EVENT DATE: April 8, 2021
TOPIC: The Marine Wrecks Capital of the World

Kingston’s waterfront bears little evidence of the city’s role as a centre for maritime trade and ship-building in earlier centuries. One enduring lagacy is the number of shipwrecks that lie off her shores.

Mike began diving in the early 1970s, but an injury on active duty prevented him from certifying at that time. It wasn’t intil about twenty years ago that he managed to return to the sport. Scuba diving quickly became a principal source of recreation and he gained skills and experience rapidly to become an instructor by 2003. After retiring from a full career in the British Army, in 2006 he moved to Kingston, where he knew diving opportunities to be rich and varied in Lake Ontario and the adjacent St. Lawrence River.

He has long been associated with the first wreck preservation group to form in Ontario, in 1981, “Preserve Our wrecks, Kingston”. He led the organization for eight years, handing over the reins last year to a younger person, but remaining actively involved. He has nearly 2,500 dives under his belt, most of them in the cold waters of Lake Ontario. Other diving destinations include Cyprus, several Caribbean Islands, the Florida Keys, Hawaii, Fiji and Truk Lagoon in the Pacific Far East. Other interests include flying as a private pilot, photography and five grandchildren.