A group of scuba divers have launched a mission to solve a centuries’ old shipwreck mystery off Portland.

A 13-strong team, led by diving officer of Aldershot Sub-Aqua Club and British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) diver Cameron Cromwell teamed up with a crew from the Weymouth-based charter boat the Wey Chieftain IV, skippered by Richard Bright-Paul, also a BSAC diver to undertake the mission earlier this month.

The team used metal detectors to help map the remains of two historic ships thought to have sunk in the 18th and 19th centuries off Portland Bill.

During the dive, the team photographed several metal cannon, mortar balls and fragments of wood that may date back as far as the 1700s.

Talking about the discovery, Cameron said: “These two sites have been known about for a while, but no-one knows what they are. We don’t yet know how old they are, but they could date back as far as the 18th century.

“Interestingly there were elephant tusks found previously at one of the sites, so perhaps it could be a trading vessel from Africa or India.

“A lot of what is down there is buried just below the sand, which is why we are using metal detectors to try to get a fuller picture.

“We are trying to collect whatever evidence we can, and where possible taking lots of photographs of what we see, to enable us to map the sites in more detail, plan more dives, and eventually hopefully identify the wrecks.

“There’s so much history down there that people don’t know anything about and we just want to find out as much as we can.”

Cameron, 54 and originally from America, has been diving since 2001 and is a BSAC Advanced Diver.

He and Richard came up with the project to dive the Weymouth cannon sites as part of Cameron’s work to qualify as a top-level BSAC First Class Diver.

Richard said that the aim of projects such as this is to try and identify the shipwreck and gather information to help them recount the circumstances of the ship’s sinking.

Wey Chieftain IV skipper Richard Bright-Paul said: “These are a couple of sites that we have been investigating for a number of years.

“The whole of the Chesil beach area is an interesting area. We think up to 300 ships were wrecked on the beach over the years.

“Many ships caught in a storm in Lyme Bay ended up being wrecked on Chesil Beach.

“The death toll was prolific in that area, there is a section which was known as Deadman’s Bay as sadly so many people washed up there.

“Every ship has a story to tell. They are all time capsules. On most, there is a tragic story as there tended to be a loss of life.”

Richard continued: “These two wrecks are much older. Older ships of this era were made primarily of wood, and the majority of the ships disintegrate and disappear over time.

“Most of the wood disappears and you are left with iron fragments, typically cannon, the anchor and sometimes the anchor chain.

“It was pretty exciting to find some wood still at the sites but it’s a bit of a puzzle to piece together what you are looking at. It’s not impossible that it could be several wrecks piled together on a site.”

The research on solving the mystery of the two wrecks continues.

The project would not be possible without the knowledge and support of skipper Richard, says Cameron, who is backing BSAC’s new “use it or lose it” Save our Skippers campaign.

The goal is to encourage more scuba divers to use Charter Boats up and down the UK, after reports some companies are struggling to survive.