 72 years.

Mark “Sharky” Alexander

The owner of Sharky’s Underwater Expeditions. He has been diving since 1991 and has logged thousands of open water and technical dives. He holds instructor certifications with IANTD, TDI, and PADI training agencies. He has years of experience in teaching all areas of diving including recreational, rebreather, Normoxic Trimix and Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures. He has the technical ability and skills needed for deep dives in many challenging environments. Sharky has led expeditions to explore the Andrea Doria, USS Monitor, EM Clark, and U-869 off the East Coast of the United States. In Europe, he has explored the Graf Zeppelin and the WillhelmGustoff.

Sharky has worked on projects with the Discovery Channel as a safety diver, line tender, and paramedic in Nome, Alaska during Bering Sea Gold’s“Under the Ice” television series. He was a dive team member for the Military Channel’s “Quest for Sunken Warships: Truk Lagoon & Torpedo Alley.” Sharky was also a deep water mixed gas diver and medical officer for the Gertrude Tomkins Expedition to search for the last missing WASP.

Sharky is a full time paramedic for St. Charles County Ambulance District. He is an instructor in Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Pediatric Advanced Life Support, and Advanced Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support.

Sharky is a member of The Explorers Club, a fellow with The Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers, and a retired 20-year veteran of the US Air Force with four deployments to the Middle East.

Leigh Bishop

Leigh is a world-renowned shipwreck explorer and specialist deep-water photographer. He has been a member of many well know shipwreck expeditions.  As a pioneer of deep wreck mixed gas wreck diving in and around Europe, his specialist deepwater photography, alongside his research has led to the documentation and discovery of hundreds of shipwrecks and several famous ones. 
He has been a member of some of the most significant deep shipwreck expeditions over the last two decades, that has utilized mixed gas and modern technology to explore deeper and previously unseen shipwrecks. Some of these include expeditions to HMHS Britannic, the worlds largest sunken liner; RMS Lusitania, RMS Egypt, RMS Transylvania in the North Atlantic and the Nazi liner Wilhelm Gustloff in the Baltic just to mention a few. He has also explored an estimated 400 un-dived deep shipwrecks off the English coastline and been the first to dive many U-boats that lie in these waters.
He was a member of an Australian led team to photograph the deep Gold ship Niagara off New Zealand and is currently working with an ongoing project to photograph the deep wrecks of Truk Lagoon in the Pacific. He has also been a photographer on the expeditions to the Arctic in search of the lost British Submarine X5. He was the first to photograph & explore other famous lost British submarines such as HMS Vandal HMS Affray & HMS M1 all in deep water. He was also a member of the 2003 NOAA Titanic expedition aboard the Russian research vessel Keldysh. 
In 2014 he has joined expeditions to Sierra Leone, Africa as well as the Mars in the Baltic Sea sunk in 1564. Leigh is recognized as an innovator of black & White time exposure photography underwater, using a tripod he has used this method to capture many inspiring shipwreck images like the famous bow of the massive liner Justica and the huge guns of HMS Audacious. Leigh has been used as an expert in several television deepwater shipwreck documentaries and worked as a deep-water cameraman for National Geographic as well as the History Channel, ITV, Channel 4 and other global networks. He is a prolific speaker and lectures on the subject of shipwrecks globally and over the last two decades his photographs have been used in countless books and major worldwide newspapers. He has published hundreds of shipwreck articles that have appeared in just about every diving magazine around the world. He is the Original founder of EUROTEK and the idea behind the concept. More information can be found on his website. www.deepimage.co.uk

Piotr Kardasz

Peter is a filmmaker and documentarian of diving and the underwater world. A wreck and cave diver, GUE diver, specialist in underwater videography, assembly and digital video editing, and Certified Final Cut Pro. A graduate in Underwater Archaeology at the University of Warsaw, Peter has been diving for 10 years and filming underwater for 7 years. Peter is interested in film technology and equipment suitable for diving in difficult conditions, in the dark, and on the deep wrecks and in caves. He shares his passion in lectures, workshops, and in underwater videography. He has taken part in interesting and challenging projects and diving trips including: “Morpheus Project” – a project of scientific research in the caves of Croatia, “Reach DNA” – the search for wrecks in the Baltic Sea, “Sierra 2012” – the study and exploration of an 18th century wreck, the expedition under the auspices of The Explorers Club, “Crimea Project” – Warsaw University archaeological expedition,  and the “Veneto Project” – a deep cave diving project. And most recently L72: A Forgotten Tragedy. www.kardasz.net

Mariusz Borowiak

Mariusz is a writer and maritime historian. For several years he has worked as a freelance writer for magazines nationwide, writing about the recent history of the Polish Navy since the establishment of Polish sea power until the end of World War II. He has written many historical pieces on great achievements on the seas and oceans from the tenth century to modern times. His writing has dealt extensively with the history of the German U-Bootwaffe in the years 1935-1945 (released 5 books in print – the most famous: “Assassins U-boats. Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1945”, “Iron sharks Donitza”, Vol. 1-2, “U 977. Hitler’s Last Ship”). He has also published a few hundred articles in specialized journals – domestic and foreign. He has been writing for 17 years.

In 1999 he made his debut with his book “A small fleet without myths” which has been through three editions and sparked outrage and debate in the media for several months among historians, former Polish seafarers living in exile, and supporters of the history of the Polish Navy. He has released 25 books (8 publications in preparation for printing), most were repeatedly reprinted. Co-author of encyclopedias, dictionaries and glossaries. His articles and books (including the only released biography of Admiral Joseph Unruga, commander of the Navy in the years 1925 to 1939; with four editions) were
a pretext for the preparation of numerous radio and television reports. He has participated in the National and International Book Fairs and Historical Book Fair many times. He works in publishing houses, preparing prefaces and afterwords and is responsible for substantive attention to books by other authors on naval matters. On the basis of his book “Westerplatte. In defense of the truth”  a script was written and the controversial feature film” Westerplatte Mystery “(2013 r., Dir. Paul Chochlew) was made.

Mariusz Borowiak is currently the most prominent historical journalist dealing with maritime affairs.

Dr Piotr Nykiel

More about Piotr:  www.navyingallipoli.com

Mark Jonesy, 44 years old and live in Manchester, England. I have been diving for 12 years, and deep wreck diving for 7 years. Most of my diving takes place in the North Sea, off Scotland and Newcastle. I enjoy shipwreck identification, recovering artefacts and treasure hunting. My most enjoyable dive to date was the Centinary dive on the SS Desable, off the coast of Scotland where I recovered the ship’s bell!