Richard Larn
Encyclopedia
Richard James Vincent Larn, OBE
(born 1931) is a retired Chief Petty Officer in the Royal Navy
, a businessman and maritime history
writer
who is widely regarded as one of Britain's leading historic shipwreck
experts.
and raised in Great Yarmouth
before being evacuated to Oxford
during the Second World War, he went to a sea training school at the age of 14. Larn taught himself to dive in 1947, using a German-made Dräger
U-boat
escape set
in the River Thames
. He then joined the Merchant Navy where he served his apprenticeship as a deck-officer with the South America
n Saint Line and eventually became 2nd Mate
. In 1950 he transferred to the Royal Navy
where he stayed for 22 years. As a mechanician
and diver
he served in Korea
and participated in technical diving
expeditions all over the world.
In 1957 he became a BSAC
member, and served as BSAC Deputy Diving Officer in 1961 and 1962. Larn was also among the early members of NACSAC
, which was established in the early 1960s with Lieutenant
Roy Graham as its first chairman. One of the club's first major projects was to send a team of divers to the Isles of Scilly
off the coast of Cornwall
to find an historic Royal Navy ship, like HMS Association, a 90-gun ship of the line
lost in the great naval disaster of 1707
. In 1964 about ten NACSAC members, including Larn, arrived on Scilly - thought at that time to be only the second group of divers ever to come there. Their initial dives sparked off a long chain of navy visits that continued for four years. In 1964, 1965 and 1966 the
divers could only get out to the Western Rocks
, but hardly around the Gilstone Ledge, where a later expedition managed to locate the wreck of HMS Association in 1967; Larn was not present.
, and in 1976 established the Charlestown Shipwreck, Rescue and Heritage Centre which he ran until 1998. Living in Charlestown
for 31 years, he was joint owner and curator
of one of the largest collections of shipwreck artefacts
on public display in Europe. After retiring from the shipwreck centre Larn and his wife Bridget moved to the Isles of Scilly
in 1998, where they had first lived from 1986 to 1991 when they set up and ran the Longstone Heritage Centre.
Together with his wife he has written over 36 books and articles on maritime history
and archaeology
, shipwrecks and the sea. Their 'Shipwreck Index of the British Isles', a work with 40,000 ship details for the Lloyd's Register of Shipping, was used by the Royal Commission for Historic Monuments to establish the National Maritime Record, followed by a similar record for the Scottish and Welsh Governments.
In retirement
, Larn is still active in diving, mostly in the Isles of Scilly. His other interests include figurehead and ship carving. When in 2007 the council of Scilly commemorated the 300th anniversary of the great naval disaster of 1707
, Larn was among the principal organisers and also gave a public lecture, as did Dava Sobel
, author of Longitude
, and Sir Arnold Wolfendale
, the 14th Astronomer Royal
.
at Redruth
in 2006. In the Birthday Honours 2009
he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
for "services to nautical archaeology and marine heritage".
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born 1931) is a retired Chief Petty Officer in the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, a businessman and maritime history
Maritime history
Maritime history is the study of human activity at sea. It covers a broad thematic element of history that often uses a global approach, although national and regional histories remain predominant...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
who is widely regarded as one of Britain's leading historic shipwreck
Shipwreck
A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....
experts.
Career at Sea
Born in NorfolkNorfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
and raised in Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is at the mouth of the River Yare, east of Norwich.It has been a seaside resort since 1760, and is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the sea...
before being evacuated to Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
during the Second World War, he went to a sea training school at the age of 14. Larn taught himself to dive in 1947, using a German-made Dräger
Dräger
The Drägerwerk AG is a German company based in Lübeck which makes breathing and protection equipment, gas detection and analysis systems, and noninvasive patient monitoring technologies. Customers include hospitals, fire departments and diving companies....
U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
escape set
Escape set
An escape set is a breathing set, which lets its wearer survive for a time in an environment without breathable air, in particular underwater, primarily or originally intending mainly to survive long enough to reach safety where the air is breathable.The escape set was developed from such...
in the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
. He then joined the Merchant Navy where he served his apprenticeship as a deck-officer with the South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
n Saint Line and eventually became 2nd Mate
Second Mate
A second mate or second officer is a licensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship. The second mate is the third in command and a watchkeeping officer, customarily the ship's navigator. Other duties vary, but the second mate is often the medical officer and in charge of maintaining...
. In 1950 he transferred to the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
where he stayed for 22 years. As a mechanician
Mechanician
A mechanician is an engineer or a scientist working in the field of mechanics, or in a related or sub-field: engineering or computational mechanics, applied mechanics, geomechanics, biomechanics, and mechanics of materials...
and diver
Diver
Diver or divers can refer to:*Diving, the sport of performing acrobatics while jumping or falling into water**:Category:Divers*Underwater diving**:Category:Underwater divers**Scuba diving, in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater...
he served in Korea
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
and participated in technical diving
Technical diving
Technical diving is a form of scuba diving that exceeds the scope of recreational diving...
expeditions all over the world.
