Sources, data and attribution

Wrecksite.uk combines modern hydrographic and shipwreck datasets with historical research from published, archival and specialist maritime sources. This page describes the principal datasets used by the maps and the approach taken to sourcing the site's historical material.

The wrecks data is sourced from the Admiralty Marine Data Portal as a TSV and was reprocessed to EPSG:3857, with fields sanitised. This data is used under the Open Government Licence .

Bathymetric data was sourced from the Seabed Mapping Service. The resolution of the data is a maximum of 2m and was processed from the supplied .bag files with GDAL, generating hillshades and reprojecting to EPSG:3857 for web map integration.

This data is also used under the Open Government Licence. More information can be found here .

Irish wreck data

Wreck information displayed on the Ireland map is sourced from INFOMAR, the Irish national seabed-mapping programme delivered jointly by Geological Survey Ireland and the Marine Institute.

INFOMAR provides shipwreck locations, associated metadata, imagery, survey reports and, for many wrecks, 3D models through its shipwreck database and online services.

Contains Irish Public Sector Data (Geological Survey Ireland & Marine Institute) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.

Historical and editorial sources

The Spotted articles bring together wreck survey information with historical research from a range of published and archival sources.

Depending on the wreck, these sources may include official hydrographic and archaeological reports, national archives, museum collections, shipbuilding records, contemporary newspapers, specialist maritime histories and other published reference works.

Frequently used sources include the Historic England archive and research publications, Imperial War Museum, The National Archives, and individual wreck reports published by INFOMAR.

Specialist sources are also used where appropriate, including shipbuilding databases, local historical archives and maritime research sites. Each Spotted article includes its own references and further-reading section so that the sources used for that particular wreck can be checked directly.

Where sources disagree on dates, casualty figures, dimensions or the circumstances of a loss, Wrecksite.uk aims to make those differences clear rather than silently choosing one version.