"Rod took up diving in 1981and soon got bitten by a strong interest in shipwrecks.In 1990 he published his first book on wrecks, Dive Scapa Flow which recounted the dramatic events leading up to the scuttling of the entire German WW I of 74 warships in Scapa Flow in the Orkney Isles of northern Scotland on 21 June 1919. The dramatic salvage of all bar 7 of these ships in the coming decades was the most momentous feat of maritime salvage ever attempted. Today these seven remnants of the High Seas Fleet lie in the dark still depths of Scapa Flow along with countless other wrecks, casualties of Orkney's maritime past, and draw thousands of divers to Scapa each year. Dive Scapa Flow is now in it's 3rd edition, now expanded and updated to include the techjnical diving wrecks of HMS Hampshire (70msw) on which Lord Kitchener died in 1916 and HMS Strathgarry.

His 2nd book Dive Scotland's Greatest Wrecks was published in 1993 and is now in it's 2nd edition and covers 14 of the greatest wrecks in Scottish waters in detail with stunning paintings of the wrecks on the seabed.

Check out his site on www.shipwrecksofscotland.com where the books and prints of the shipwreck paintings can be ordered.

Rod was also instrumental in the making of the dive videos Dive Scapa Flow, Ghost Ships of Truk Lagoon, and Palau and has written extensively for major newspapers and dive magazines and appeared on radio and television. A recent surprisingly non- wreck orientated venture was the filming of the Equinox Lethal Seas programme for Channel 4 for which Rod and a team of daring divers dived into the Corrywrecken Whirlpool, the 3rd largest whirlpool in the world, to stand on the needle like pinnacle at 40msw. All around the pinnacle plunged down to 200msw. When the team's bubbles started being sucked downwards by the whirlpool it was time to blow delayed deco bags, fill wings and suit and head up through the grip of the downrushing current. A scary time indeed.

Rod is a BSAC Advanced Diver and TDI Advanced Trimix Diver and lives and works in Stonehaven, Scotland. His involvement in the Exped is to survey the POW & Repulse with a view to creating paintings of the wrecks on the seabed today and to assist in the underwater filming of the wrecks."