SS Carnatic

SS Carnatic was a British sail-steamship, one of many built on the banks of the river Thames in London, not far from the mouth of the River Lea, at Cubitt Town on the Isle of Dogs in 1862-63. The Carnatic, originally intended to be named “Mysore”, was built by the Samuda Brothers for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) and intended for the Bombay run in the years before the Suez Canal was opened. There was a popular and regular trade route to what was a British colony at that time, India…..there were many who traded, many who served and those who lived there, all needed dependable, fast transport and a sail-steamship-operated route from Britain to India, (connecting with similar steamships running through the Mediterranean to Alexandria, with an overland crossing to Suez) was the optimum route right up until the canal was completed in 1869, some 7 years after Carnatic sailed her maiden voyage

SS Carnatic was, eventually (more on that a little later) named after a region in India, somewhat unsurprisingly considering her intended trade route. Carnatic is a peninsular South Indian region between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal, known as the “Coromandel Coast” in Madras. The region was, again, “somewhat unsurprisingly” (given its local Anglicized nick-name), known for the beautifully grained Coromandel wood, much favoured by furniture makers of the time, and is now known as the “Madras Presidency” in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Carnatic is also a form of Southern Indian music, known as Karnāṭaka saṅgītam (Online resource, Wikipedia: “Carnatic Music” accessed 11/07/2021.  )  “…..It is one of two main subgenres of Indian classical music that evolved from ancient Sanatana dharma sciences and traditions” and takes its most common form as “…..usually performed by a small ensemble of musicians, consisting of a principal performer (usually a vocalist), a melodic accompaniment (usually a violin), a rhythm accompaniment (usually a mridangam), and a tambura, which acts as a drone throughout the performance”

For those of you addicted to technical details the Carnatic was built to these requirements, when contracted between P&O and the Samuda Brothers:

Carnatic was one of the earlier ships to be fitted with a compound engine, intended to achieve a better fuel economy (at 2lbs of coal per indicated horsepower-hour, against a consumption of 2.2lbs for a non-compound unit) than most other contemporary steamers. On journeys of such length as Britain to India the more economically a ship could sail, the better profit from the related trade, it also made sense as there was limited capacity for carrying coal on board. The compound engine was unusual at that time for a British ship, Carnatic’s boiler was run at 26 psi (180 kPa) due to the regulations of the day, in 1862 higher pressures were not allowed by the British Board of Trade. A compound steam engine operates cylinders through more than one stage, at different pressure levels (Until the development of compound engines, steam engines used the steam only once before they recycled it back to the boiler). The invention of the marine compound steam engine is mostly accredited to John Elder of Glasgow in or around 1850, it seems that Elder took a design by an American, J. P. Allaire, from 1824 and improved it to make it safe for marine use and more economical. The Carnatic was fitted with a Humphry’s, Tennant & Dykes 4 cylinder expansion engine, with cylinders in two pairs, using a Woolf compound system. (Online resource, Wikipedia: “Humphrys Tennant & Dykes. Woolf expansion engines exhibited 1862”accessed 11/07/2021) “…..The cylinders were steam jacketed and arranged in pairs using the Woolf compound system, with the smaller (43” diameter) cylinder being above the larger one (of 96 inch diameter). The 4 cylinders drove a single screw propeller 16 feet in diameter”. Carnatic was originally to be named Mysore, I have no information on why her name was changed seemingly “last minute”, however, she was launched as Carnatic on 12 June 1862, and completed 25 April 1863, having been constructed with an iron-framed, wooden-planked, hull and fitted with square-rigged sails described as “fully rigged”, being a sailing vessel with two or more masts, all of them square-rigged

According to “THE MARINE STEAM ENGINE, A Treatise for Engineering Students, Young Engineers, and Officers of the Royal Navy and Mercantile Marine”,  (Sennett, R (Engineer-in-Chief of the Navy) & Oram, H.J. (Senior Engineer Director at the Admiralty) Published By Longmann’s, Green & Co1899), a “compound” engine recycles the steam into one or more larger, lower-pressure second cylinders first, to use more of its heat energy, the number of expansion stages defines the engine, not the number of cylinders, a compound engine can refer to a steam engine with any number of different-pressure cylinders, however, the term usually refers to engines that expand steam through only two stages, operating cylinders at only two different pressures (also known as “double-expansion” engines)

Carnatic’s builders, the Samuda Brothers, leased a dockyard on the Goodluck Hope peninsula, Leamouth, London, from 1843 part of the “Isle of Dogs” at the mouth of Bow Creek. Joseph D’Aguilar Samuda, born in 1813, was the son of Abraham Samuda a Jewish East and West India merchant from Finsbury, and Joy, daughter of H. D’Aguilar of Enfield Chase Middlesex. Joseph became an engineer, shipbuilder, MP (Liberal Party Member for Tavistock, 1865, retained until the dissolution in 1868, then as Member for the Tower Hamlets, re-elected in 1874 until 1880) and founder-member of the Institution of Naval Architects. In the 1830s he and his brother, Jacob, partnered in an ironworks and engineering yard at Southwark

  In 1843, the brothers leased land on Goodluck Hope peninsula, (a site that was, perhaps, not ideal, being closely surrounded by other industrial premises, however, these businesses provided vital support functions initially) and began a shipyard specialising in the construction of iron steamships. The original Samuda Brothers site can be seen in the illustration below, marked as the “Old Mill” site, “Samudas did not relinquish the Orchard Place yard until about 1856” (On-Line Resource: Courtesy british–history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols43-4/pp655-685#anchorn164 Accessed 12/07/2021)

The Samuda brothers had learned the art of steam and its maritime application in the hardest of ways, disaster struck with Gypsy Queen, one of their first ships, which exploded on return from its test trip in November 1844. Jacob Samuda was killed with nine of the firm’s employees. There was a further explosion at their shipyard in 1845 and another three workers were killed, it seemed tragedy was only a heartbeat away in the early days of steam and sailing ships…..

A contemporary report of the day, taken from the illustrated London news, November 16, 1844 and reported in the Isle of Dogs Life, “Shipbuilding on the Isle of Dogs: The Story of the Samuda Brothers” (On-Line Resource: isleofdogslife.wordpress.com/tag/joseph-daguilar-samuda/ Accessed 12/07/2021) has it that “About five o’clock on Tuesday afternoon, a most frightful and fatal accident, involving the death of seven persons, occurred on board the steam boat Gypsy Queen, lying at one of the Blackwall buoys off the Brunswick Pier. Besides loss of life, there are five persons more or less injured by the unfortunate occurrence, and who were conveyed to the London Hospital, one or two with slight hopes of recovery. It would appear that the unfortunate vessel (the Gypsy Queen) is a new iron steam-boat, of about 500 tons burden, having two engines of 150 horse power each. The boat is the first built by the firm of Jacob and Joseph Samuda, who, within the last two years, took premises in Bow-creek, for the purpose of carrying out their intention of building steam-boats……”

“……… At 3 o’clock in the afternoon the vessel left the creek for an experimental trip, having on board about 20 persons, including Mr Benjamin Samuda, the principal of the firm. She went down the river to below Woolwich in gallant style, answering all the expectations of her constructors. On her return to Blackwall she was moored to one of the buoys, where it was intended she should remain all night, and be got ready for another trip the following day, In a short time after the vessel had been made fast, an explosion was heard by persons on the Brunswick Pier to proceed from the direction of the steamer, and almost immediately afterwards, cries for boats proceeded from the same quarter. Not a moment was lost in making towards the steamer, when the most heart-rending sight presented itself to those who went to the rescue. Five persons were there found, apparently in a state of madness, running to and fro the deck, screaming with anguish, while their appearance showed that their lamentations were real. With all speed they were conveyed on shore and met with every attention. The agonizing cries of these unfortunate persons were said to be dreadful. They begged for cold water to quell the scalding heat they were suffering in their throats, and when the cooling fluid was applied to the mouths of one or two, the skin from their lips peeled off as though under the influence of a scaring iron. They were conveyed, without loss of time, to the London Hospital. It is well known to those who went on board that the above five were not the only sufferers; but, alas for them there was no means of escape; they were in the engine-room which was so filled with steam, that to get them out was impossible until the scalding vapour had escaped. In order, therefore, to facilitate their extrication, the decks were cut up with pickaxes, adzes, crowbars. Seven human forms, scalded to death, were there discovered. Six of them were shortly after recognised and proved to be Mr. Jacob Samuda, the head of the firm ; Dodds, engineer; James Saunders, also an engineer, appointed to the Gypsy Queen, and who only went on board a few hours before he lost his life; Mr. Scofield, engine-fitter at the factory of the Messrs. Samuda ; Thomas Nugent, an apprentice; John Newman, stoker ; and a man whose name is not yet known, he having been employed only a few hours by the firm”

If the report is accurate, and there is no reason to doubt its authenticity, “…the cause of the accident was found to be the giving way of the joints of a large steam-pipe connecting the boilers with the cylinders of the machinery”

The Samudas moved to Cubitt Town in 1852, the need to expand coming from a growing order book and reducing space surrounding them, by now the company was run solely by Joseph Samuda, following Jacob’s untimely death. The Samuda yard in Cubitt Town specialised in iron and steel warships and steamers, beating other London shipyards to orders from Germany, Russia and Japan. By the time of Carnatic’s launch the Samuda brothers were the pre-eminent shipbuilders on the Thames and Carnatic could be considered as a state of the art sail-steamer, quite rightly an exemplar of the genre, and a worthy investment for the new and proud owners, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company

  P&O already had a fleet of compound-engined ships built in the 1860’s, Carnatic would be an addition to the steamships Poonah (1863), Golconda (1863) and Baronda (1864). Prior to the Suez Canal opening the shortest route to India from Great Britain was to sail round the Cape of Good Hope, a distance at which steam ships were not yet sufficiently economical to be commercially competitive with sail-ships. Compound steam engines made a significant difference and, with their more dependent journey times assuring passengers of meeting onward deadlines, they were fast becoming the ships of choice. Peninsular Steam Navigation Company began when Brodie Willcox, a London ship broker, and Arthur Anderson, a Shetland Isles sailor, initiated a partnership operating routes between England and Spain and Portugal. In 1835, Dublin ship owner and Captain, Richard Bourne joined the business and they expanded services to include Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon and Cádiz

