Welcome to Deep Dive, the Australian National Maritime Museum’s centre for maritime archaeology. For over 20 years our maritime archaeologists have explored the physical remains of how people in the past interacted with our oceans, lakes and rivers. While our archaeologists have dived on many shipwrecks, they also study jetties, wharves and other underwater sites that bear traces of human activity. They love their job.

This is your place to enjoy discovering the museum’s maritime archaeology research. Come back again and again to read our stories and articles, or watch our videos and experiments to understand Australia’s maritime past.

Our first story we’ll be launching with is the wreck of James Cook’s world-famous ship, HM Bark Endeavour. Did you know that it ended up being sunk by the British military in an American harbour? Its location was forgotten for over two centuries until our maritime archaeologists worked with a team in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, to hunt for clues that confirmed its identity.

Photogrammetric 3D Reconstruction (P3DR) is an innovative method of generating 3D digital models of an object from multiple images. It is a relatively quick and accurate method for documenting shipwrecks, and an excellent way to make them virtually accessible to a wide audience.

Stay tuned as we use the photogrammetric data and imagery below as part of an innovative experiment.