The SHIPS Project lecture series Tales of The Sea is a selection of inspirational and informative talks about the sea; how we work, play and interact with the sea and how our actions or lack of action affect the marine environment. The talks are on important subjects we should be discussing about our seas and oceans. 

Our speakers are pushing boundaries and are leaders in their field, they will talk about their passions and their work related to the sea. These talks are designed to raise awareness and create a narrative about maritime subjects and how they relate to you, bringing people together in an environment that allows inquisitive discussion.

Directions

The Tales of the Sea lecture series is on occasional Tuesday evenings and runs from January to May 2025, see the list of talks below. The talks will be hosted at Club 27 at No. 27 Bretonside in the Barbican in Plymouth. The Club will be open from 6pm, the talks start at 7pm lasting approximately one hour and the bar closes around 9pm. We will charge a small admission fee of £3..

Club 27 is next to The Kings Head pub and is situated above the Re-Wind Retro Music Bar so access is up stairs. The entrance for Club 27 is a red door with number 27 on and above it. Club 27 will only be open for the lecture series as a private event and the talks will not be broadcast online. Unfortunately there is no access for wheelchairs.

Parking - There is a small car park across the street from Club 27 and there are several multi-story car parks within walking distance, please see the areas highlighted in yellow on the map.

Time - Doors open 6pm, talks start 7pm

Tickets - £3

Address - 27 Bretonside, Plymouth, Devon, PL4 0BB

What3Words - ///equal.dare.tunes

Plymouth Bathing Waters and Year Round Testing

Postponed, new Date to be Announced

Surfers Against Sewage

Plymouth is a fantastic location for kayakers, paddle boarders and swimmers alike to get out on the water and take in the beautiful surroundings. But water quality is an issue, raw sewage is being dumped into our rivers and seas on a shockingly regular basis, so people are right to be apprehensive about taking a dip in untested waters. For areas designated official bathing water, the Environment Agency have to regularly test the water quality of the sea as well as making the results publicly available.

Kirsty's talk is about the problems with poor water quality at bathing sites and year round testing of the water.

Plymouth Castle and Barbican Rediscovered

Tuesday 1st April 2025

Peter Holt, The SHIPS Project CIC

Peter is a marine technologist and archaeologist who has recently written a book on Plymouth Castle and the early military defences of Plymouth.

Peter will be talking about Plymouth's castle, known as the Castle Quadrate, which was built on Lambhay Hill around 1377 and the Barbican and chain boom below that the castle was built to protect. Very little is known about these early defences because the town records were destroyed by arson in 1549 during an uprising. But there are clues about the precise location of the castle, how and why it was built and what it looked like in a few old documents, court and church records and in the landscape itself. In the process, a much older fort was discovered in the Barbican area, one destroyed in an attack by the French during the Hundred Years' War. This is the first time this new research into Plymouth Castle has been presented to the public.

Plymouth Sound National Marine Park

Tuesday 15th April 2025

Sam Balderson, Head Ranger PSNMP

Sam is the Head Ranger at the National Marine Park. Sam graduated from university, learned to SCUBA dive then worked on marine conservation projects in Mexico, Indonesia and the Seychelles. After working in the Falkland Islands, he returned to the Seychelles where he managed a conservation and activities centre for 6 years.  After that, Sam took on the role of Government Officer of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Sam arrived in Plymouth in 2022 and continued pursuing his passion for the marine environment through SCUBA diving and he is also an active crew member of the Plymouth RNLI lifeboat team.

Sam will be talking about the Plymouth Sound National Marine Park, the UK's first National Marine Park which is a collaboration between the ocean, heritage, and the city of Plymouth.

Marine Science Research in Plymouth

Tuesday 29th April 2025

Prof. Martin Attrill, Professor of Marine Ecology, University of Plymouth

Professor Martin Attrill is a marine ecologist whose primary research interest is long-term change and patterns in marine fish and invertebrate populations.

Martin has published over 160 papers primarily on fish and benthic habitats such as seagrass.  In recent years he has been involved in projects investigating the roles of Marine Protected Areas and their interaction with fishing. He helped develop the concept for National Marine Parks in the UK, supporting the first declared NMP in Plymouth.  From 2009-2018, Martin was Director of the Marine Institute at the University of Plymouth.

Martin will start his talk on the history of science research in Plymouth which has been globally important for marine research since the Marine Biological Association (MBA) opened in 1884.  The MBA is still going strong and a broad range of research is undertaken at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory and the University of Plymouth.  The talk goes on to highlight current groundbreaking research into seagrass habitats and carbon sequestration in the sea around Plymouth.

Plymouth as a Busy Commercial Port

Tuesday 6th May 2025

Richard Allan, Cattewater Harbour Master

Richard joined the Cattewater Harbour Commissioners as Deputy Harbour Master in 2017, becoming Harbour Master and Chief Executive in 2020. Following a successful career at sea as a Master Mariner, Richard is pleased to be working in his home port of Plymouth. Richard is an affiliated Member of the Nautical Institute.

Richard will be talking about the challenges of operating Plymouth as a busy commercial port, with over 2 million tonnes of cargo imported and exported through the Cattewater in 2024.

Previous Talks

Exploring the Deep Shipwrecks off Plymouth

Tuesday 14th January 2025

Dominic Robinson

Dominic Robinson is a former Army Officer and military helicopter pilot. An experienced technical diving instructor, Dom was previously Head of Diving and Training for the British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC) and he is now a senior manager at Babcock International, delivering specialist craft for the MOD.  