The company flag colours represent the Portuguese and Spanish flags. During the Carlist Wars of 1833 – 1876, followers of Don Carlos fought a civil war against “Liberalism”, a threat to the Catholic ways of Spain & Portugal, similar in some ways to the British “Left Wing – Right Wing” dichotomy of the present day….but with weapons. The British supported the “legitimate heirs of Spain and Portugal”, essentially Don Carlos and his “Carlists”, the three P&O founders were passionate supporters too, undertaking gun running and chartering steamers on behalf of the cause, because of this association and involvement, P&O officers are still the only Merchant Navy officers entitled to wear swords. In 1837 P&O had won a British Admiralty contract to deliver mail to the Iberian Peninsula and in 1840 they acquired a contract to deliver mail to Alexandria in Egypt. P&O was “incorporated” in 1840 by Royal Charter, in 1844 P&O introduced their first passenger services, a leisure cruise from Southampton to the Mediterranean (the first ever passenger “cruise service”), later introducing more adventurous trips, to Egypt (Alexandria) and even Constantinople, modern day Istanbul. In 1869, Sept 12^th, when Carnatic ran hard aground on Abu Nuhas, breaking apart and going to the bottom the following morning (Sept 14th 1869), she was carrying 34 passengers and 176 crew. Carnatic’s cargo was mail from the Indian colonies and Egypt, cotton, bottles of wine, soda and £40,000 worth of copper sheet and gold, she sank taking with her 5 passengers and 26 crew, a tragic loss of 31 souls. What follows is the full transcript of one of those wrecked on the Carnatic, taken from the London Illustrated News of 16^th October 1869, from the account of Major J.U. Champain RE (Royal Engineers), who, remarkably, along with several other passengers on the Carnatic, had just survived the grounding of another vessel off Alexandria, the “Pera”. I make no apologies for including the entire piece without edit

The Illustrated London News, 16 October 1869: (P&O Heritage Ship “Fact Sheet” Carnatic (1863) poheritage.com/Upload/Mimsy/factsheet/92888CARNATIC-1863pdf.pdf Online resource: Accessed 20/07/2021) “THE WRECK OF THE CARNATIC. “The wreck of the Peninsular and Oriental Company’s steam-ship Carnatic – having struck, on Monday, the 13th ult, an hour after midnight, upon a reef of coral off the desolate isle of Shadwan, or Shadooan, at the mouth of the Gulf of Suez – has been related in former accounts. We have been favoured by one of the passengers, Major J U Champain, RE, with a sketch of the position of the wreck and the people, some clinging to the foremast, others standing up to their waists in the sea, after the vessel broke asunder, on the Tuesday. Major Champain also contributes to our Journal the following narrative, which will be read with interest :– “At ten o’clock on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 12, the steamship Carnatic, a magnificent vessel of 1,700 tons, commanded by Captain Jones, left Suez on her way to Bombay. There were on board, altogether, some 230 souls and a valuable cargo. The weather was lovely and, with a fair breeze, we went at ten or twelve knots an hour. About one o’clock on Monday morning we were roused from our sleep by a smart shock, and, going on deck, we saw what had happened. The night was brilliantly clear, though the moon had set. The Ushruffi lighthouse, which we had passed an hour before, on our starboard side, showed brightly on our port quarter. Close under our bows was a long line of white surf, apparently extending at right angles to our direction several hundred yards on each side of the ship, and high in front of us loomed the CARNATIC (1863) 0083 1863/0418 island of Shadooan, some 600 ft. above the sea at its most elevated peak. At night the passengers were of opinion that the island was not more than a mile or a mile and a half distant; but when day broke it was evidently much farther, and I shall not be very wrong if I say it was three or four miles from us in a direct line. On examining our position, we found that the vessel, running before the wind at about eleven knots, had struck full on a large coral reef (plainly marked on the chart), and had forced herself into a most critical position. The reef itself lay exactly ahead of the ship, and was about a square mile in extent; nearly out of water at low tide, but about 4 ft. under at high water. Its surface was almost level, though here and there a few small rocks rose above the water-line when the tide was out. The wind was moderate and the sea by no means rough; but, lying on the weather side of the shoal, the vessel was bumped about rather ominously. From the moment of striking every effort was made to get the ship off into deep water, there being at the time about 4 ft. under our bows, 8 ft. or 10 ft. abreast the engines on the starboard side, deep water just above the foremast on the port side, and any depth under our stern. The whole ship, besides sloping steeply from bow to stern, lay over considerably on her starboard side. The passengers were quiet and collected from first to last; many of us were accustomed to the sensation, having been on board the Pera, which, on the previous Saturday, had been bumping for three hours and a half on the Alexandria bar. Every one did his utmost to help the crew, by hauling at ropes, throwing cargo overboard, and working at the capstan; anchors having been laid out astern, to drag the ship from an awkward position into what seemed to us one of still greater danger. We were nearly all convinced that the leaks, after a few hours’ bumping, would have sunk the ship had the captain’s first attempt to get her off been successful; but the general belief of the passengers was that the Great Eastern herself would scarcely have sufficed to drag the Carnatic from her place on the reef. Our meals went on as usual, and we even amused ourselves with angling unsuccessfully for the fish, of dazzling colours, that swarmed beneath us. Towards mid-day on Monday, some of those on board appeared their anxiety to hear from the captain what measures he proposed to adopt. Most of us, however, felt it would be better to remain passive and await his instructions. At half-past five in the evening Captain Jones came aft, and spoke to us for the first time, thanking us for our behaviour, and asking us to nominate a committee, to whom he would explain his views, and the condition of the vessel. Three of us, having been chosen, went forward immediately, but, as the sun had set, and the boats, though alongside, were utterly unfurnished with stores and provisions, we agreed with the captain that, under the circumstances, the weather being calm, it would be advisable to remain on board for the night, and go ashore in the early morning. “I for one went below at eleven o’clock, undressed completely, and slept till one in the morning. At that hour a man awoke me, and told me that, as the water had gained on us so far as to extinguish the fires and thus stop the engines pumping, everyone on board was to proceed at once to the forecastle. There, consequently, we assembled; and, as the wind gradually freshened with the coming day, it proved to be a rather exposed situation. The passengers, however, employed themselves in helping the crew to get cut another anchor forward and to set foresail, foretopsail, and forestaysail, to prevent the ship slipping backwards into deep water. At last, too, the victualling of the boats was commenced. “In the mean time, the angle at which the vessel lay was slowly but steadily increasing, CARNATIC (1863) 0083 1863/0418 and the rising tide was washing the quarter-deck nearly up to the companion. Some of us, after waiting hours for orders to take to the boats, went below out of curiosity, and were witnesses of a very remarkable sight. The saloon was full of water, which poured in with amazing violence through the shattered skylights, every advancing wave threatening to carry away the whole after part of the ship. Tables, chairs, and benches were careering about, washed hither and thither by the swirling water. On returning to the fore part of the ship, a climb of some difficulty, we found that the only women on board (two passengers and the stewardess), with a little girl about three years old, had just been placed in the life-boat and some of the passengers were on the point of following. It was ten minutes before eleven in the forenoon. At this instant the vessel suddenly fell back, a frightful crash told us that she had parted amid-ships, and we were all plunged with terrific force into a whirlpool. The ship had been, as I mentioned above, lying over on her starboard side, but after the shock she fell completely over to the port side; so that luggage, cargo, mail-bags, and men, with one eighteen-pounder gun in their midst, slid together at lightning speed down the deck until sucked under by the gigantic wave which had already swallowed up half of the ship. Bruised, bleeding, half stunned, and battered by the luggage, we were carried under till all seemed dark. On coming to the surface the sight that presented itself was one which I shall never forget, but which I find it absolutely impossible to describe. Heads, arms, and legs, bales of merchandise, boxes, sheep, fowls, and things of all sorts were being tossed backwards and forwards, up and down, by the rushing water. Drowning men were clutching at each other in their frantic struggles to reach a resting-place, which too many found only at the bottom of the sea. I myself was thus dragged under three times, but, being a good swimmer, I finally got hold of the foretop, which was half above water, and crawled up into the crosstrees, to take breath. In a short time, mutually assisting each other, all the men that could be seen in the water were hauled up. Being now in a safe position, we could look about us; but the foretopsail prevented our seeing the boats, or the men who had escaped direct to the reef, from the starboard side of the ship, as she went under, and for about two hours we knew not the state of affairs on the other side. At length a boat came off to us; we fastened those who could not swim and those half-stunned by a rope about their waists, and let them down. We were all taken off in three or four trips. Many of the survivors, who had struck out for the surf, and had somehow or other got through it, were standing on the coral up to their waists in smooth water. Happily, no sharks showed themselves, though in these parts they abound, and I am told a large one had been seen the day before. The bodies of Captain Pope, of the purser, and, I believe, of Mr. Warren, were dragged from the surf and laid on a bale of cotton. In each case endeavours were made to restore life, but without avail. “We were busily engaged during the next few hours in dragging the boats across the reef to the deep channel, which was about three miles broad, dividing us from Shadooan; then pulling across to the island, landing the stores there, and getting the boats over the cruel coral fringe to the sandy beach, where they lay high and dry. It was about eight in the evening when, after this fatiguing task, the wet and weary remnant of our company found themselves at last fairly ashore. The island is totally devoid of fresh water, and we had brought but little with us. Many of the casks were empty, having been placed unbunged in the boats, and some had been idiotically emptied by the African stokers to make unnecessary rafts for coming ashore. We knew that the next passing ship would be either the Sumatra or the Neaera, which might be expected at any moment. There seemed at first to be no possible means of making a signal in the CARNATIC (1863) 0083 1863/0418 dark. It was therefore decided that the chief officer, two of the passengers, and three Chinamen of the crew should launch a boat, make for the usual channel, and lie off all night, in hopes of stopping a ship. If no ship came in the night, the boat would try to beat up or pull up eighteen or twenty miles against current and wind to the Ushruffi lighthouse and obtain all the fresh water that could be spared. One rocket only could be found, and this, with half the only dry box of matches was placed in the boat. But, most providentially, several hundred huge bales of Manchester calicos and cotton cloths had floated, the day before the final break up, on to the island, having been thrown overboard, when we first struck the reef. These bales, very tightly pressed, had remained dry inside, and were of inestimable value in a variety of ways. From their contents we made ourselves turbans, most of us having lost our hats, as well as coats and bedding to lie on the sand. But the grandest notion of all was to collect an immense pile and set it alight. It was found to blaze gloriously, and one of our greatest anxieties was at once dispelled. “Before this discovery, however, we had commenced to launch the cutter, when a Chinaman ran down the bank, shouting that the lights of a steamer were visible. We strained every nerve to haul the boat out over the coral, and got away about nine o’clock at night. There was a doubt whether we should sail fast enough to reach the ship before she got by on her way to Suez; but, after putting a quarter of a mile between ourselves and the land, we looked back and saw the bonfire flaring most conspicuously. By the position of the steamer’s lights, it was evident that her attention was attracted, and at the critical moment we succeeded in firing our rocket. This settled the matter; the ship hove to, and we were soon alongside and on deck of the Peninsular and Oriental Company’s steamer Sumatra, from Bombay, with Lord Napier and other passengers on board. Boats were at once lowered, and, with the one in which we had arrived, went back for the Carnatic’s company. The wind had, however, risen, and all were not on board the Sumatra till ten o’clock on Wednesday morning, when we started on our return voyage to Suez. I cannot overrate the kindness and attention shown to us by all on board the Sumatra, and, in truth, we sorely needed help. Of all the baggage in the Carnatic, one small dressing-bag alone had been saved. We displayed our whole property on our persons, and, as we were all nearly alike, I may state, for example, that my costume consisted of a pair of tattered trousers, a shirt, and fifteen yards of Manchester calico gracefully wreathed round my temples. “The loss of life was fifteen Europeans and as many natives; of the former were five first-class passengers-viz., Captain Pope, R.A; Mr. Cuppage, 35th Regiment; Mr. Warren, Dr. Thomson, and Mr. Pidding, the ship’s purser, Mr. Gardner, and his clerk, Mr. Mackintosh, and the doctor, Mr. Ransford, with two engineers, a steward, and others. A more complete wreck than that of the ill-fated Carnatic has rarely taken place.”

