I’m obsessed with a historic shipwreck: it’s murky and dangerous but diving in the Thames, I feel like a detective

Steve Ellis believes the wreck of the London is as important to the nation as that of Tudor warship the Mary Rose. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian

When I dive to the shipwreck of the London, a warship which was accidentally blown up in the murky waters of the Thames estuary in 1665, I dive in darkness. I can barely see six inches in front of me. And if I turn my torch off, I cannot see anything at all.

But I love it. I’ve dived to the London about 500 times and I only have to feel certain timbers of the wreck, and I know where I am.