“The greed of people in this country helped prolong a violent civil war”: Life according to actor and presenter Ross Kemp

The actor turned documentary maker chats about deep sea diving, his love of history, and his family’s seafaring roots.

You’ve presented many documentaries – how does Shipwreck Treasure Hunter compare?

This was a totally new adventure. Not that I’m ever in my comfort zone but I certainly wasn’t at the beginning of this. I was a little more by the end of it, but when you’re diving, you really need to be on your game at all times.

What is your family connection to the wreck of the HMS Hood?

My great-uncles, Bertie and Albert, went down on the HMS Hood. It was sent out of Scapa Flow and sadly it was blown up by the Bismarck. I think there were 1,300 sailors at the time, only three survived.

My great-grandfather Pop was part of the same family, and he joined the Royal Navy and then the Merchant Navy, where he stayed until he was in his early 70s. He was shipwrecked twice during the Second World War and lived to tell the tale.

I have a picture with him when I was very young, on his knee. I was fascinated by him because he smoked a pipe, hence his nickname, Popeye. I was brought up with stories of shipwrecks. When this project came along, I jumped at it.

Which was your favourite shipwreck to explore?

They’re all interesting, and they reveal dark parts of our history. Diving on wrecks brings up subjects we may have tried to forget about, and you can’t forget about it, because it’s right there. That’s true of the Iona II and it’s true of the slave ship. It was amazing. To be the first crew to dive on that wreck and find guns that were aimed at enslaved people to control them was quite shocking.

Did taking part in the show alter your view about the past?

I had no idea about British business interfering in the war of the Confederacy.

By diving on the Iona II off Lundy, I found out that British businessmen, 30 years after the abolition of slavery here, were happily supplying guns and aid to the Confederacy.

Had they not done that, the war between the North and South could have been resolved two years earlier, ending slavery earlier in the United States and saving thousands of lives. The greed of people in this country helped prolong a violent civil war.

If you could go back in time and witness any historical event in person, what would it be?

The Norman invasions, Agincourt, the English Civil War, Trafalgar. Trafalgar was a defining moment in British history. Some say it led to an empire which we now rightly question, but it was when Britain became the dominant power in Europe.

Ross Kemp: Shipwreck Treasure Hunter, Sky History, Monday, 9pm