In 1957 he became a BSAC
British Sub Aqua Club
The British Sub-Aqua Club or BSAC has been recognised since 1954 by the Sports Council as the governing body of recreational diving in the United Kingdom....
member, and served as BSAC Deputy Diving Officer in 1961 and 1962. Larn was also among the early members of NACSAC
Naval Air Command Sub Aqua Club
The Naval Air Command Sub Aqua Club is an organisation within the Royal Navy that oversees sports and technical diving training activities for naval aviation and fleet units. Today it has branches at RNAS Culdrose and RNAS Yeovilton . Both bases provide training, and club members regularly dive...
, which was established in the early 1960s with Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
Roy Graham as its first chairman. One of the club's first major projects was to send a team of divers to the Isles of Scilly
Isles of Scilly
The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The islands have had a unitary authority council since 1890, and are separate from the Cornwall unitary authority, but some services are combined with Cornwall and the islands are still part...
off the coast of Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
to find an historic Royal Navy ship, like HMS Association, a 90-gun ship of the line
Ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...
lost in the great naval disaster of 1707
Scilly naval disaster of 1707
Scilly naval disaster of 1707 is an umbrella term for the events of 22 October 1707 that led to the sinking of a British naval fleet off the Isles of Scilly. With four large ships and more than 1,400 sailors lost in stormy weather, it was one of the greatest maritime disasters in the history of...
. In 1964 about ten NACSAC members, including Larn, arrived on Scilly - thought at that time to be only the second group of divers ever to come there. Their initial dives sparked off a long chain of navy visits that continued for four years. In 1964, 1965 and 1966 the
divers could only get out to the Western Rocks
Western Rocks, Isles of Scilly
Western Rocks is a group of uninhabited islands in the Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom.They are located south-west of St Mary's, with Annet and St Agnes immediately to their north-east and Bishop Rock to their west. The larger islands in this archipelago are, from north to south: Great Crebwethan,...
, but hardly around the Gilstone Ledge, where a later expedition managed to locate the wreck of HMS Association in 1967; Larn was not present.
After the Navy
In 1972 Larn left the Royal Navy as a Chief Petty Officer to pursue a career in private business. He founded a commercial diving training centre in FalmouthFalmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....
, and in 1976 established the Charlestown Shipwreck, Rescue and Heritage Centre which he ran until 1998. Living in Charlestown
Charlestown, Cornwall
Charlestown is a village and port on the south coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom, in the parish of St Austell Bay. It is situated approximately south east of St Austell town centre....
for 31 years, he was joint owner and curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
of one of the largest collections of shipwreck artefacts
Artifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
on public display in Europe. After retiring from the shipwreck centre Larn and his wife Bridget moved to the Isles of Scilly
Isles of Scilly
The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The islands have had a unitary authority council since 1890, and are separate from the Cornwall unitary authority, but some services are combined with Cornwall and the islands are still part...
in 1998, where they had first lived from 1986 to 1991 when they set up and ran the Longstone Heritage Centre.
Together with his wife he has written over 36 books and articles on maritime history
Maritime history
Maritime history is the study of human activity at sea. It covers a broad thematic element of history that often uses a global approach, although national and regional histories remain predominant...
and archaeology
Maritime archaeology
Maritime archaeology is a discipline within archaeology as a whole that specifically studies human interaction with the sea, lakes and rivers through the study of associated physical remains, be they vessels, shore side facilities, port-related structures, cargoes, human remains and submerged...
, shipwrecks and the sea. Their 'Shipwreck Index of the British Isles', a work with 40,000 ship details for the Lloyd's Register of Shipping, was used by the Royal Commission for Historic Monuments to establish the National Maritime Record, followed by a similar record for the Scottish and Welsh Governments.
In retirement
Retirement
Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours.Many people choose to retire when they are eligible for private or public pension benefits, although some are forced to retire when physical conditions don't allow the person to...
, Larn is still active in diving, mostly in the Isles of Scilly. His other interests include figurehead and ship carving. When in 2007 the council of Scilly commemorated the 300th anniversary of the great naval disaster of 1707
Scilly naval disaster of 1707
Scilly naval disaster of 1707 is an umbrella term for the events of 22 October 1707 that led to the sinking of a British naval fleet off the Isles of Scilly. With four large ships and more than 1,400 sailors lost in stormy weather, it was one of the greatest maritime disasters in the history of...