Dom has been exploring deep shipwrecks for more than 15 years, many in the English Channel off Plymouth, and has been involved in several projects that successfully identified wrecks laying in over 100m depth.  This kind of diving is challenging as the wrecks lie in deep, dark and cold water, so for divers to explore these sites safely requires extensive training and experience.  Dom’s underwater videos of these shipwrecks have helped to engage a new generation of divers with the many maritime losses around Plymouth from two World Wars.  

Dom’s passion for diving, love of history, and desire to tell tales of lost shipwrecks come together in this talk where you can hear about lost vessels in deep water explored by local divers.

Dom’s YouTube channel is at: https://www.youtube.com/@D33pUK

The Amazing Underwater World in Plymouth Sound

Tuesday 28th January 2025

Paul Naylor

Paul Naylor is a Plymouth-trained and based marine biologist and underwater photographer with a passion for showing people what beautiful and fascinating animals live around the British coast, through articles, talks, films, social media and TV, as well as his book – Great British Marine Animals. The creatures’ intriguing behaviour and colourful life stories are the particular focus of his still photography and video, both for scientific research and engaging audiences. His footage has appeared on the BBC’s One Show, Blue Planet UK, Countryfile and Autumnwatch.

He will share some of his recent images from our local waters around Plymouth, showing fish that build nests and lead complicated social lives, crabs that decorate themselves, sea slugs that recycle weapons and many more. Come along and be entertained by some of the unusual, rare and intriguing animals that lead their lives in our local waters.

Paul’s website: https://marinephoto.co.uk/

The Tale of the Metta Catharina Shipwreck

Tuesday 4th February 2025

Jon Parlour

Jon has been diving for more than 50 years, his enthusiasm for exploration and sharing his experiences with others has never waned. His interest in maritime history and archaeology grew during his time in the Royal Navy and subsequently as a diving instructor at Fort Bovisand Underwater Centre in Plymouth during the 1970s and 80s.

An avocational archaeologist, Jon has been a member of the Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) since 1990 and has assisted on a variety of archaeological sites in the UK and Northern Europe. As a NAS Tutor since 1995, he shares his passion for discovery, recording and interpretation of underwater sites through the delivery of a broad range of events.

Die Frau Metta Catharina von Flensburg was a brigantine, built in 1782 at Rønshoved on the north shore of Flensburg Fjord, now in Denmark.  In December 1786 the Catharina was carrying a cargo of hemp and reindeer hide to Genoa from Saint Petersburg when she took shelter from a storm in Plymouth Sound, unfortunately she dragged her anchors and sank in the Barn Pool. The wreck lay forgotten for nearly 200 years before the chance discovery of a bronze bell on the seabed by members of Plymouth Sound BSAC in October 1973. Under the leadership of Ian Skelton, the team excavated the wreck between October 1973 and the end of the project in 2006. In this talk, Jon tells the story of the Metta Catharina and her pioneering archaeological excavation under difficult conditions by a team of avocational divers from Plymouth.

Marine Protected Areas

Tuesday 18th February 2025

Dr Jean-Luc Solandt, Blue Marine Foundation

Jean-Luc has a background in marine biology and is fascinated by the interactions of marine species and habitats. After training in the UK, Australia and Jamaica, he has worked with scientists, policymakers and regulators to deliver well-managed Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) throughout Britain and the EU. He is a visiting research fellow at the University of Plymouth, providing knowledge at the policy/science interface. Jean-Luc has an established background in providing technical and policy advice on all matters related to the UK and overseas MPAs, including designations.

Jean-Luc will give us a talk on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), he will explain the background on how MPAs came to be created and what they do. In recent years, MPAs have had some great successes and challenges so Jean-Luc will tell us about some specific examples of MPAs like Plymouth Sound. Jean-Luc will also tell us about future plans for MPAs and how the public can participate in protecting our oceans.

What's in Plymouth Sound?

Tuesday 11th March 2025

Mallory Haas

Plymouth is a large natural harbour with a long history of human involvement with the sea, people travelled here in the Bronze Age, the Romans lived here and the Vikings came to visit. Plymouth has been an important and busy port for at least 5000 years and evidence of this trade has left its mark on the maritime landscape of Plymouth, from ancient shipwrecks and WWII crashed aircraft to marine rubbish and pollutants. Some of these man-made items have become artificial reefs which provide a habitat for marine life. However, not all materials left by man underwater are helpful so we must protect the sea and clean it up.  The Plymouth Sound Marine Protected Area has more than 1000 shipwrecks, 1000 marine species and more than 1000 polluting tyres, just what other curious things can you find in Plymouth Sound?

Mallory Rachel Haas is an archaeologist who started her career working in public archaeology and is now a Director of The SHIPS Project CIC.  She managed several seasons of field schools in the inner city of Cleveland, Ohio, engaging underprivileged youth in historical archaeology, using archaeology as a way to create an interest in science and history. Mallory got involved in diving and maritime archaeology in the Great Lakes in the USA and is now a commercial diver and mixed gas technical diver.   Mallory is an adviser on maritime heritage for the Port of Plymouth Maritime Liaison Committee (PPMLC) and sits on the board of IMASS, the organising committee for the International Shipwreck Conference.