Recovery of the Carnatic’s cargo would have been, to say the least, adventurous in the circumstances, the Victorians were superb innovators, very often at the cutting edge of technological breakthroughs and some of that, as witnessed by the loss of Jacob Samuda on the Gypsy Queen, came at a very heavy price! Setting out to undertake underwater recovery of sunken cargo was in its infancy, it was not so many years before (1824) that Charles & John Deane had invented a bellows-fed hard hat that could be used relatively safely to spend time under water

  It is said the Deane helmet was invented on the spur of the moment to free horses from a burning barn, indeed there are records of an extensive fire in Whitstable in 1821, where Charles & John Deane were living at the time. There is no reason to doubt that such an incident could well have seen such an inventive use of an antique Knight’s Helmet and a hose to save such valuable animals, after all, horses were the transport and work-engines of the era, no one would readily sacrifice such animals and, after all, Plato (“Republic”) had it that “our need will be the real creator” the precursor to the well-known and widely used proverb “necessity is the mother of invention”. Whatever the truth of the “invention” of the smoke helmet, by 1869 when Carnatic sank, the Deane smoke hood had developed into the Deane diving helmet and further on into the Augustus Siebe “Standard” dive dress. Standard dress involved locking the dive helmet to the divers suit by a corselet and bolts, a far safer system, not prone to flooding when the diver was working underwater as much as the earlier Deane helmet, which was held in place by weights over the suit, and otherwise unattached. It was Charles Deane who asked Siebe to improve the earlier design, and the corselet was the idea of George Edwards, the Engineer in charge of Lowestoft harbour, (gracesguide.co.uk/Augustus_Siebe On-Line resource: Accessed 27/07/2021), the Siebe system was in use from around 1830

Recovering sunken spoil off a reef in the Red Sea was little short of reckless, but Lloyd’s of London had not long since been almost bankrupted by the losses of ships in the Napoleonic wars and the American War of Independence (1775-1815), Lloyd’s had only just survived and was still licking its wounds, the loss of the “Lutine” off Holland in 1799 did not help, the Lutine was carrying “……a vast sum of gold and silver…..” (Lloyds.com/about-lloyds/history/corporate-history Online resource: accessed 21/07/2021) in 1824, just 45 years before Carnatic’s sinking, Lloyds monopoly on marine insurance had been revoked with a bill that ended the restriction of other bodies entering the marine insurance market, allowing people like the Rothschild family to found alternate, more competitive shipping insurers, Lloyd’s could ill-afford to let gold sit on the sea-bed, wherever it may be…….

   Had Carnatic not carried copper and gold perhaps the story might have ended there, however the P&O line could not abandon a wreck of such value without attempting salvage, after all, to put things in perspective, the cargo today would be worth millions of pounds. Lloyd’s, the Carnatic’s cargo insurers immediately dispatched Captain Gann to undertake a salvage operation. Gann engaged the salvage ship “Tor” and hard hat divers from Whitstable, a Mr Stephen Saffery and Mr George Rowden, to undertake the recovery of valuables and cargo on behalf of the insurers. Whitstable was the birthplace of hard hat diving largely because of the Deane family who lived there. When Charles & John Deane carried out their hard hat diving experiments it was from Whitstable, by the time John Deane was coming to the end of his diving career in 1858 (following his exploits clearing the harbour in Sevastopol in the Crimea), several families had taken up his and Siebe’s equipment and dived out of Whitstable, the Gann family was pre-eminent in this, indeed, they had 4 or 5 dive vessels working around the coast of the UK, and some even wider afield, in France and the Channel Islands

  Lloyds of London had helped with this by establishing a telegraph station in Whitstable to ensure they could recover as much of a cargo, or indeed a whole ship where practical, Whitstable was “the” place to go for diving and recovery expertise. More of this history can be read in John Bevan’s exemplary history of Whitstable and hard hat Diving “Another Whitstable Trade” (ISBN: 0 950 8242 5 9) and I am indebted to Ann Bevan, John’s wife, for providing my copy which has informed this piece remarkably well. I strongly recommend that anyone with an interest in the history of Hard Hat diving has a word with the historic diving society who might still have a few copies left, membership of the society will also reduce the price a little…… and maybe offer the chance to take a dive in “standard” dive dress too…..check out my dive with them in the “Best Dives Ever” section of this blog, an awesome experience!

When the Lloyd’s telegraph sent word of the loss of the Carnatic, it went first to Whitstable and was taken up by the superintendent of divers Captain John (Jack) Gann (Bevan J: “Another Whitstable Trade”. Ch 1.4 P 81 Para 4. 2009. Publisher, Print Alliance). Jack Gann was asked by Lloyds to go to Egypt to recover the cargo of Carnatic, specifically gold to the value of £40000 at that time, John Bevan has it that “Divers Stephen Saffery and George Rowden were sent out. The Whitstable divers were able to recover 30 boxes of bar silver and 6 boxes of bar gold by the end of September. Rowden had to return in December due to a severe attack of gastric fever…” Gann had initially been told on his arrival in Egypt that Carnatic was unrecoverable and had gone down in 40 fathoms of water, Gann very nearly didn’t continue, but, at what looks like the last minute, he decided to see for himself, and it was a good job that he did! The Tor arrived at Shadwan on the 29^th of September 1869 to find Arab Dhows around the wreck of the Carnatic and had to chase them off, to Gann’s delight the Carnatic was shallower than he had been told, and accessible to his divers, indeed some of Carnatic, presumably masts, and perhaps even the bow-sprit, were still visible above the surface at that time. It is reported that bad local weather prevented Saffery & Rowden diving for two weeks until the 15^th of October, from the first dives undertaken Saffery & Rowden were confronted by the bodies of those lost with the ship, but the divers brought mail, and eventually the ships safe to the surface, and then Saffery was able to get to the gold, not before having to remove one of the Carnatic’s bulkheads though, as between the mailroom and ships’ post office his progress was stopped until it could be opened up

Saffery managed to get through the bulkhead by the 24^th October and recovered 16 mail bags and two days later on the 26^th Saffery & Rowden recovered the first box of bullion, it took them until November 8^th to recover the bullion and, whilst that was undertaken, Gann employed local free divers from the Bedouin tribes to recover some 700 sheets of copper. John Bevan reports “…..the ‘English diver’ worked for four hours at 78 feet. In March 1870, the wreck was washed off the reef into deep water by which time all but £8000 of the specie had been recovered”. It is difficult to see how people believe there was any of the gold left aboard, Gann was not under any time constraint to salvage the Carnatic and, at such shallow depths, in the clear waters of the Red Sea, it would be inconceivable to think Saffery would not have been able to get the entire of the gold out of the wreck, there was no danger of her slipping any deeper, having dived the site the seabed around Carnatic is flat for the discernable are around her, and no other known dangers at the site at the time. Personally I doubt anything of value was left aboard……but, in truth, you never really know……

British & Commonwealth Postal History has an example of mail recovered from the Carnatic at auction (D Morrison Ltd) and apparently “The mail was salvaged by divers on the 24th October, having been under water for six weeks. The mail, all of which had been extensively damaged, received a cachet on a printed label ‘Recovered from wreck of the “Carnatic”.’ This cover from London dated AU 28 69 has various transit cancels before arriving on November 15 1869” …..Amazing that such fragile records of the tragedy remain to this day

  I first dived the Carnatic in 2008 from a day boat out of Hurghada, whilst on a week’s holiday with Ellie and the boys to escape the dire November weather in England, we were staying with Mark Hill and his family and Craig Toplis, both of whom you will have heard of if you spend any time on this blog-site. Carnatic was one of “three wrecks in one dive” on Abu Nuhas and at the time I did not realise “Abu Nuhas” was Arabic for “Copper Reef” which had been the local name for the reef at Shadwan since the Bedouin free-divers assisted Captain Gann during the salvage operation in 1869. The piece in my log book is short, we passed over Carnatic on our way to Ghiannis D, I recorded it so: “THREE WRECKS IN ONE DIVE ON ABU-NUHAS-EGYPT………a five minute swim with the reef on our left took us to the Carnatic – this has the bow still intact but all from the chain locker to the stern is collapsed the stern is still there and the stern rails are hanging there but the decking is see through now with the wood rotting away…..” Not the most flattering of write-ups on one of the most historic wrecks in the Red Sea, I mean, which other wreck can say it features, if briefly, in Jules Verne’s “Around The World in 80 Days” or that it has a Red Sea reef named for its cargo? At that time I would, in my defence, say that we had just spent time on the Chrisoula K, a wreck with almost everything intact, and so much to see as to need several dives to appreciate her, a far cry from the remains, albeit of huge historical significance, of the Carnatic, long since bereft of her embellishments and finery, courtesy of Messrs. Gann, Rowden and Saffery…….

