Operations Coordinator
Fred Engle is a charter member and the current Operations Coordinator of the Battle of the Atlantic Research and Expedition Group (BAREG). He has overall responsibility for the operation of BAREG as a Scuba Diving International/Technical Diving International (SDI/TDI) training facility and as a Nautical Archaeology Society International Training Partner. Engle serves as a member of the State of Maryland’s Dive Safety Board, and he is also a Volunteer Diver with the Maryland Maritime Archaeology Program (MMAP).
Engle was certified as a PADI Divemaster (DM) in 1980 and worked at the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) in the Underwater Technology (UT) Department. FIT’s UT program trained research and commercial divers and Engle supported training dives in the lakes, rivers and inlets of South Florida, and offshore Florida. From 2014 to 2024, he was a National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Volunteer Science Diver. In 2014, Engle crossed over to TDI as a technical diving DM. His current certifications include TDI Advanced Trimix and DAN Diving First Aid for Professional Divers Instructor.
Engle has served as project leader and dive supervisor (DS) for six survey projects in collaboration with NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary and provided dive support and data collection for the Sanctuary’s project to identify the wreck of the SS Merak off Diamond Shoals. Engle was DS for BAREG’s 2021-2022 State of Maryland/MMAP-funded survey of the U-1105, and he continues to serve as DS for the ongoing work on the U-1105. He has over 60 dives on the U-1105, many of those as working dives deploying the seasonal mooring buoy or conducting routine clean-up of the wreck site.
Engle has led wreck diving trips to Newfoundland, the Orkney Islands, England’s Dorset Coast and the English Channel, the D-Day Invasion beaches off Normandy, and off the U.S. Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. Additionally, he made dives off South Florida and the Keys, Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, off Southern California, the Bahamas, the Caribbean coast of Cuba, offshore Mexico and the Yucatan’s cenotes, the Baltic Sea, the Pacific coast of Panama, the U.S. and Canadian sides of the Great Lakes, and the St. Lawrence River. His favorite wreck is the SS Empress of Ireland.
Engle owns and operates a 31-foot Eastern trawler, D/V My Purpose Holds, as a dive boat in the lower Potomac River. He is a U.S. Coast Guard credentialed Merchant Mariner holding a Master, 100 ton Vessel, Near Coastal Waters license.
Engle is a retired submarine-qualified U.S. Navy Master Chief with over thirty years of active and reserve service working with U.S. and NATO submarine forces specializing in navigation and operations. He has a keen interest in the history of submarine operations and technology.
