Formation | 2005 |
---|---|
Founders | Kenneth Stewart, Brenda Lanzendorf |
Type | Nonprofit |
Purpose | Maritime archaeology, focused on research of the Atlantic slave trade |
Location |
|
Website |
divingwithapurpose |
Diving With a Purpose (DWP) is an American non-profit organization aimed at locating and documenting shipwrecks, predominantly those related to the Atlantic slave trade. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Diving With a Purpose was founded in 2005 by Kenneth Stewart (born 1944/45), [5] a retired copier repairman [6] with the Tennessee Aquatic Project and the National Association of Black Scuba Divers, and Brenda Lanzendorf (1958–2008), [7] a maritime archaeologist at Biscayne National Park. [2] They met during the filming of the 2004 documentary The Guerrero Project, a film chronicling efforts to locate the wreck of Spanish slave ship Guerrero, which are still ongoing, [1] although a likely candidate has since been discovered. [8] [9]
DWP was featured in 2020 television documentary series Enslaved, featuring DWP member Kramer Wimberley, [10] starring and produced by Samuel L. Jackson. [11] It is also the subject of a 2021 documentary titled Lessons from the Water: Diving with a Purpose by filmmaker Charles Todd. [12]
Roughly 300 divers have participated in Diving With a Purpose's maritime archaeology program since its foundation. The program includes one week of training and requires some prior experience, [1] [13] with the stated aim of training divers to become "able to assist in the historical documentation and preservation of artifacts and wreck sites". [14] An offshoot program directed at a younger audience entitled Youth Diving With a Purpose (YDWP) was introduced in 2011. [1] [15]
The group has been involved with the discovery or documentation of numerous [a] shipwrecks, including the São José Paquete Africa [17] [18] and the Clotilda. [1] [19] Other activities of the organization have included the location and mapping of plane wrecks related to the Tuskegee Airmen in the Great Lakes. [20] [21] A memorial site in Port Huron, Michigan, was constructed in 2021. [22] [23]
Diving With a Purpose has worked or is working with groups and federal agencies including NOAA, [24] the National Park Service (NPS), [25] [26] the Society of Black Archaeologists, [27] [28] and the Slave Wrecks Project, a collaboration between DWP, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, the NPS, George Washington University, Iziko South African Museum, and the South African Heritage Resources Agency. [29]
Formation | 2005 |
---|---|
Founders | Kenneth Stewart, Brenda Lanzendorf |
Type | Nonprofit |
Purpose | Maritime archaeology, focused on research of the Atlantic slave trade |
Location |
|
Website |
divingwithapurpose |
Diving With a Purpose (DWP) is an American non-profit organization aimed at locating and documenting shipwrecks, predominantly those related to the Atlantic slave trade. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Diving With a Purpose was founded in 2005 by Kenneth Stewart (born 1944/45), [5] a retired copier repairman [6] with the Tennessee Aquatic Project and the National Association of Black Scuba Divers, and Brenda Lanzendorf (1958–2008), [7] a maritime archaeologist at Biscayne National Park. [2] They met during the filming of the 2004 documentary The Guerrero Project, a film chronicling efforts to locate the wreck of Spanish slave ship Guerrero, which are still ongoing, [1] although a likely candidate has since been discovered. [8] [9]
DWP was featured in 2020 television documentary series Enslaved, featuring DWP member Kramer Wimberley, [10] starring and produced by Samuel L. Jackson. [11] It is also the subject of a 2021 documentary titled Lessons from the Water: Diving with a Purpose by filmmaker Charles Todd. [12]
Roughly 300 divers have participated in Diving With a Purpose's maritime archaeology program since its foundation. The program includes one week of training and requires some prior experience, [1] [13] with the stated aim of training divers to become "able to assist in the historical documentation and preservation of artifacts and wreck sites". [14] An offshoot program directed at a younger audience entitled Youth Diving With a Purpose (YDWP) was introduced in 2011. [1] [15]
The group has been involved with the discovery or documentation of numerous [a] shipwrecks, including the São José Paquete Africa [17] [18] and the Clotilda. [1] [19] Other activities of the organization have included the location and mapping of plane wrecks related to the Tuskegee Airmen in the Great Lakes. [20] [21] A memorial site in Port Huron, Michigan, was constructed in 2021. [22] [23]
Diving With a Purpose has worked or is working with groups and federal agencies including NOAA, [24] the National Park Service (NPS), [25] [26] the Society of Black Archaeologists, [27] [28] and the Slave Wrecks Project, a collaboration between DWP, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, the NPS, George Washington University, Iziko South African Museum, and the South African Heritage Resources Agency. [29]