It would not be until April of 2010 that I had a chance to “redeem” myself and dive the Carnatic properly….. I had joined a trip organized by Derek Aughton, another of the FSAC divers that had become a firm friend (and whom I had the British Army in common with) and who I later found out was born in Southport, just down the road from my favourite pub of the day, the Sandpiper, in Marshside….talk about 5 degrees of separation! Anyhow, I digress…..This trip was a Liveaboard based out of Hurghada on the MY Hurricane, part of the Tornado Marine fleet, a lovely boat with a very “can-do” local Egyptian crew, and a divemaster who could be best described as “contradictory”…. Eh Sammi……? So my Navy Log records: “26/04/10 Abu Nuhas wreck of “CARNATIC” down onto the bow looking through the hole for the bow-sprit & then down the starboard side to the stern windows & prop shaft & rudder – big prop for her size and age! Winding in and out of the wreck is easy as she is well rotted now shoals of glass fish and plenty more to see – small Napoleon Wrasse – nudibranchs etc really nice dive, old porthole off the stern mast great fun any direction. Plenty of penetration runs down to keel level! Great dive. Buddy Craig Gas in 200 Out 110 Viz 30+ M” Not quite “redemption”, but progress, I had spent more time on Carnatic and, perhaps you can tell, she was growing on me!

  If you look at contemporary engravings of the time, in 1865 the Samuda Brothers built a very similar vessel to the Carnatic called the “Mahroussee”, it might surprise you to know that vessel, built for the “Khedive” of Egypt (Viceroy) at that time, Isma’il Pasa, is now the “Royal Yacht” equivalent for the Egyptian President, a “Presidential Yacht” if you will, which I am sure gives Abdel Fattah el-Sisi a great deal of pleasure. It is the oldest surviving (active) yacht in the world and currently (July 2021) the ninth largest. A contemporary view of the fit-out of the Mahroussee (London Illustrated News) shows the likely, if slightly less lavish, look of the stern dining area of the Carnatic, the Samuda brothers had a distinct style to their ships from the examples of the day, the lines are very similar between the Carnatic and the Mahroussee, which was the larger of the vessels but generally quite similar in look. The Mahroussee today has been extensively modified from its original Samuda Brothers sail-steam arrangement, hardly surprising when you consider it is still in use………   

  I love the fact you can see where Carnatic was built even today, the wharf and Bow Creek are still where they were in Samuda days, the buildings have long since gone, replaced by factories and housing estates, but the place still exists. It only takes a little imagination to put yourself back into the past, back into the days when ships were made of wood and men were made of Iron, when there was no place on Earth the sun didn’t set over the British Empire and when a tiny country took innovation and democracy far and wide into what was, at the time, uncharted territory. It is not popular today to speak of Empire, and those in this country now represent all of the countries of the world, but that “new” world has lost any sense of identity, there are no more “men of iron”, just lesser men, content only with the industry of their thumbs and an intent focus on tiny digital screens rather than the vastness of the unknown territories, and the fearless ambition to discover and claim as much of it as they could, or lose their lives in the trying

So why did the Carnatic hit Abu Nuhas, in what was documented by Major J U Champain (in his London Illustrated News account), as almost idyllic sailing conditions  “The weather was lovely and, with a fair breeze, we went at ten or twelve knots an hour”. There was, by the sound of it, no reason the Carnatic “should” have hit the reef at Shadwan, although at high tide there is no sign of the reef if there are no waves impacting it, it was marked on the charts Captain Jones had on Carnatic at the time. To my mind the best wreck investigator I know, Ned Middleton, has captured the essence of Captain Jones situation in his Book “Shipwrecks from the Egyptian Red Sea” (ISBN: 9781853981531, of which I am privileged enough to have a signed copy) “At 10am on the morning of Sunday 12th September 1869, Captain Jones ordered the mooring lines slipped and the Carnatic sailed for Bombay. Captain Jones personally negotiated the long narrow confines of the hazardous Gulf of Suez and remained on the bridge to give his personal attention to every detail of navigating his vessel safely. Not trusting his more junior officers, Captain Jones remained on the bridge, supplementing this continual lack of sleep with copious amounts of coffee – just to stay awake. Maintaining a steady speed of 11 knots, the light at Ashrafi was sighted at 11:40pm and by the time the Second Officer came on duty just after midnight, it was already 5 or 6 miles astern – though no bearing was ever taken”

Ned Middleton describes the journey and actual loss of Carnatic better than any other: (although aboard, Major Champain was asleep in his berth immediately before the impact) “the headlands and islands through which the Carnatic plotted her course, were all visible. At 1am Shadwan Island was sighted by the Second Officer – dead ahead. The Master altered course to S. 46 true and gradually to S. 51 true. Eighteen minutes later, however, breakers were seen on the starboard bow. The helm was instantly put hard-a-starboard and the engines at full speed astern. Too late, the Carnatic struck Shaab Abu Nuhas Reef” As an independent perspective than that of Major Champain, the account Ned Middleton has of the actions of Captain Jones following the stranding, although similar to that of major Champain in the facts of the following decisions, offer insight into the reasoning behind those decisions:

“Jones was most thorough in checking every single aspect of the ships condition and was quite satisfied that the pumps could handle the amount of water being taken on. Judging the passengers and crew to be as safe as could be expected, he decided everyone would remain on board. At daybreak on the 13th, Jones assessed the situation once again. The ship was stuck fast on a large Coral Reef and, although she was leaking, she was still in pretty good shape and the pumps were coping. Jones then ordered a large amount of the cotton dumped overboard in order to lighten the vessel in the forlorn hope that she would float off with the tide. There was no panic amongst the passengers although some did ask the Captain for permission to make for Shadwan Island. Jones refused. Jones was well aware of the dangers involved in moving 210 people to a remote island on the far side of a dangerous coral reef in small boats and of the deprivations they would suffer until rescued. For the moment at least, his vessel was relatively sound, they had power and considerable comfort. He also knew that the P & O Liner – Sumatra, was due to pass by at any time, inbound for Suez and he fully expected to be rescued later that day. Meals were served, people strolled the decks and, up aloft, a constant lookout was kept for a passing ship. But none came and, as evening fell, a second deputation of passengers approached the Captain with a plea to be allowed to reach Shadwan Island by lifeboat. Again he refused. Totally underestimating the power of a Coral Reef to inflict damage on a steel-hulled vessel, Jones decided all would spend another night on board. Accepting his authority, some of the passengers even dressed for dinner and the waiters served drinks before they all enjoyed a sumptuous evening meal. For some, it would be their last”

To dive a wreck such as the Carnatic is one of the purest forms of historical research anyone can undertake, I have waxed lyrical, in other posts on this blog, in respect to the physical connection between diver and the ship and its circumstances, and will not repeat that here, however there is still often an element of the abstract, there are those who can dive a wreck and be oblivious to anything more than “that moment” and metal, coral and fishes, completely oblivious to the essence and the metaphysical nature of wreck diving. I consider the opportunity to dive on wrecks such as Carnatic a privilege above all others, a very real and tangible connection to those of her time and, when researching the wrecks for this blog, I occasionally get the opportunity to look those people in the eye

One of those lost on Carnatic, mentioned by Major Champain in his account of the sinking, was Captain Robert Pope of the Royal Artillery, born in the parish of Loth, Southerland (03 August 1831), in Scotland, to Major Peter Pope (Madras Army) and Mary Bailie Pope (Nee MacKay) and, at 30 years old, already a veteran of the India Mutiny. (a violent and bloody uprising against the British East India Company and its colonial rule in the country with massacres at Kanpur and Satichaura Ghat). Captain Pope “saw active service in the field with the Saugor Field Division during the Indian Mutiny and was present at the affair at Kubraee, the Battle of Banda, the surrender of Kurwee and the affair at Larcherra. He received a mention in despatches from General Whitlock and was entitled to the Indian Mutiny Medal with one clasp “Central India”” (On-line resource: soldiersofthequeen.com/India-CaptRobertPopeRoyalArtillery.html Accessed: 25/07/2021) only to drown as Carnatic sank. Reading of the circumstances of Captain Pope and those of the Carnatic, for me, removes all abstraction and makes the wreck a memorial to those lost, and a reminder of history, empire, and the ultimate futility of life itself  

Ned describes the tragedy of those aboard, and the impact of the decision by Captain Jones to keep his passengers safe, a decision which ultimately would cause the loss of life to 31 of those passengers: “At 2am on the morning of the 14th, the level of water within the ship finally engulfed the boilers and suddenly they were without power and light. Now even more passengers wanted to leave – but still Jones placed his faith in the timely arrival of the Sumatra. By daybreak, however, the sea state had begun to increase and water was rapidly filling the ship. Finally realizing his ship was lost, Jones ordered the lifeboats be made ready. It was not until 11am that he allowed the first passengers to begin to disembark. Tragically, at that very moment it became too late for some. In the time-honoured tradition of women and children first, the three ladies and one child on board had just taken their seats in one of the lifeboats when the Carnatic suddenly and without warning broke in half.”

The Board of Trade enquiry (Wikipedia: “SS Carnatic” Para 3: “Grounding””: On-line resource Accessed 25/07/2021) into the loss of the Carnatic described her as a “fully equipped and well found ship” and noted Captain Jones was “a skillful and experienced officer” it went on to say “it appears there was every condition as regards ship, weather and light to ensure a safe voyage and there was needed only proper care. This was not done, and hence the disaster.” The enquiry concluded that the stranding and eventual loss of the Carnatic was “due to a grave default of the Master“. Despite that finding, in respect of the actions taken by Captain Jones to protect the Carnatic’s passengers and crew following the stranding, the Board of Trade panel stated “that when it was determined to leave the ship the Master and his officers in their exertions to secure the safety of the passengers, did all that experienced and brave men could do”. A veneration of Captain Jones’ decisions to keep the passengers on Carnatic for as long as he felt it safer than the crossing to Shadwan itself

Could hubris have played a part, the mistrust of his own officers to guide Carnatic safely, Jones’ insistence on doing so himself until perhaps beyond tired, failing to take a bearing off the Lighthouse at Ashrafi, a mistake inconsistent with the experience of Captain Jones to say the least, and Jones’ own claim that strong currents had taken Carnatic off course eventually dooming Carnatic to her fate? Or, could Carnatic have been the very first of the ships said to be lost on Abu Nuhas, purposefully, in order to claim substantial insurance payments for a ship and its valuable cargo? I personally doubt that Carnatic was deliberately sunk (P&O generally underwrote their own ships rather than paying Lloyd’s to insure them, but not perhaps the cargo’s), it is a teasing idea though, Captain Jones certainly knew the Sumatra would pass by very soon, it is at least “plausible” that Jones had been tasked to reduce the number of sail-steam vessels the company owned, perhaps less profitably than they considered they could run a larger, steam only, ship through the soon to be opened Suez Canal……? Was Captain Jones so tired he omitted taking a sextant bearing on the Light at Ashrafi, or was it zeitgeist that Suez would make ships like Carnatic obsolete almost overnight? At this distance we will never truly know, but it is always at the back of the mind when mooring over Abu Nuhas…….. was only one of the wrecks deliberate, were some……. or is Abu Nuhas, truly, the mother of all fraudulent insurance claims?

