About these terms
Sounding Line is operated by Silentia Yacht Limited, Vine Cottage, Pankridge Street, Crondall, Farnham, GU10 5RG. These Terms and Conditions apply when you use the website or submit an enquiry through it. They should be read together with the Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.
The website combines editorial material about maritime travel and documented wreck history with a means of making an enquiry about a possible surface maritime excursion. An enquiry is a request for further discussion. It does not by itself create a booking, guarantee a route, reserve a vessel or confirm that a particular wreck location will be visited.
Nature of the website enquiry
The enquiry facility is intended to start a conversation. It allows a visitor to indicate an interest in maritime travel, a coastal area or a documented historical wreck location and to provide contact details for a response. No payment is taken through the enquiry form and submission of the form is not presented as acceptance of a booking or as confirmation that a vessel, date or route is available.
A response to an enquiry may ask for further practical information before any arrangement can be considered. Until the relevant details have been separately agreed, neither the editorial description of a route nor the exchange of preliminary messages should be understood as a confirmed sailing arrangement.
Editorial material and historical information
The article is written to provide travel and historical context. Historical statements about named wrecks are based on documented sources identified in the article, but maritime records can contain differences in terminology, survey detail and later interpretation. The material should not be used as a navigational chart, diving plan, salvage instruction or substitute for professional maritime information.
Nothing on the website gives permission to enter, interfere with or recover material from a wreck. Legal protections, ownership, navigational restrictions and safety requirements can apply independently of anything described in the editorial material.
Use of wreck names and locations
Named wrecks are included because they form part of the documented maritime history discussed in the article. Their inclusion is not an invitation to dive, salvage, enter a wreck structure or recover objects. Conditions, protections and permissions relating to a wreck can differ from the conditions that apply to a surface passage in the surrounding sea area.
Descriptions of a location are therefore contextual rather than operational instructions. A reader should not derive coordinates, navigational decisions, diving limits or safety procedures from the editorial text. Any maritime activity requires information and judgement appropriate to that activity and to the conditions at the time.
Enquiries and possible arrangements
When you submit an enquiry, you are responsible for providing contact information that is accurate enough for a response. Silentia Yacht Limited may ask for further information about the intended group, route interests and practical requirements before any maritime arrangement is discussed or confirmed.
Any later arrangement for a sailing may require separate confirmation of vessel, date, embarkation point, route, passenger requirements and applicable terms. If separate booking terms are provided for a proposed excursion, those terms will govern that arrangement to the extent they address matters not covered here or expressly replace these website terms.
Information supplied by you
You should provide information that is reasonably relevant to the enquiry and avoid submitting unlawful, misleading or abusive material. If the enquiry concerns a group, you should not provide another person’s sensitive or unnecessary personal information merely to describe the group’s general requirements.
Where you express an interest in a particular historical site, coast or type of route, that preference will be treated as a point for discussion rather than as a guaranteed itinerary. If a later arrangement is proposed, the details that matter to that arrangement must be confirmed separately rather than inferred from the original article or enquiry text.
Weather, route and safety
Sea conditions are variable. Any proposed route is subject to weather, sea state, navigational conditions, local restrictions and the skipper’s professional safety judgement. A historical waypoint can be changed, bypassed or omitted where conditions make that appropriate.
Visitors should not interpret editorial references to a wreck as a promise that the wreck can be seen from the surface. The service described on the website is a surface maritime and historical experience. Diving, salvage and recovery are not included.
Changes caused by conditions beyond reasonable control
Maritime plans can also be affected by events that are not reasonably controlled through the website or by an initial route discussion. These may include changes in weather and sea state, navigational or harbour restrictions, safety concerns, vessel availability or other operational circumstances that make the proposed plan unsuitable at the relevant time.
Nothing in these terms requires a route to be pursued where doing so would conflict with safety, navigation, applicable restrictions or the skipper’s professional judgement. A decision to alter or omit a historical waypoint for those reasons should not be treated as a representation that the historical site does not exist or that the editorial account of it has changed.
Acceptable use
You may use the website for lawful personal or business enquiries connected with the services described. You must not deliberately interfere with the website, attempt unauthorised access, submit malicious material, impersonate another person or use the enquiry form to send unlawful or abusive content.
Content may be read and referenced for ordinary personal use. Rights in the website’s original text, layout, branding and other protected material remain with their respective owners. Use of factual historical information does not transfer rights in the surrounding editorial presentation.
Intellectual property and permitted reference
The factual existence of a historical wreck is not claimed as proprietary information. However, the original selection, wording, arrangement, visual presentation and branding of the material on Sounding Line may be protected by applicable intellectual-property rights. Reading, sharing a normal link to the article, or making ordinary personal reference to the historical facts does not transfer ownership of the editorial presentation.
You must not use the website in a way that falsely suggests endorsement, partnership or authorship by Silentia Yacht Limited. Automated or systematic extraction, republication of substantial editorial material, or use of the branding in a misleading manner may infringe rights or interfere with the normal operation of the service.
Availability and liability
Reasonable care is taken in presenting the website and handling enquiries, but uninterrupted availability cannot be guaranteed. Features may be updated, suspended or changed where necessary for maintenance, security, legal compliance or changes to the service.
Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability where it would be unlawful to do so, including liability that cannot be excluded under applicable consumer law. Subject to those limits, the website is not responsible for decisions made by treating editorial material as navigational, diving, salvage or emergency guidance.
Severability and mandatory rights
If a particular provision of these Terms and Conditions is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions are intended to continue to apply to the extent permitted by law. A delay in enforcing a provision does not by itself amount to a permanent waiver of that provision.
These terms are not intended to remove rights that cannot lawfully be excluded or restricted. Where mandatory consumer, data-protection, maritime or other legal rules apply, those rules take priority over any inconsistent wording in these website terms.
Changes, law and contact
These terms may be updated when the website or enquiry process changes. The date at the top of the page identifies the current version. Continued use after an update is subject to the current terms.
These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Mandatory consumer rights and jurisdiction rules continue to apply where the law requires them. Questions can be directed to Silentia Yacht Limited using the contact details shown on this website.