Andrea Cordani

Inside the submersible

Andrea Cordani descending in a
MIR submersible to 5025 metres in the South Atlantic Ocean

MIR being lowered into the sea

My interest in East India Company ships dates from my early days as a diver, when I literally bumped into some of the wrecks underwater and wanted to find out more.

I have been a sport diver and scuba instructor, and have owned and operated several businesses connected with marine activities, both in the UK and overseas.

For about 15 years I worked as an independent professional researcher, specialising in maritime history, particularly shipwrecks. In that capacity, I researched ships and shipwrecks for a number of authors, museum groups, underwater archaeologists and commercial salvage teams, including those looking for what we would call 'treasure'.

As part of my research career, I took part in an expedition to find two sunken WW2 vessels in the South Atlantic Ocean. During this trip I visited the seabed in a MIR submersible to a depth of 5025 metres (see above). The story of this expedition is told in James Hamilton-Paterson's book Three Miles Down.

I have constructed a database of the ships and voyages of the East India Company, and continue to add to it, and build up its various datasets, some of which are output onto this website.

Sources and Acknowledgements

The main printed sources I have used for the database are:

More specific ship sources are acknowledged on the ship detail page of the vessel to which it relates.

I have also had a lot of general help from individuals, and I would particularly like to acknowledge contributions from:

Again, other specific contributions on particular vessels are mentioned on the ship summary pages.