Captain Philip B. Jones was born in Liverpool in 1830 and gained his Masters Certificate in London in 1858 – at the relatively early age of 28 years. His previous Commands included Columbian, Mongolia, Surat and Syria, during which time he secured a reputation as a first class Master Mariner. The Board of Trade suspended Captain Jones’ Masters Certificate for 9 months after the loss of the Carnatic, however that was of little matter, Captain Jones never went to sea again

I next dived Carnatic in August of 2011 off the live-aboard M/Y Contessa Mia, another of Derek Aughton’s dive trips, my log book records “Red Sea “Carnatic” A great dive dropping onto the stern & back for a look from the sand back at classic “Onedin Line” stern window set & magnificent spade style prop into the stern section & up along the hull in and out of the lower deck. Very broken at midsection where we exited onto the mast & along it then back into the hull to go forward through the mid deck in & out of the tight runs passing a giant puffer fish of “bin” like proportions up to the bows & a look down the bow-sprit hole through the whole ship for’ard under the bow at port side then back in & out of the hull to the stern awesome dive buddy Craig Viz 30m water Temp 28’ fantastic!! Eanx 24% Air In 210 Out 100 Deco 9 Mins @ 4.5m”

It would not be for another two years until I got back to Carnatic on another live-aboard, this time on a Blue 0 Two trip again in July, on the 31^st, only one day off being exactly two years after my last dive on her. The Green Navy log records “31/07/13 CARNATIC – ABU NUHAS – RED SEA dropping mid ships on the hull which lies [email protected] to port we swam the stern & through the prop & rudder & then entered the hull which is very skeletal but makes a wonderful reef full of glass fish & anemones wended our way to the bow through swim through’s & rib structures to exit and swim under the prow then pass along the whole hull to the stern to do deco! Air In 200 Out 150 Buddy Craig” There is something about swimming through the rudder and prop on a shipwreck; it’s one of those things you just “need” to do….. whenever there is sufficient gap!

So it’s now 2015 and I am lucky enough to be back in the Red Sea and with Blue 0 Two again, this time its August and the hottest dive trip or holiday I’ve ever taken, 120’ in the shade in the evening, brutal on land but with the cooling effect of the sea it’s pleasant on deck and wonderful underwater….my last dive on Carnatic to date, (hopefully not my last ever dive on her, after all there “could” be £8000 of gold still to find….about £1m in today’s value…) and my log tells us: “03/08/15 CARNATIC Abu Nuhas Red Sea Rib out to the reef front then onto the wreck for a wonderful dive wandering from the stern & prop up through the decks which are all skeleton where the deck teak has rotted away. We did everywhere on the wreck right through which was scenic gentle & a great dive. Bow – Sprit looking back through the wreck is still iconic! Air In 220 Out 100 Buddy Craig”……. Why not take the dive with me……..

I am deeply indebted to Ned Middleton and John Bevan (via Ann John’s wife) who’s excellent research has informed and underpinned this piece. I highly recommend the books of both authors for their research, detail and thoroughly enriching accounts of a rapidly disappearing subject matter very dear to my heart

I am also deeply indebted to Derek Aughton who’s excellent photo’s of Carnatic perfectly illustrate the dives I have taken on her

For those of you who like to see research into historical wrecks Janelle Harrison wrote a dissertation on her which you can view through SCRIBD here: 47343483-SS-Carnatic-An-Archaeological-and-Historical-Analysis-of-a-19th-Century-Shipwreck.pdf

The Sail-Steamship SS Dunraven was built in Newcastle upon Tyne at the Charles Mitchell and Co. Iron Ship Builders yard and was launched in 1872. The ship was commissioned by a Mr W. Milburn on behalf of the Mears Watts Milburn & Company of Newcastle Upon Tyne. Powered by both sail and steam, she was planned for the route from Britain to Bombay

Charles Mitchell & Co:

Charles Mitchell, born 20th May 1820 in Aberdeen, founded the Low Walker shipyard in 1853. Mitchell had served an apprenticeship with iron founders Simpson & Company, of Aberdeen, and following that, moved to Newcastle Upon Tyne in September of 1842. Mitchell found employment with John HS Coutts, a ship-yard owner, also from Aberdeen. Mitchell worked for Coutts until 1844 then moving to work in London, and undertaking extensive travel in Europe, France, Germany and as far as Italy. Mitchell returned to Newcastle in 1852 to set-up the Low Walker yard next to the Coutts yard, although it is not known what John Coutts thought of that at the time……

The Low Walker yard built over 90 vessels of various types, from dredgers to Nile steamers, Mitchell, and his business partner Henry Frederick Swan, even set up a shipbuilding yard at St Petersburg, in Russia, for the Tsar, Nicolas the First (Nicolay Pavlovich) and several warships were built there under Mitchell’s direction. Tsar Alexander II (Russia’s Tsar from 1855, when Nicolas 1 died) made Charles a Cavalier of the Order of St Stanislaus in recognition of his service, a rare honour for a British shipbuilder. Mitchell & Co also built many warship hulls for William Armstrong, Armstrong had established a company at Elswick in 1847 and had become one of the world’s leading armament manufacturers. Armstrong’s own yard was too far up river to build the hull sizes necessary for warship armaments of the day. This close working relationship resulted in a merger between the two companies in 1882, resulting in a new company called Armstrong, Mitchell & Co Ltd

In January 1876 Dunraven set sail from Liverpool with a cargo of steel and timber bound for Bombay, India. The cargo was sold successfully and Dunraven took on a second cargo of spices, cotton and muslin, (a thin cotton cloth used in cheaper clothing and for wrapping cheeses, often known colloquially as “Cheesecloth”) for the return journey. The outbound journey was for a time uneventful until Dunraven reached the Red Sea approaches to the Suez Canal on 25 April. At that time, navigation was far more rudimentary than it is now, relying on Sextant bearings and compass headings, errors of navigation were frequent and on this occasion, thinking they were further up the Gulf of Suez than they actually were, Captain Care and the 25-man crew sailed the ship straight into a reef

The Dunraven had gone into Sha’ab Mahmoud reef hard, and was stuck fast south of Beacon Rock, at the southern end of what is now the Ras Muhammad National Park. The “Shields Daily News”, a paper local to Newcastle on Tyne at that time, reported that “All available means were used to get the steamer off the reef and to keep the water under, but unsuccessfully, and during the day the ship was abandoned”. Indeed after some 14 hours she slid off Sha’ab Mahmoud, it is not reported if the cargo shifted or if other influences were involved but Dunraven capsized as she came away from the reef, and sunk in 25 metres of water. Dunraven’s crew, having worked hard to save her, must have been devastated, but the Red sea was an often travelled trade route and a passing Arab Dhow took the marooned sailors aboard (Shields Daily News 26/05/1876: “Loss of the screw-steamer Dunraven of Newcastle”), and, despite being declined passage on the British ship City of Manchester (the captain did, however,  provide water and some provisions) the ship reported their stranding on arrival at Suez and an Italian ship, the mail steamer “Arabia” took them aboard and ensured they were well looked after until arrival at Suez and transfer for their return to England. On the return to England, at the subsequent enquiry into the loss of the Dunraven, the British Board of Trade found Captain Care to have been at fault

The vessel was discovered in the 1970’s, and was made the subject of a BBC TV documentary investigating  the possibility the wreck was a lost ship, carrying gold to Lawrence of Arabia to fund the Arab armies fighting the Turkish occupation. It was very unlikely the Dunraven had a cargo of anything like Gold, a paragraph in the book “Under the Flag and Somali Coast Stories” the lifetime adventures of Langton Prendergast Walsh, C.I.E (29/02/1856 to 17/03/1927) is fairly clear the cargo was wool: (Walsh L.P: “Under the Flag and Somali Coast Stories, UNAUTHORISED ADVENTURES”, P143. Published by A. Melrose London) “On another occasion Charlie Moyle and I chartered a dhow to take us to Shab Mahmud, a coral reef near the Port of Tor in the Gulf of Suez. There the S.S. Dunraven was piled up, with her bow high and dry and her stern partly immersed in the sea. On getting alongside of her, it seemed that she might at any moment slip off and go down stern first into deep water. As the cargo was chiefly wool, it was of no use to us. Still, in order to pay expenses we took down the standard binnacle, collected several sextants, telescopes, binoculars, and a set of new sails, and realized by sale at Suez a little more than was adequate to pay expenses”

The description accompanying the auction of Langton Prendergast’s C.I.E medal at Sink’s auction house read:

“Langton Prendergast Walsh was born in February 1856 at Baroda, Gujarat, India, the son of Colonel T. Prendergast. Entering the Marine Postal Service in 1873, he transferred to the Bombay Political Service in 1879, before seeing active service in the Egypt and Sudan campaign whilst attached to the Indian Staff (Medal & clasp; Khedive’s Star). Soon after, Walsh found himself posted to Somaliland, in Consular charge of Berbera and Zeila, in which position he raised the Somali Coast Protectorate Police. Engaged in the operations of 1886, he was also on the Esa Expedition of 1890 and was present at Hussein Zareeba. Having been awarded the C.I.E. whilst Assistant Resident at Zeila, he was afterward Political Agent at Sawant Wadi. Retired in 1903, he soon put pen to paper and for many years contributed to the Indian and international press, publishing Under the Flag and Somali Coast Stories. A big-game hunter and member of the Conservative and Carlton Clubs, he died at home, Plas Idwal, Gunnersbury, W5, on 17 March 1927” 

A further quote from Langdon Prendergast’s memorial has it that: “……In 1884 the British government signed a treaty with the Somali Sultans, allowing them to establish a protectorate known as British Somaliland. With his soldiers, Langton was sent to the newly established capital, Berbera, and became the first Administrator, a post he retained until 1893. British Somaliland often came under attack from the Sultan Nur and the Dervishes, who once looted all the camels and cattle of the British. Langton ordered his soldiers to kidnap the Sultan’s wife and infant child – holding them until the animals were returned”    Walsh not only met General Gordon of Khartoum, (writing French language letters from Cairo on General Gordon’s behalf), but was probably the first on the wreck of the Dunraven following her abandonment by her crew and, likely, the rescuer of some of those crew noted as being “saved by the crew of an Arab Dhow” if the account in the book is genuine, of which I have no doubt whatsoever, bearing in mind Langton Prendergast’s other documented escapades, that it absolutely is accurate 

