Our Programs
Maritime Archaeology Training Program
*Applications Now Open for 2024.*
Our flagship program is an intense week-long course that teaches the basics of underwater archaeology to veteran divers. Participants learn underwater mapping and trilateration techniques – the methods used to map and measure various sections of shipwrecks – and they get to document a real shipwreck in the Florida Keys.
DWP CARES Program
*Applications Now Open for 2024!*
We educate and empower traditionally disenfranchised people as citizen scientists to help support coral ecosystem restoration efforts and to impact global climate change. Using outreach and data collection through our monitoring efforts, we collect information that can be used to make decisions on how to preserve and wisely manage coral reefs around the world.
Youth Diving With a Purpose Program
*Applications Now Open for 2024!*
DWP partners with the National Park Service in Florida’s Biscayne National Park to train young divers between the ages of 16 and 23 from diverse backgrounds as underwater archaeology advocates. Advocates are taught basic mapping skills and work to help document the Guerrero, an actual slave ship that wrecked in 1827.
About Us
We are dedicated to the conservation and protection of submerged heritage resources by providing education, training, certification and field experience to adults and youth in the fields of maritime archaeology and ocean conservation. Our special focus is the protection, documentation and interpretation of African slave trade shipwrecks and the maritime history and culture of African Americans.
500
Divers
18
Shipwrecks Documented
6
Countries
18000
Volunteer Hours
We’ve Reached
With the help of donations from supporters like you, we can offer more free trainings to youth in our Youth Diving With a Purpose (YDWP) program; we can fund a new division of YDWP in Costa Rica; we can train community dive monitors on Ilha de Mocambique (Mozambique Island) and in Africatown (Mobile, Alabama) to protect submerged heritage resources like slave shipwrecks. Donate now to support our work!
Testimonial
As a diver, I always look for ways to increase my knowledge and thirst for the sport through advanced training. But I had no idea that the DWP underwater archaeology training course and then the DWP expeditions would be so rewarding dive to me personally! -
Erik Denson, NASA Engineer as he holds a wreath the team placed on the waters of Lake Huron above Tuskegee Airman Lt. Frank Moody’s crash site.
Meet Our Divers
Gayle Patrick
Instructor
Frank Fennell, Jr.
Diver
Justine Benanty
Lead Instructor
Kim Walker
InstructorEvents
We Did It! Tuskegee Airmen Memorial Ceremony
On August 28, 2021, we held a memorial unveiling and dedication ceremony on the Flag Plaza along the beautiful St. Clair River in Port Huron, Michigan to recognize the bravery, conviction, patriotism and sacrifice of the Tuskegee Airmen that died in service to their country.
Actor Samuel L. Jackson Hangs Out With DWP
In June 2019, Sam Jackson came down to our Coral Restoration Program to learn more about our work and shoot footage for an upcoming film on slave shipwrecks around the world.
Our Featured Exhibit at the History of Diving Museum
On June 2nd, 2019, DWP was honored with a 6-month exhibit at The History of Diving Museum. The exhibit told the story of DWP’s 15 years of existence – from the search for the Guerrero slave ship to our present-day mission to memorialize the Tuskegee Airmen who died in service to this country. On opening night, more than 50 people showed up to pay homage to our work and witness the official ribbon-cutting ceremony.
