Mark Beattie-Edwards, MA, MCIfA, FSA- Chief Executive Officer

Mark joined the NAS back in 2001 and since 2015 he has worked as the Nautical Archaeology Society Chief Executive Officer and is responsible for the day to day management of the charity. Mark can be contacted on [email protected] 

Mark is currently the secretary of the Joint Nautical Archaeology Policy Committee. Mark sits on the International Congress on Underwater Archaeology (IKUWA) Steering Committee, the Gresham Ship Project Steering Group as well as the Heritage and Craft Committee of the Society for Nautical Research. Mark has also represented the NAS as an accredited NGO at meetings of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee for UNESCO. 

Mark was the licensee of the HMS m Holland No. 5 submarine (2005-2022) and is currently the licensee of the Normans Bay Wreck protected wreck (2009 to date) and the Unknown Wreck off Eastbourne, now identified as the Klein Hollandia (2019 to date). He has coordinated research and access to both these protected wrecks and in addition has undertaken research on the HMS m/A1 submarine and the Coronation protected wreck site on behalf of English Heritage. In 2014 Mark authored a report for English Heritage on the Local Economic Benefit of a Protected Wreck, establishing the value that could be placed on a historic wreck for the local economy of Plymouth, Devon. 

Mark has worked on the Kuggmaren wreck and the St.Peter Port wrecks in Guernsey with the University of Southampton, on the wrecks in Portland harbour with the NAS and most recently with the University of Cyprus  MARE Laboratory on the Nissia and the Mazotos shipwrecks in the Mediterranean. 

In 2018 Mark joined the team working on the protected wreck of The London, which blew up in the Thames Estuary in 1665 and is helping manage the Save The London campaign to save the wreck from destruction. Between 2009 and 2018 Mark worked freelance as an NVQ Assessor for the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists. 

Main publications:

Kuggmaren 1: the first cog find in the Stockholm archipelago, Sweden. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 2002. 31.2. Article Contributor.

A Research Agenda for Wales: Maritime Resource Audit, Nautical Archaeology Society, 2002.

The Development of the NAS Training programme and “Diving with a Purpose Scheme, in Collaboration, Communication and Involvement: Maritime Archaeology and Education in the 21st Century. Edited by Andrzej Pydyn and Joe Flatman. ISBN: 978-83-231-2222-7.

Forton’s Forgotten Fleet, 2009. ISBN: 978-0-9533950-1-9.

The Forton Lake Archaeology Project, 2011. NAS Monograph No.3. Edited by Beattie-Edwards & Satchell. ISBN: 978-1-40730813-5.

Chapter editor for Proceedings of the IKUWA 3 Congress, edited by Henderson, J., 2012. ISBN 978-3-7740-3800-7.

The Local Economic Benefit of a Protected Wreck. English Heritage Research News 2014.

The Gresham Ship Project - A 16th Century Merchantman Wreck in the Princes Channel, Thames Estuary. Volume 2: Contents and Context – British Archaeological Report Series No. 606. Chapter author. ISBN 978-1-40731211-8.

The Normans Bay Wreck, East Sussex, UK – a possible 17th century Dutch ship from the Battle of Beachy Head, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 47.1. 2018

Experience is everything - England’s Protected Wreck Diver Trails. Paper in Bridging the Gap in Maritime Archaeology: Working with Professional and Public Communities. BAR Series, 2019. ISBN: 978-1-7896-9085-9.

Lessons Learnt from Four Decades of Citizen Science at the Nautical Archaeology Society. In Citizen Science in Maritime Archaeology: The Power of Public Engagement. Co-author with Peta Knott. 2023. ISBN 978-0-8130-6973-9.

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Peta Knott - Education Manager 

Peta designs and implements the Education Programme in the UK and works with NAS's many International Training Partners to ensure that people all over the world have access to quality training and experiences in underwater and foreshore archaeology. 

Peta has a degree in Classical Archaeology from the University of Sydney and a Masters in Maritime Archaeology from Flinders University. After graduating, she worked in a number of heritage positions in Australia all of which had a focus on working with volunteers and the community, teaching them how to care for and learn more about their past.

In 2013, Peta moved to the UK and worked as a Project Officer and archaeological diver in the Coastal & Marine Department of Wessex Archaeology for four years.

Peta joined the NAS in April 2017 and has been bringing her own experience in archaeological outreach, logistics and planning to the Education Programme ever since. She enjoys working with the many professional and avocational experts that are involved with NAS’s goals of educating people and sharing knowledge about maritime heritage.

The international nature of Peta’s work means that she has had the opportunity to travel to many countries to teach International Training Partners, attend conferences and participate in fieldwork. In keeping with the international spirit of her work, Peta is a representative on the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology board and is the Communications Officer for the UNESCO 2001 Convention Accredited NGOs.

Main Publications:

A new look at old cannon: 46 years of investigating the Gun Rocks Site, IKUWA 6 Proceedings, co-author. 

The Guns of Gun Rock, Guns from the Sea conference proceedings 2015, Ordnance Society Journal Vol 25, 2018.

We Die Like Brothers: The sinking of the SS Mendi, Historic England, 2017, ISBN 1848023693, editor.

The Iona II Dive Trail, Building Relationships Through the Protection and Management of Marine Heritage, Journal of Community Archaeology & Heritage, Volume 3, 2016 - Issue 1, co-author.

Book Review - Van Diemen's land revealed: Flinders and bass and their circumnavigation of the island in the Colonial Sloop Norfolk 1798-1799, Papers and Proceedings: Tasmanian Historical Research Association, 2010, Book review author.

How are shipwrecks represented in Australian museums? The investigation of museum workers, exhibitions and visitors, Masters of Maritime Archaeology, Flinders University, Australia, 2006, author.

Weighing Down the Trade Routes, Honours in Classical Archaeology, University of Sydney, Australia, 2003, author. 

Tokens of a tragedy, Australian National Maritime Museum Magazine, Signals No. 54 March-May 2001: 24-25. author.

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Sara Hasan – Administrator

Sara joined the NAS in 2009, qualified as a NAS Tutor in 2012, received the NAS Award in Maritime Archaeology in 2016, and was awarded a Fellowship of the Society in 2017. In 2023 Sara became the licensee of the Holland No.5 submarine protected wreck.

Sara first joined the NAS team in the office in 2012 when she covered a period of maternity leave and has been helping out intermittently ever since. Sara currently works part-time for the NAS and mainly deals with membership, and also provides administration support for Mark and Peta when required. 

A keen recreational diver with technical qualifications, and a commercial diver, Sara regularly supports the NAS out on site, on the dive boat as a diver, supervisor and medic, at the conference manning the NAS stand, at the Dive Shows and at the Shipwreck Conference in Plymouth. Sara is also the secretary and active member of the NAS dive club (NASAC).

When not helping NAS members and the office team, Sara works as Hyperbaric Critical Care Nurse at St Richards Hospital in Chichester.