The BBC did a documentary in 1979 which featured an interview with geologist Ayre Keller (whilst in a zodiac inflatable, similar to those I used in the Falkland Islands back in my Army days off New Island), Keller told BBC reporter, Jack Pizzey, that, while working for an oil company sounding pipeline routing, they echo located what seemed to be a wreck. Keller was friends with a local dive operation owner Howard Rosenstein, (Then owner of Red Sea Divers, Sharm el Sheikh) and mentioned the possibility of a wreck to him, there was clearly some contention over this, Howard Rosenstein seems (in some publications) to have claimed the find for himself, whatever the truth of the matter, both Keller and Rosenstein were involved in the discovery and identification of the SS Dunraven

Howard Rosenstein’s divers found bottles marked with the name “Webb’s Double Soda and Other Waters”, that company traded from 1836 to 1880 proving any treasure tales surrounding Lawrence of Arabia could not be correct, Lawrence did not arrive in Arabia until 1916. Rosenstein also found plates with the initials G.F.B manufactured by George F. Barnes, exhibition in London in 1873. The wreck could therefore be dated between 1873 and 1880, those dates, coupled with finding the ships name in raised lettering, ‘SS DUNRAVEN’ on the transom, completed research in the Maritime Museum, Newcastle showing the wreck could only be the SS Dunraven built in 1873 by C. Mitchell and Company

My first dive on the Dunraven was 04^th August of 1997 part of my Red Sea excursion with Fenton Sub Aqua Club written up elsewhere in this blog, we were diving from the Princess Dalal and my little Red Book describes her thus: “04/08/97 Sha’b Mahmud “Beacon Rock” DUNRAVEN an English steam/sail ship that ran onto Beacon Rock in March 1876 and sank very quickly (portholes still open when found). She turned turtle & is largely empty her cargo having fallen & settled into the coral sand. We dropped to her stern & prop at 30m then entered her Starbord side (Left from stern) then made our way through twisted broken metal along her propeller shaft to her boilers encountering Lion Fish & large shoals of glassfish. Looked round the base of the boilers on the ceiling then went for’ard to the second section to impact area where it’s obvious why she foundered”

It would be 12 years until my next dive on the Dunraven, this time with a trip in 2010 on the live-aboard MY Hurricane, part of the Red Sea “Tornado” fleet, a step up from the Princess Dalal but a more “Western” boat if that is the right picture, something which loses a little in translation, where Princess Dalal had a distinct “fine wood and faded opulence” feel about her, Hurricane had a more “modern” and sanitised feel, both were perfectly good boats and I enjoyed both equally, they just represented a difference in diving in the area, less “camel trains into the desert”, more “welcome tourist divers”…… if you understand? Anyhow, my log recalls: “01/05/10 “DUNRAVEN” it’s 12 years since I last dived Dunraven and she now has a noticeable sag in her keel, there is more decay evident everywhere but she is still a fine dive – down to the stern & in on the Starbord side as she is upside down the prop-shaft is above you throughout. We wound up to the broken section passing the boiler overhead and then turned round to do the reverse course out the stern & along to the bow which is fairly trashed now but still can be discerned! After the bow we did a nice 15 min on the reef to finish off near the boat mooring. Plenty of life everywhere, very pretty. Viz 20m Buddy Craig Air In 200 Out 120”

It would be another 3 years until my next, and, to date last dive on Dunraven, this time with Blue O2, another step forward in the live-aboard boats, slightly larger if I recall than Hurricane and done out in the same fashion, a Western modern style with space for everything and a good deal of technical support, Nitrox and charging points for lights and camera’s etc, on all the Liveaboards I have been privileged to dive from the food has been excellent, plenty of choice, enough to go round and then some, I have been lucky enough to have had wonderful boats and great catering over many years now, I count myself very fortunate in that! My navy log book records: “29/03/13 DUNRAVEN – Red – Sea Down to the stern of the inverted hull through into the hull itself at the taff rail – then a bimble up through the collapsed stern interior and along hull plates in and out of the ribs to the mid-section – clear exits all the way – in and out under superstructure & alongside the boiler up to exit at the bows and then re-enter & do the whole wreck again in reverse. Fantastic and very atmospheric! Out at the stern & onto the reef to deco @ drift Air In 200 Out 140 Buddy Craig”

A British Board of Trade Inquiry, found the Dunraven’s Captain, Edward Richards Care, guilty of navigational negligence. Captain Care and the Dunraven’s second mate admitted they had difficulty identifying a light they thought was a lighthouse, whilst approaching the Gulf of Suez, on a return trip from India in what they described as calm conditions during the night. The light mysteriously went out, the second mate was left in charge and some time later, 24 April 1876, the ship grounded on Sha’ab Mahmoud. The Dunraven’s 25 crew were rescued by Egyptian boats and then transferred to vessels bound for the UK. The Board of Trade found Captain Care guilty of navigational error and Care was given a 12-month suspension of his Master’s rating but allowed to continue as a first officer

Giannis D

  The Giannis D began life in 1969 as the Shoyo Maru, built by the Kuryshima Dock Company of Imabari, Japan, as a “General Cargo Vessel” of 2,932 gross registered tonnes. Giannis D’s yard number was 471 and her IMO was 6925666, she possessed two cargo holds forward, with Bridge and Engine Room at the Stern, her dimensions: Length 99.5m x Width 16m with a draught 6.53m. Giannis D’s machinery was built by Akasaka Tekkosho KK of Yaizu, Japan, she was fitted with a six cylinder diesel motor also from Akasaka Tekkosho KK Yaizu, driving a single propeller shaft & prop, delivering a 2,200 kW (3,000 BHP) output.  The Giannis D had two reasonably generous cargo holds, three efficient deck cranes, with four “jibs” or “booms” and was capable of producing a top speed of around 12 knots

The Shoyo Maru was sold in 1975 and renamed the Markos, in 1980 she was sold once more, to the Dumarc Shipping and Trading Corporation based in Piraeus, Greece, and re-named Giannis D (where the D stands for the name of the shipping company). As a general cargo ship Giannis D would have been mostly used as a coastal trader, tramping cargoes of opportunity. In April of 1983 the Giannis D, with a cargo of wood, left Rijeka (Croatia) headed to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) and then to Al Hudaydah (Yemen)

It is a rare thing to be in the right place at the right time, Peter Collings, one of the earlier wreck and reef explorers of the emergent Red Sea scuba diving upsurge of the 1980’s, and a writer of articles and e-books on the area for many years, must have thought himself very lucky to come across the Giannis D, abandoned, in 1983, but yet to find her final resting place. Peter has written on the identification of several of the Abu Nuhas wrecks and it was his articles that spurred my own interest in the unusual, but oddly common fates of the “Big Four” (Giannis D, Carnatic, Kimon M & Chrisoula K) on Abu Nuhas, before I had even dived them back in the early 90’s when still in the British Army, bored, on my bunk in Tidworth and dreaming of clear Blue Sea, Pure Blue Skies and the wrecks of Sha’ab Abu Nuhas   

  After crossing the Suez Canal Giannis D headed south but, according to official reports, was off its course to the northwest corner of Abu Nuhas reef where it crashed 19/04/1983. At 4:00 am on April 19^th 1983 the ship’s captain issued a distress call requesting the rescue of the crew in view of the severity of hull damage, a 12 meter tear, the Captain then ordered the crew to abandon the Giannis D due to her growing list, they were taken by Egyptian tug to Santa Fe platform, where a helicopter transferred them to Ras Shoke. The loss of the Giannis D being cited as “an error of navigation” is an odd statement as 240 degrees off course is an exceptional error, considering there are only 360’ on a compass in the first place! I read the testimony of one of Peter Colling’s eye witnesses to several of the Abu Nuhas wrecks, either a very unfortunate, unlucky individual, or from another perspective, one of the unwitting pawns of cynical and perhaps, essentially corrupt, shipping “traders” (for want of a better, less legally endangering term), running vessels registered under Greek home ports in the 1970’s through to the 1990’s. Mr Stephan Jablonski, a Polish mariner and marine engineer, much like my father in his Blue Funnel days, but, unlike my father in at least one important aspect, having been on 4 separate wrecks within around 5 years

  I will steal none of Peter Colling’s thunder here, I was fascinated with his e-book “Tile-Wreck-Final-Proof.PDF” and urge the reader to dig it out and read through the evidence themselves, it is edifying stuff I assure you! Whichever way the sinking of the Giannis D is looked at, “Compass error”, Human error (for this read “compass error by an idiot”…), or “something else” ……. it is the “something else” which has ominous undertones, it is a bizarre picture, Giannis D heading steadfastly down the Red Sea on a steady bearing when, for no apparent reason, a 240’ alteration “occurs”…… and places the vessel on a direct collision course with a widely known and shockingly obvious (from the 3 wrecked ship’s bows still prominent and embedded into it) presence as Abu Nuhas hove’s, ever faster into view, and conveniently stoves in the bow of her 4^th victim….. Cue the horror of the crew (or at least those like Stephan Jablonski, at work, buried in  the engine room and holds), and the call to any passing maritime “Uber” drivers, to invoke the free lift back to port to cash in the insurance cheque for both the vessel (oddly, far more valuable than at her last purchase price), and her always very perishable and fairly valuable “cargo”….of which there is of course no sign on the deck, or in the hold of the vessel, when loss adjusters get investigators to the stranded wreckage (obviously guv’nor….it was nicked or it washed away….). Or perhaps I share an “elevated” level of cynicism with Peter Collings and his friend, and eye witness to at least 3 of the four sinking’s, Mr Jablonski……..

The “Giannis D” is now found in three separate sections – Bows, Amidships and Stern, lying more or less parallel to the Reef, sadly only last week (June of 2021) I heard yet another careless dive-boat had moored up from her “H” Frame in less than perfect seas, the constant wear of idiot captains had long worked its punishment into her metalwork, and now the H frame is lying on the bottom rather than upright as a haven for decompressing divers waiting to be picked up by their tender

Lloyd’s Casualty List 22/04/1983: “GIANNIS D (Greek). London Apr 21 – Information received, dated Apr 20, states: Mv Giannis D, (from Rijeka), cargo sawn softwood for discharge at Jeddah and Hodeidah, grounded at Sha’b Abu Nuhas, approximate position lat. 27.35N, long. 33.56E, last night. Crew abandoned vessel, which is listing, and taken by an Egyptian tug to Santa Fe platform and then by helicopter to Ras Shoke. Owners signed Lloyd’s standard form with salvage tug Salvanguard, which proceeding to vessel.”

