Hi Club Members & Guests,

Join us from 6:30pm for a beer, glass of wine, meal and some diving adventures shared amoungst friends at the Clare Castle.

At 8pm we will have a presentation all the way from England, by UK diver Dom Robinson aka facebook handle Deep Wreck Diver about diving around the British Isles.

He's a person who ‘Always Fancied’ owning a shipwreck so buys one on Facebook Marketplace for £300. Dom jumped at the chance to purchase the S.S. “Almond Branch,” a cargo ship that’s been resting ~58m beneath the surface of the English Channel since World War 1.

Dom Robinson’s career blends deep-sea technical diving, maritime history investigation, teaching and media. Over decades he’s contributed to the discovery and identification of significant shipwrecks around the British Isles, sharing these explorations widely through digital media.  

Introducing Dom

• Dom Robinson is a British technical deep-sea diver and wreck explorer with over 40 years of diving experience and a long passion for maritime history.
• He is a former Army officer and military helicopter pilot, skills that have informed his disciplined approach to complex diving.
• Dom has worked as Head of Diving and Training for the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) and has also been involved in technical dive instruction, particularly involving deep, overhead-environment dives using rebreathers like CCR systems.

Deep Wreck Exploration

• Robinson focuses on deep wrecks around the British Isles, especially those in the English Channel, Celtic Sea and waters off Cornwall and Plymouth.
• He is known for locating, diving and documenting historic wrecks, often in challenging conditions (cold, deep water >80–100 m).
• His explorations are regularly featured on his YouTube channel Deep Wreck Diver and other social platforms where he combines dive footage with historical storytelling.

Notable Discoveries & Projects

Dom has been part of teams or led dives on a number of historically important wrecks (often with the Darkstar or Gasperados dive teams), including:

• USS Jacob Jones – first U.S. destroyer lost to enemy action, found about 115 m deep off Cornwall.
• HMS Marmora – a WWI auxiliary liner identified in deep water off the Irish coast.
• HMS Jason, HMS Negro and RMS Missanabie – other WWI-era wrecks in British waters.
• SS Nantes – a 19th-century steamship identified after nearly 140 years missing.

Public Outreach

• Dom shares his diving work publicly through Deep Wreck Diver content on YouTube and Facebook, often explaining both the technical aspects of the dives and the historical context of the wrecks.
• He’s appeared on dive-focused podcasts such as The BiG Scuba Podcast to discuss technical diving and shipwreck exploration.

Unique Notable Moments

• In 2025 he made headlines for buying the WWI cargo shipwreck SS Almond Branch on Facebook Marketplace for £300 and then diving to explore it first-hand — a quirky but very public demonstration of his passion for wrecks.
• Shared an incident where his underwater scooter caused serious trouble during a deep dive. In one of his Facebook posts he described “his most terrifying dive” involving a DPV/underwater scooter malfunction. Freedom of the scooter’s thrust apparently pulled him backward underwater while attached to his rebreather, creating a dangerous situation at depth. May the scooter RIP 

  😊

Dom said, “Each shipwreck has got a story associated with it, that’s something I find particularly rewarding.”

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Post-Presentation Agenda:

Following the presentation, we will be discussing safety items, upcoming events and travel updates.

We then finish with the Photo Competition.

Photo Competition Rules:

• You may submit up to two photos.
• Photos must have been taken in the prior 4-6 weeks.
• Photos must be your own work.
• Images should have some connection to diving (a photo with water typically suffices).

How to Enter:

• Ensure your photo is high resolution and in JPG format (bonus points for files under 5MB).
• Name the file using the following format: name_title_location_month.jpg (e.g., JaneDoe_Seahorse_GreatBarrierReef_February.jpg).
• Please use the emailed URL sent. (Search for email " VSAG Diving - VSAG Photo Competition - Month")
   

Event Details:

• Location: The Clare Castle, 354 Graham St, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207
• Dinner: 7:00 PM
• Meeting Start: 8:00 PM

If you wish to attend via zoom, the login in details are:

Link: Zoom Link Click

Meeting ID: 858 8055 8681

Passcode: 021427

If fewer than the required number of attendees are registered by 12:00 PM (noon) on the Monday before the event, the live meeting will be cancelled.