, Larn was among the principal organisers and also gave a public lecture, as did Dava Sobel
Dava Sobel
Dava Sobel is a writer of popular expositions of scientific topics. She graduated from the Bronx High School of Science and Binghamton University...
, author of Longitude
Longitude (book)
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time is a best-selling book by Dava Sobel about John Harrison, an 18th century clockmaker who created the first clock sufficiently accurate to be used to determine longitude at sea—an important development...
, and Sir Arnold Wolfendale
Arnold Wolfendale
Sir Arnold Whittaker Wolfendale FRS is a British astronomer who served as Astronomer Royal from 1991 to 1995.-Early life:...
, the 14th Astronomer Royal
Astronomer Royal
Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the second is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834....
.
Honours
Besides receiving awards from diving and maritime history associations, Larn was chosen a Cornish Bard by the Gorsedd of CornwallGorseth Kernow
Gorseth Kernow is a non-political Cornish organisation, which exists to maintain the national Celtic spirit of Cornwall in the United Kingdom.-History:...
at Redruth
Redruth
Redruth is a town and civil parish traditionally in the Penwith Hundred in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It has a population of 12,352. Redruth lies approximately at the junction of the A393 and A3047 roads, on the route of the old London to Land's End trunk road , and is approximately west of...
in 2006. In the Birthday Honours 2009
Birthday Honours 2009
The Birthday Honours 2009 for the Commonwealth Realms were announced on 1 June 2009 in New Zealand and 13 June 2009 in the United Kingdom to celebrate the Queen's Birthday of 2009.-Knights Bachelor:*Professor Sabaratnam Arulkumaran. For services to medicine....
he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
for "services to nautical archaeology and marine heritage".
Publications
Note: this list is not complete- Shipwreck Index of the British Isles - Lloyd's Register of Shipping
- Volume 1 'The West Country', 1995 ISBN 0-900528-88-5
- Volume 2 'The South Coast', 1996 ISBN 0-900528-99-0
- Volume 3 'The East Coast', 1997 ISBN 1-900839-10-5
- Volume 4 'Scotland', 1998 ISBN 1-900839-01-6
- Volume 5 'Wales & the West Coast', 2000 ISBN 1-900839-61-X
- Volume 6 'Shipwreck Index of Ireland', 2002 ISBN 1-900839970
- Cornish Shipwrecks - the South Coast. Richard Larn & Clive Carter. David & Charles, 1969 & 1971 Pan paperback editions, 1973 & 1976
- Cornish Shipwrecks - the Isles of Scilly. David & Charles, 1971 & 1979 (2nd ed.)
- Shipwrecks of the Isles of Scilly. Thomas & Lochar, 1993 (3rd ed.)
- Shipwrecks of the Isles of Scilly. Shipwreck & Marine, 1999 (4th ed.)
- Devon Shipwrecks. David & Charles, 1974 & 1977. Pan paper-back editions, 1974 & 1977
- Shipwrecks of Devon. Countryside Books, 1996 (2nd ed.)
- Goodwin Sands Shipwrecks. David & Charles, 1977 & 1979
- Shipwrecks of the Goodwin Sands. Beresford Books, 1995 (2nd ed.)
- Shipwrecks of Great Britain & Ireland. David & Charles, 1981
- The Diver Guide to South Cornwall. Underwater Publications, 1983, 1987 & 1996
- The Diver Guide to the Isles of Scilly & North Cornwall. Underwater Publications, 2002
- The Commercial Diving Manual. Richard Larn & Rex Whistler. David & Charles, 1984, 1989 & 1993 (3rd ed.)
- Sir Clowdisley Shovell's Disaster in the Isles of Scilly Richard Larn & Peter McBride. Western Litho Plymouth, 1985
- Admiral Shovell's Treasure and Shipwreck - in the Isles of Scilly. Peter McBride & Richard Larn. Shipwreck & Marine, 1999
- Shipwrecks at Land's End Richard Larn & Edwin Mills Clark. Doble & Brendon, 1970
- Charlestown - the History of a Cornish Seaport. Villiers Publications, 1994
- The Cita - Scilly's own 'Whisky Galore' wreck. Shipwreck & Marine, 1997 & 1998 (2nd ed.)
- Ships, Shipwrecks and Maritime incidents in the Isles of Scilly. Museum Pub. No. 3 (for the Isles of Scilly Museum Council), 1999
- Tor Mark Press Series:
- Shipwrecks around Land's End, 1989
- Shipwrecks - St. Ives to Bude, 1990
- Shipwrecks Around Mount's Bay, 1991
- Shipwrecks Around the Lizard, 1992
- Shipwrecks - Falmouth to Looe, 1993
- Shipwrecks of North Devon, 1999
- Shipwrecks of South Devon, 2000
- Charlestown - a Visitors Guide, 1994