The Project

Overview
The project itself has been split into a number of stages, each of which are recorded in more detail in the following sections.

Following its inception the project evolved through a number of titles. Sink One 4 Sussex was eventually settled upon as it best described the project theme and geographic area of interest.
The inspiration for Sink One 4 Sussex comes from Europe's first ship based artificial reef; HMS Scylla, which was scuttled in 2004 off Plymouth.

The location of the proposed artificial reef is aimed to be on the Meridian line at a suitable location for diver access without obstructing shipping. Two close locations have been identified and investigated.

Ideally one of the Royal Navy's decommissioned Type 42 Destroyers will be used for the Sink One 4 Sussex project. Several alternate ships have been identified, should a Type 42 Destroyer not be available.

Whichever ship is acquired for the project, it will need to be towed from the Royal Navy dockyard at Portsmouth to a more local port for cleaning, then onto the scuttling site ready to be sunk.

Cleaning the ship will need to be done to meet the requirements of any scuttling licence granted by the Marine Management Organisation as well as satisfying the Environment Agency. The scrap materials removed from the ship are expected to cover some of the cost involved in preparing the ship for scuttling.

The final positioning of the ship prior to scuttling will need to be achieved using tugs and anchors to secure the ship against current, wind and wave action.

The scuttling will be achieved with the use of explosive cutting charges. A number of options are being explored with the emphasis being on the more environmentally friendly options.

During the lead up to and on the scuttling day there will be a major publicity campaign taking place.
Once the ship has been scuttled there will be an on-going maintenance programme that will require funding into the future.