Book review – Shipwrecks of the Dover Straits

Thousands of ships have foundered in the Dover Straits over the centuries, each with a fascinating story to tell, as a new book reveals. 

Author Stefan Panis did his first dive at the age of 6, and gained his first scuba qualification all the way back in 1992. Since then, he has gone on to have an impressive career as a wreck and cave diver, photographer and underwater explorer.

He has previously co-authored a book on underwater treasures, also available through Whittles Publishing, but Shipwrecks of the Dover Straits is his first solo publishing effort. And what a treat for the eyes it is.

Consider how long Great Britain has been a mighty sea power, and how many vessels have sailed through the Dover Straits taking cargoes and crews between nations: this has been a vital passage for centuries, possibly millennia.

visibility in the Dover area can often be very ‘challenging’…  it is therefore a pleasant surprise that there are some many beautiful colour pictures included

The sheer number of interesting wrecks that have foundered in this small stretch of sea during storms, wars (large and small) and through poor seamanship has left an astonishing underwater museum for divers to find.

Stefan has spent years trawling through the museum so we don’t have to.

Any diver who knows the Dover area will attest that visibility here can often be very ‘challenging’ (diver-speak for awful to non-existent.) It is therefore a pleasant surprise that there are some many beautiful colour pictures included. While camera technology has greatly improved in recent years, the basics of taking compelling underwater photos in silt or sediment mean underwater story books often lean heavily on words or drawings.

Not so here, and anyone who finds reading too taxing will simply enjoy flicking through Stefan’s image collection showing hundreds of years of crockery, glassware, clothes and artefacts, wreckage, ship’s timbers, machinery and even foodstuffs.

Gallery – view the wrecks

Context is everything however, and Stefan is also an accomplished researcher who has taken the time to understand fully why shipwrecks have ended up where they are. Invariably there are cuttings or press reports from newspapers or maritime journals making oblique reference to a lost vessel, which he somehow manages to unearth.

Using the knowledge gleaned by keen wreck divers and skippers in the Dover area, Stefan is able to paint a picture of some of the lives lost to the sea in these busy waters.

Is the book a dive guide? Not really, in the sense that you won’t find GPS marks or diving advice for these sites – many of which will undoubtedly be very challenging to visit for the average recreational diver.

However, Shipwrecks of the Dover Straits is a fantastic starting point for anyone who has every looked out to sea and wondered what treasures and stories may lie undiscovered not far from our shores. As Stefan has proved with this new book, the answers are many – and there are many more left to tell no doubt.

Published by Whittles Publishing, ISBN 978-184995-496-9 240 × 170mm 208pp profusely illustrated in full colour plus c.125 newspaper reports softback £18.99 April, 2024