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NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY
LOUISE TREWAVAS
KATE MOSS IS OFFICIALLY NAUGHTY. So naughty that she's had to apologise publicly for snorting industrial quantities of cocaine at parties. Does she regret it? I suspect not. But what you enjoy doing and what you can justify publicly can often conflict.
What passes for acceptable behaviour within a small group of people - fashion models, police recruits, wreck-divers - will be condemned as unacceptable when exposed to the outside world.
It's not so long since divers were exposed as ruthless grave-robbers in the Western Morning News, and a group of worthy and responsible diver-training agencies were apologising, on all our behalves, for divers ripping stuff off wrecks. "So sorry - won't do it again," they promised.
There were snorts, but only of derision; most wreck-divers can afford only the one addiction. Sadly, the PR person who wrote Kate Moss's official apology is probably more adept at representing cocaine-users than the "Wreck Respect" coalition of diver-training agencies is British wreckies. All the apologies and worthy editorials in the world will not stand between a man with a crowbar and his brass.
Even if you feel that what people stick up their noses is their own business, what Kate did was illegal. What wreckies do is technically legal, though many regard ripping bits off wrecks that are graves as morally repugnant behaviour that ought to be criminal.
Wrecking is legal - if you fill out the forms. So, naturally, many don't. Secretiveness is just so irresistible when you know you're being bad! I suspect that Kate's biggest regret is not her cocaine habit, but the loss of secrecy. So is diving naughty? With deference to Woody Allen, some wreckies believe "it is - if you're doing it right".
Personally, I get no thrills from brass or cocaine. I reckon there are far more interesting ways to get naughty than with a crowbar and lift-bag (or a line of Charlie). But who am I to judge?
It's time for the diving community to stop being so lame and hypocritical. Privately, we revel in bagging up brass and treasure of any description. It's cool. Skippers love it - to a man, they keep photo libraries of everything juicy that's been recovered.
Yet at the same time, there's either a conspiracy of denial about what's going on, or a complete misunderstanding of UK divers by the agencies and some of the publications that profess to represent them.
Supermodels are a small minority of the fashion world, and serious wreckies a small minority of the diving world.
In both communities, when it comes to facing up to exposure, sorry seems to be the easiest word. Honesty is the hardest.
Take two scenarios: in one, an archaeologist is trying to ban diving on the wreck of the Storaa because it might have had some vague military use and should therefore be defined as a war grave.
This wreck was originally sold to a diver for salvage by the MoD. Only DIVER has reported this in a way that stands up for the interests of divers and defends their right to dive.
In the second scenario - reported in this issue - a group of divers contacted veterans from a Canadian corvette torpedoed in WW2 and organised a dive to remember those lost. Now that's real respect.
I don't see the Wreck Respecters rushing to acknowledge the efforts of Ilfracombe BSAC, but what a great adventure! Good effort.
Sometimes it takes a bit of exposure to pinpoint where values have gone adrift. Bagging up brass is a short-term thrill - but it isn't evil. Events like those around HMCS Regina give divers long-term satisfaction and a much bigger high. Far cooler than a porthole.
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