Ben Cropp | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1936-01-19)19 January 1936 (age 89) |
| Known for | documentary filmmaker, conservation andunderwater sports champion (spearfishing) |
| Awards | Member of the Order of Australia (AM), 1999 International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame, 2000 |
Benjamin CroppAM (born 19 January 1936) is an Australian documentary filmmaker, conservationist and a former Open Australianspearfishing champion.[1][2][3] Formerly a shark hunter, Cropp retired from that trade in 1962 to pursue oceanicdocumentaryfilmmaking (having produced some 150 wildlife documentaries)[citation needed] and conservation efforts. One of his efforts forThe Disney Channel,The Young Adventurers, was nominated for anEmmy award.[citation needed]
Cropp was born onBuka Island nearBougainville Island on 19 January 1936.[1] His father was a Methodist missionary on the island. He lived in various places such asCasino,Ballina andBellingen as his father moved to differentparishes.[citation needed] He grew up atLennox Head in New South Wales. Cropp had a very religious upbringing, but when he was 18 "broke totally away from that".[1] His first marriage was to Van Laman, which "didn't last very long".[1] His second wife was Eva Papp, to whom he was married for eight years. His third marriage was to Canadian Lynn Patterson. This marriage lasted 18 years and the Cropps had two sons, Dean and Adam,[1] who are both making their names as cameramen.
As of 2007, Cropp was residing inPort Douglas,Queensland, where for twenty years he ran a shipwreck museum.[1] Since then, he has resided on his vesselFreedom 1V, mostly in the Trinity Park marina area, when not at sea diving, boating, fishing, and searching for uncharted shipwrecks. His "bucket list" includes finding a shipwreck that pre-datesJames Cook's 1770 arrival in Australia, as he believes one exists.
Cropp wasRon Taylor's partner in the making ofThe Shark Hunters, a 60-minute black and white documentary sold for television screenings in 1961.[1]
He discovered his first shipwreck in 1963: theCatharine Adamson. It was found off Sydney and became known colloquially as "the booze ship" owing to its cargo of alcoholic drinks. In 1964 he and two others foundMatthew Flinders' shipsCaro andPorpoise that were wrecked in theCoral Sea.[3]
He became a conservationist after an experience offMontague Island in 1964 where he filmed diver George Meyer riding on the back of awhale shark.[1]
In 1977, he discovered the wreck ofHMSPandora, almost concurrently with another film maker John Heyer and a boat owner Steve Domm. At that time, John Heyer had done extensive research to establish the area the Pandora wreck was likely to be found in and had launched an expedition to locate it with the help of Steve Domm. Ben Cropp had also done extensive research on the wreck and planned his own search jointly at the same time as Steve Domm's arrival because of a pre-arranged date with a RAAF plane doing a magnetometer search for both of them. Ben Cropp found the Pandora wreck on the Great Barrier Reef just before John Heyer did. Cropp also lays claim to over 100 othershipwreck discoveries.[1]
His searching techniques include wearing polarised glasses while looking along reef edges for signs of anchors, chain, hulls or timbers. In the 21st century, Cropp has taken to using underwater drones. In December 2019, Cropp discovered another wreck off Sudbury Reef, near Cairns with his son, Adam. In March 2020, the wreck was believed to either be theUndine or theMermaid. Cropp has noted that sometimes part of the hull of a timber vessel has been located 50 miles or more from the site of the vessel's last known whereabouts, owing to buoyancy and drift.[3]
In 1970, Cropp became an accredited ACS member of the Australian Cinematographers Society and given a Life Membership in 2014. This was due to his winning numerous film awards, including the World Underwater Photographer Award in 1964, and his still photography was published in top magazines around the world, including National Geographic and the cover of Time.[citation needed]
In 1999, he was appointed a Member of theOrder of Australia.[4]
In 2000, he was part of theInternational Scuba Diving Hall of Fame's inaugural induction.[5]
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