Post wars, an enormous number of the shipwrecks around the UK were dynamited or professionally salvaged, partly to recover valuable metals but mostly to remove hazards to shipping. None of this raised as much as a murmer of protest at the time. It is only in recent years, due to the rise in recreational diving that the issue of 'wreck plundering' has become such a hot topic.
There is still, within the British diving community, a hardcore element for whom a crowbar and lumphammer are essential parts of their diving equipment and shiney 'spidge', lovingly polished and displayed, their raison d'etre.
How many of them, however, would support such activity, simply for resale to second hand shops is less than certain.
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