Dr. Innes McCartney BA (Hons), MA, MA, PhD is a British nautical archaeologist and currently Leverhulme Research Fellow at Bournemouth University, UK. He has a 30-year career in researching, discovering and interpreting shipwrecks and shipping losses of the post-1850 era. Since 2001 he has collaborated with JD-Contractor and is an affiliate of the Sea War Museum Jutland.

McCartney collaborated with JD-Contractor during the 2015-2016 surveys of the Jutland battlefield. He has been diving on the wrecks since 2000. The results of these years of fieldwork were published in 2016 as “Jutland 1916: The Archaeology of a Naval Battlefield”. As McCartney has said: “There was no possibility the book would ever have been completed, if it had not been for the vision of Gert Normann Andersen. What we know about the archaeology of the Jutland battle was transformed by our work together and would not have been possible without Gert’s generosity and spirit”.

In 2017 McCartney helped to organise and plan the expedition to survey the shipwrecks in Scapa Flow. The results of the 40sqkm survey which took place over 10 days and is the focus of some of his current research, to be published in the future. McCartney says: “Collaborating with JD-Contractor has enabled me to significantly expand my own skills as an archaeologist. Together we have completed important research which helps bring the world of shipwrecks to the wider public”.

Aside from warships, McCartney has also specialised in submarine losses and wrecks and has located and surveyed “well over 100” U-boat and submarine wrecks, many of which were first time discoveries. In 2014 his PhD on U-boat losses in the English Channel was published by Routledge as “The Maritime Archaeology of a Modern Conflict: Comparing the Archaeology of German Submarine Wrecks to the Historical Text”. In conjunction with JD-Contractor he located the wreck of the British submarine HMS Tarpon in 2016. He was present during the live broadcast on DR3 from the wreck in the same year.

McCartney’s published works include:

McCartney, I., 2017 “The Battle of Jutland’s Heritage under Threat: The extent of commercial salvage on the shipwrecks as observed 2000-2016”. Mariner’s Mirror: The Journal of the Society for Nautical Research.

McCartney, I., 2017 “The Opening and Closing Sequences of the Battle of Jutland 1916 Re-examined: Archaeological Investigations of the Wrecks of HMS Indefatigable and SMS V4 Carried Out in the Centenary Year”. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.

McCartney, I., 2016 Jutland 1916: The Archaeology of a Naval Battlefield. Bloomsbury, London.

McCartney, I., 2015. "The "Tin Openers" Myth and Reality: Intelligence from U-boat Wrecks During WW1". Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference of the Historical Diving Society.

McCartney, I., 2015. "The Historical Archaeology of WW1 U-boat Wrecks and the Compilation of Admiralty History: The Case of UC79". Proceedings of the UNESCO Conference on Underwater Cultural Heritage, Bruges 2014.

McCartney, I., 2014. "The Maritime Archaeology of a Modern Conflict: Comparing the Archaeology of German Submarine Wrecks to the Historical Text". Routledge, New York.

McCartney, I., 2013. "Jutland 1916: The Archaeology of a Modern Naval Battle: The Wreck of HMS Invincible, The World's First Battle Cruiser". SKYLLIS, The Journal of the German Society for the Promotion of Underwater Archeology –Vol.12. No.2.

McCartney, I., 2012. "The Armoured Cruiser HMS Defence: A Case Study in Assessing the Royal Navy Shipwrecks of the Battle of Jutland 1916 as an Archaeological Resource". International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.

McCartney, I., 2008. British Submarines in World War One. Osprey Publishing, Oxford.

McCartney, I., 2006. British Submarines in World War Two. Osprey Publishing, Oxford.

McCartney, I., 2003. Lost Patrols: Submarine Wrecks of the English Channel. Periscope Publishing, Penzance.