Ship’s lost bell uncovered during a training dive

A DIVER has uncovered a shipwreck’s lost bell while out on a training dive.

Mark Blyth uncovered the 140-year-old ringer which has lay at the bottom of the Forth estuary off the coast of Kirkcaldy, Fife, since 1875.

The bell’s discovery by the experienced diver, who has made over 1,500 expeditions to the wreck, comes after local divers thought the wreck was a different ship. Mr Blyth, from Burntisland, Fife, said: “The bell was found on a wreck on the rocks between Kinghorn and Kirkcaldy. For years we’ve used the wreck as a training dive and we assumed from records it was the Adam Smith.

“With the bad weather we’ve had, the whole sea bed has fairly shifted down there and it has uncovered a lot of wreckage that was hidden before. The bell of a wreck is important as it dictates the ship.”