  The ship was written off by her insurers as a “constructive loss” which means, effectively, there is no point in trying to recover her, other than offering her out to a salvage contract, meaning the insured will be compensated to the full value of the vessel and cargo. This was not by any means the first time, or the last, that an ageing Greek ship would find its way onto Abu Nuhas with a cargo likely to be written off by the insurers, the Kimon M, the Carnatic (an older, 1860’s sail-steamer) and the Chrisoula K beat her to the depths in a similar fashion, although Carnatic was under a British Flag when lost and is perhaps the only wreck on Abu Nuhas that seems to have had a genuine navigational error (failure by her captain to take a sextant reading of her position) cause her demise. Giannis D remained stranded, hard into the reef for several weeks afterwards, until a storm broke her in half and she sank to the base of the reef where she sits today at position 27° 34′ 42″ N, 33° 55′ 24 in 10-28 meters of water

  My first ever dive on the Giannis D, one of what would become many over the years, was written up in the little Red Wreck Log as: “03/08/97 Ghiannis D. The ideal wreck, the stern leans at 50’ or so & is broken away from the bows, a Greek freighter who ran into Abu Nuhas on 19^th April 1983 So she’s still in fine condition an easy penetration as light is everywhere the engine room is marvellous the huge engines stretching forward with easy access then out and round the stern, along the port companionway & up onto the bridge area finally out along the huge gantry fabulous dive” This dive was in the days of single cylinders and stab jackets, my first ever expedition to the Red Sea off the Liveaboard Princess Dalal. I have not yet found any photos of the Princess Dalal, which is a shame, she had that old but graceful feel about her, there was not the “frills” of the current luxury live-aboards, she was more an “Arab” boat, if that is the right feel to convey, she was not the lithe and nimble, flash-dancer of the Red Sea, more the fading diva, still echoes of the regal, but with that undeniable latter-day Sophia-Loren, or Maria Callas appeal

The wrecks of Abu Nuhas have, seemingly, been resolved from my first dives in 1997 to today (June of 2021), although, as Peter Collings has it, there are still those using misleading references to the wrecks and those still incorrectly identifying the wrecks. The illustration above shows the orientation of the islet but has Kimon M as unknown (“Unbekkanntes” in German) and identifies the Marcus incorrectly as the Chrisoula K, I am convinced Peter Collings is correct when he says the main body of Chrisoula K sits in deeper water to the south of the Marcus, and that the confusion occurred because the two bows (Chrisoula K and Marcus) are lying so close to one another. When I dived the wrecks of Abu Nuhas in 1997 there was still what I believe to be the bow of Chrisoula K on the islet but the two others from Marcus and Kimon M were underwater

My next opportunity to dive the Giannis D came in November of 2008, I had a family holiday booked with Ellen and the kids, this time in Hurghada, just a beach holiday to get away from the chilly UK November weather really, but I had Mark Hill and his family with me and Craig Toplis who had become a regular dive buddy over the last couple of years, all of us had the same idea, let’s see if we could get a ride out to Abu Nuhas  for the day….or perhaps two? It didn’t take much persuading and we ended up on a trip out on the 25^th, it seemed a shame to have so many wrecks nearby…..but only dive 1…..then a cunning plan sort of edged into my mind, what if we tried to get all of the Nuhas wrecks in one go……? Could it be done, would we have enough gas, what would the deco look like as the distance itself was a little daunting, given the current that could creep up on Nuhas, Mark and Craig were up for giving it a go, but the distance and deco meant we would probably manage only 3 of the wrecks if we got that far. I was, by now, back in my Green Royal Navy Divers Log (courtesy of Chuck Russet of JSSADC from my BSAC Novice Diver’s course way back in 1990), the little Red Log having been filled by 2000 and it records: “25/11/2008 THREE WRECKS IN ONE DIVE ON ABU NUHAS – EGYPT. Starting with Chrisoula K Dropping onto the stern and round the rudder & prop She’s on her Starboard side – round to the bridge & then through the tool room past the lathe & on into the hold through the cargo of floor tiles round to the bows passing many colourful fish & corals notably 2 angel fish & a spotted ray. A five minute swim with the reef on the left took us to the Carnatic – this has the bow still intact but all from the chain locker to the stern is collapsed the stern is still there and the stern rails are hanging there but the decking is see-through now with the wood rotting away. Next was a ten minute swim to the Giannis D which again is keeping the reef on the left. We met her at the bow and passed that to reach the stern which is the main attraction. We spent most of the time in and around the bridge – passing the prop to make the corridor alongside the port side & up across the front of the bridge again plenty of life – pretty corals & dozens of types of fish five more angel fish, a big parrot fish and another spotted ray – we spent 20 mins on deco round the bridge & the gantry’s & funnel & along to the hull fracture – all in all buy one get 2 free! Great diving! Buddy – Nick Mark & Craig. 32% 40% deco Viz Monster!” You can see that there was still, even in 2008 some confusion introduced by the dive guide Nick, who was still calling the “Tile-Wreck” Marcus, in error, the “Chrisoula K”. Either way this was an epic dive and I am not sure anyone has undertaken it before or since?

I would next dive Giannis D off the Liveaboard MY Hurricane, April of 2010 again with Craig as my buddy and this dive was an hour on her alone, one of the best dives I had ever done at that time, and another of the longest write-ups I have recorded in my log: “26/04/10 Abu Nuhas “Giannis D” there is little you can say about this wreck that isn’t superlative. The Giannis is iconic – sunk in 1983 (I was 23) she is in 3 pieces – stern – mid-ships & bow. Twins allowed us to do every bit of her at the price of 18 mins of deco on the crane davit & funnel. We went from the stern down the starboard side down to the prop & round the stern to the bridge rear access doors – in to the left hand door & down the corridor – 2^nd door on the right is the engine room & we spent 10 minutes or so in amongst the rockers and cylinder head then deeper down to the generator & lower gantry’s. I really spent some time thinking of the times my dad & Keith used to take us round the Blue Funnel ships in Liverpool I miss him! Out of the engine room & into the bridge down and out of the Port doorway & along the gangway to the mid-section, in and out of the debris & the hull until we reached the bows which are on their Port side across and round the fore – deck then back past the winches to see the break & along the starboard mid side to the bridge & in and around that till we deco’d off on the funnel Viz 35m plus Air In 200 Out 100 Buddy Craig”

By now I was hooked on Red Sea wrecks, it is safe to say the variety, the visibility, and the thrill of long penetration dives on these wrecks was now all consuming. It was only a year later that I would return to Abu Nuhas and dive Giannis D once more. Before we look at that dive I am minded of the piece elsewhere on this blog which considers the conundrum of true “shipwrecks” and places them in context with deliberately sunk or “placed” attractions. It seems contradictory to hold Giannis D in such reverence as a “shipwreck” when in all honesty she is highly likely to have been a deliberate sinking on the orders of her owners, the Dumarc line. I have stated, again elsewhere in this blog, that I have no interest in diving “placed attractions” and consider them nothing more than litter….so how do we square the circle on Giannis D then? I think it is down to the circumstances of the sinking, there was nothing of the “dive-store dream” of a new “wreck” on their doorstep, solely in order to attract unwitting divers into a financial outlay, to explore a sanitised and “safe wreck” about Giannis D. Quite the opposite, every attempt had been made to construct a believable story of navigational error, every member of the crew other than those actually involved in the navigation of Giannis D, and probably even some of those officers, had been kept deliberately in the dark about the intention to lose the ship nefariously

At the time of her sinking the insurers were convinced of the “accidental” nature of the loss, and there was nothing “sanitised” about the actual sinking itself….Giannis D motored directly into Abu Nuhas, indeed it is strongly believed she was near full throttle when she hit the reef, there was no concern for those aboard by whomever knew this was to be her last journey either, they were disposable, just means to an end, and that end was an inflated insurance claim….and it paid off too! Now, even today there is that element of nagging doubt, that feeling there might have been a legitimate error on behalf of whosoever was on the bridge at the time, and that “human need” to believe no one is callous enough to risk the lives of fellow human beings in such a cold and calculated, criminal financial enterprise. The absolute essence of the matter is, we will never truly know if Giannis D was a genuine marine accident, or a successful act of sabotage……..and that is where I can lay my head comfortably, Giannis D is a remarkable and iconic Red Sea wreck    

So we return to Giannis D July of 2011 from the Liveaboard Contessa Mia, one of the nicest Liveaboards I had been on to that day, spacious and well fitted, the crew and support staff were excellent throughout and the food was great too, I did not lose any weight on the trip, ahh well, best intentions and all that…but enough of that, to the wreck, the dive log records: “31/07/11 Red Sea “Giannis D” on Sha’ab Abu Nuhas This was in choppy seas and a “bounce” to get out. Down to see the mangled prop & round the stern deck past the winch & into the Port Gangway past the crew & storage cabins & down into the engine room, far too many divers with torches everywhere to be comfy. Still waited a while & managed to go around the rockers & head area then along to the bulkhead – massive Puffer fish deeper into the workshop deck level down from the engine – swam round the engine room & out of the main deck “lights” then on across the main hull debris, huge sections of hull lying on the reef & on to the bow in and out of the wreckage, great swim & the bow is awesome, lying to Port you look down it to the reef & over the deck anchor winches, brilliant view we then swam out & up the main mast, back along that to the hull break & towards the stern for an epic view of the bridge and entire silhouette of the ship including funnel & massive bridge gantry – an awesome photo for someone capable enough. One last swim down the Port companionway & out at the stern to pass the funnel & deco on the gantry Great Dive Buddy Craig Air in 200 Out 100 deco 2 mins @ 4.5”

  The main three extended dives noted here are representative of the full extent of Giannis D and although I have had more dives on her these describe the most of the wreck without too much repetition. It is enough to say that Giannis D represents the best of the shallower wrecks of the Red Sea, there is so much to explore in relative safety. Of course no wreck is “safe” there are always hazards, from disorientation to entrapment, from failing to monitor your gas or air, to missing deco stops or safety stops, but, of all the more modern shipwrecks, I believe Giannis D to be perhaps the best of them

For those who want a little of everything in a wreck, there are the darker corners of her engine room, the machine-shop workstation and its mezzanine decking, and to the rear bulkhead the electrical panels and pipework, then there are the engines themselves with open rockers running their length, and the access mezzanines alongside, where the light gives a less claustrophobic feel and the reassuring sight of exit points in all directions, through to the companionway Port or Starboard, for’ard to the bridge or out of the engine room skylights, all of which the photographer will find irresistible

  The outside of Giannis is already iconic, wherever shipwrecks are pictured it is almost inevitable you will find a shot of Giannis D’s stern, but on from that there is the bridge with its resident shoal of Glass fish and onward again are the open and twisted holds, huge and empty, with twisted metal everywhere, swim-through’s with the Egyptian Sun streaming through whilst you wind to the bows, broken from the main of the hull by the gargantuan forces of the ocean and the immovable rock and coral of Abu Nuhas, the hawse pipes and bow massive against the reef and teeming with life, and more of those darker areas to wind in and out of, lots more to see than meets the eye at first glance. It took 3 trips and twin twelve litre cylinders before a measure of real exploration of Giannis was realistic, and over the three dives Giannis just became more and more on each subsequent dive, so let’s leave her with a last and beautifully atmospheric view of that perfect stern…….

