ADUS History
ADUS was established in 2004 by two former members of the Archaeological Diving Unit based at the University of St Andrews. Martin Dean and Mark Lawrence had accumulated over 20 years experience of using geophysical survey techniques to investigate historic wrecks and submerged landscapes, and were first alerted to the potential of multibeam sonar when the Archaeological Diving Unit was involved with the multibeam survey of WWI wrecks in 2001 as part of the ScapaMap Project. The Archaeological Diving Unit team then began more regular use of the equipment with the support of Reson Offshore Ltd, learning to apply it more effectively to the investigation of wrecks. With the evolution into ADUS, a more systematic programme of research was instigated and in 2006 Chris Rowland from the University of Dundee joined the team and applied his digital imaging expertise to enhance the visualisation of ADUS survey data.
The improved results attracted an increasing number of external requests for surveys, so the two Universities, Dundee and St Andrews, together with the three principals, Rowland, Lawrence and Dean, set up a private limited company, Advanced Underwater Surveys Ltd, in 2008 as a channel for ADUS’ commercial work.