A little bit of relevant background to this story, is at the moment there
is a campaign underway in the UK to ban all diving on War Graves.

The campaign, led by a newspaper (the Western Daily Mail) is concerned with
unscrupulous divers desecrating war graves, defined as any vessel which
sunk or was sunk in national service with loss of life, and wishes to
impose a 100-metre exclusion zone around any such vessel.

This would drastically reduce the options for interesting diving in UK
waters.  The uk.rec.scuba newsgroup have organised a response to this at
http://www.wreckrespect.org.uk
arguing that while desecration is unacceptable, the majority of divers are
perfectly respectful and self-regulation is a better solution.

Although Bluebird isn't a War Grave, it has been raised to prevent it being
plundered for souveniers, (for which large sums of money have been offered
by collectors.)  Which is good and bad.

Bad, because it is another aspertion cast on UK divers as grave robbing
thieves.

Good, because it is UK divers who have raised Bluebird in order to preserve
her for the future.

There is another article on the raising here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1208000/1208845.stm

...Mmy parents live about 20 miles from Coniston Water, and Donald Campbell
and Bluebird have always been a very large part of the iconography of the
area.

Cheers,
Huw
--
http://www.huwporter.com
"A wise diver will refrain from written descriptions of his experiences"
- William Beebe

On Fri, 9 Mar 2001 09:46:15 +1100, Julian Pool
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>The following is the start of a story from today's Daily Telegraph in the
>UK.
>
>The full story is at :
>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?
ac=000329824517165&rtmo=aCCT6TBJ&atmo=99999999
>&pg=/et/01/3/8/nblue08.html
>and if you follow the links through the Feb 4 2001 'Divers Discover
Cambells
>Wreck' you will see another interesting link to and article on 'Divers
>Looting Wartime Wrecks' from Dec 2000.
>
>
>"Disaster on the cards for the man who diced with death
>The obituary
>
>BBC producer Mike Rossiter puts a comforting arm round Tonia-Bern Campbell
>as Bluebird is brought ashore
>
>BLUEBIRD finally emerged from the deep today, 34 years after it sank,
>killing world record-breaker Donald Campbell. Campbell's widow Tonia
>Bern-Campbell, 64, watched as the remarkably intact jet-powered vessel was
>floated from the depths of Coniston Water in the Lake District.
>
>The tail of the craft was the first section to surface, still emblazoned
>with a Union Jack and with much its blue paint work still visible. The tail
>was only slightly damaged, but the front of the vessel, where Campbell had
>been sitting, was completely crushed.
>
>Divers spent five and a half hours bringing the record-breaking boat to the
>surface using hydraulic lifting equipment. A crowd of more than 50 people
>gathered at the shore to watch. Campbell was attempting to break his own
>world water speed record of 276mph on 4 January 1967 when Bluebird vaulted
>from the lake's surface then crashed into the water, sinking instantly.
>
>The location of the stricken craft had eluded his family and divers but
last
>month it emerged that an underwater team, led by Bill Smith, had discovered
>the wreck at the end of last year. Mrs Bern-Campbell, wearing sunglasses,
>travelled to the Lake District from her home in California.
>
>........."
>
>Julian