I must thank Peter Collings for his e-book pieces on the wrecks of Abu Nuhas, and for the web-photos of Giannis D on Abu Nuhas as she sank

As always, I will be eternally grateful to Derek Aughton & Mark Milburn for the use of their excellent photos of our group dive expeditions, and Derek for his organisation of several of the trips themselves

I should also mention the stunning representation of the wreck site by Rico Oldfield, simply the best wreck illustrator I have ever seen

Operation Overlord & Portland Harbour….A Diving Mystery!

1944 and the allies are massing on the South Coast to take the offensive to Hitler on the shores of the Normandy Beaches. Preparations are as covert as possible and deception is the name of the game, there are battalions of “funnies”…… inflatable tanks and lorries, being placed along the Eastern coast ports and disguised in just enough manner as to attract attention from the Luftwaffe and from any German sympathisers engaged in spying operations along the coastal counties

Operation Fortitude and Bodyguard saw misinformation passed to the Germans and other deceptions, like the 255 Dummy landing craft made from wood and tarpaulin, and inflatables made from rubber, assembled at Dover to give the impression Dover would be the disembarkation port. Seen close up the dummy landing craft are obviously unconvincing, but from a Luftwaffe pilots perspective they were very believable…..

Churchill and the allies, with Montgomery commanding the British and the allies, and Eisenhower commanding the US Army and the Canadians, are building huge invasion forces and transportation caches in the Southern ports and surrounding areas, to await the perfect moment to cross the Channel and begin the invasion of Europe. Across the 20 odd miles of the English Channel, Erwin Rommel has taken charge of the defences and fortifications on the French coastline, a wall of gun emplacements and artillery backed with tens of thousands of German troops, they know the Allies are coming, they just don’t know exactly when…..or where

In Weymouth and Portland, by June of 1944, the seaside towns have been transformed by the tens of thousands of US troops massing for the short trip across the Channel. The harbours are lined with ships and transports, supplies and ammunition arrive by train and lorry, lines of supply from all over the world, streaming in to ensure the invasion bridgehead can be sustained……..and it just keeps coming. Churchill and Eisenhower must have been terrified the Germans would discover where the troop concentrations were the highest, where the landing craft and support auxiliary craft were berthed, and when the invasion was planned. Truth be known there was probably little Hitler and his generals could do, air superiority was firmly in the hands of the RAF, strengthened by the fighters and bombers of the USAF that had been flying sorties and “thousand bomber raids” on Hamburg and Berlin since 1943. But there was always the chance that, with enough intelligence and enough will, the German Luftwaffe could have a disastrous effect on the landing plans being thrashed out under Whitehall

The planned allied actions would involve all of the ingenuity of the combined nations and some of the most innovative problem solving seen globally to that date, the Mulberry’s, Whales and floating roadways have been examined in detail elsewhere in this blog, I won’t repeat them here. This piece is where tribute is paid to those who landed on the beaches themselves, those who transferred from troop-carriers over the side, fully kitted, hanging from rope nets slung for the purpose of access to the smaller, shallow draughted landing craft assault (LCA’s). Alongside them those who sailed ashore in Sherman duplex drive tanks and the “Hobart Funnies”, the mine-flail carrying Sherman’s from landing craft “Tank” vessels (LCT’s), and the myriad of other small work-horse landing craft, that delivered tens of thousands to their destiny on the shores of Normandy and the beaches of Utah (Pouppeville), Omaha (St Laurent Sur Mer) Gold (Arromanches) Juno (Courseulles) and Sword (Ouistreham) from 06:30 on the 06^th June 1944

  The various landing craft types in June of 1944 were varied and classified briefly and curtly in alpha-numerics, in typical military style, by their function, Landing Craft Assault: LCA, Landing Craft Infantry: LCI, Landing Craft Tank: LCT….etc.  These Landing Ships and their smaller Landing Craft would become iconic in the months to come, film of those disembarking into the tiny “Assault” and larger “Infantry” craft would roll down history, in hundreds of hours of film, of those giving their lives to liberate lands they had never seen before and to throw back the German invaders once and hopefully for all of time to come……

One of these heroic little craft seemingly ended up at the base of the breakwater in Portland, becoming a popular dive attraction, found not far from and along with the bombardon and its tug, which have already been covered elsewhere in this dive blog. So which type of these brave craft was it that fell before the main event, ending up at the base of the harbour wall in Portland in June of 1944? The wreck is supposed to be a “Landing Craft Tank, one of the LCT variants according to local sources and definitely, it is said, a WWII wreck, although there are no known written reports to back that assertion that I have seen. The LCT silhouette seems to be somewhat similar to an LCT Mark 5 and the profile, as seen on the side-scan imaging is certainly similar to the Mk 5. Now despite the shape and size being a “fair” indication for a Mk 5, this doesn’t make a lot of sense, firstly the length isn’t quite right, the measurements are 27m for the Portland landing craft (LCT Mk5 length c36m) and there are no LCT Mk5’s directly noted as lost in Portland, the only losses in the LCT register being noted as “lost in operation Neptune, Normandy Landings, N France, June 6, 1944” (Online resource: naval-history.net/WW2BritishLosses4Amphib.htm Accessed 13/03/2021) Now that doesn’t mean whoever registered the loss didn’t lack any more information than the operation title and intended theatre, it just seems unlikely that the only 4 Mk 5’s lost (2049, 2229, 2307 and 2498) were not noted as “Lost in Home Waters” as was the usual entry for those floundering or destroyed this side of the Channel

The LCT lost in Portland was supposed to have gone down in 1944, so the dates for all Normandy LC variants “fit” but the profiles were distinctly different, or the size gives the vessel away. The side-scan profile shows a wide flat drop ramp with little curvature to the bow, vaguely consistent with a MkV LCT, the only other likely variant is an LCT MkV(A) or “Armoured” which you can see from the photo below of LCT MkV(A) 2012 as used by the 100^th Flotilla with British Commando units (5^th Independent Battery Royal Marine Armoured Support Group) who arrived on Sword Beach June 06^th of 1944 in zones Queen Red & Queen White. If you look at the line of the Gunwales from Drop Ramp to Bridge (front bit to command bit) you will see the lines look similar to that shown on the side-scan image, and that the remains of the Bridge in the side-scan image resemble the layout of the Mk V with the wheelhouse “gone”. However close inspection of the side-scan sonar would reveal the Drop Ramp meets the gunwale and within a metre or so there is a reduction of height, which then seems to descend back to the bridge area evenly, although the Portland landing craft seems to have come to rest slightly stern down, as if the bow is raised on the sea bed

Now I tried every avenue I have to determine exactly which type of landing craft sits at the base of the breakwater at Portland, I even disturbed Budgie from his Covid 19 induced reverie out in Tulum in Mexico. In conversation, it turns out Budgie knew of several landing craft in the harbour in various locations, some of them old wooden “Higgins Boat” types, long ago rotted away to remain only as engines and transmissions on the sea floor, but at least one more similar to LCT Mk5 inside, and remarkably one also outside the breakwater. Although these were present, as Budgie put it, with “little left of them that we could take a “customer” to see, we used them for Lobster mostly”, so it is unlikely there is much more to be gained as insight from local knowledge either. Budgie also pointed out most of the fishermen and “older guys” of the time, from whom Budgie got most of his information from, have long since passed

     I have no measurement for the LCT MkV (A)’s but I do have dimensions for the actual LCT at Portland which was measured by a diver (Becky9) posting on the Royal Navy Research Archives back in May of 2014 “….wheelhouse roof is missing, it’s around 27m long, 6m wide. It has two engine bays…..”  (Online Resource: Becky9 in “Post war Landing Craft – Portland Harbour Landing Craft Wreck” www.royalnavyresearcharchive.org.uk/SMF/index.php/topic,586.0.html Accessed 13/03/2021). That would make it far more likely the LCT at Portland was a “variant” as the length (around 27m) is at odds with most LCT Mk V’s which were 34.8m x 10m according to dimensions quoted in The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia (www.pwencycl.kgbudge.com/L/c/LCT_class.htm), this pushes us more towards a later landing craft perhaps, and Becky9 has a theory which has some merit. Becky believes the Portland LC is a Vosper Thorneycroft prototype from 1964, an LCM(9), specifically L3507 which is down as “stricken 1980’s” in the navypedia.org web-site (On-Line resource: navypedia.org/ships/uk/brit_aws_lcm9.htm Accessed 13/03/2021)  the dimensions are perfect, quoted length 27.5m beam 6.80m and powered by two Paxman Diesel Engines (twin prop). Even Budgie admitted there was no direct evidence the landing craft at the breakwater was a 1944 wreck, just that it had always been “known locally” as a war wreck

The clear drop from the Ramp to the gunwale can be seen on the photo of L3507 as can the high ramp, which protrudes well above the gunwale where they meet. On the prototype during its trials at Instow, (a place I know very well, having undertaken winterised and waterproofing trials with “ATTURM”, the “Amphibious Trials & Training Unit Royal Marines” as it was known when I was there), the bow Drop Ramp was level with the gunwales as can be seen in the video link embedded below. It was not uncommon to see the bow ramp changed for one with longer “reach”, (that was happening even in the war years), so the trial bow ramp could easily have been switched for one that extended above the gunwales. This fits well with the silhouette of the side-scan, which indicates a very close resemblance, and also shows a closer fit with what remains of the bridge, as the small bridge “wings” port and Starboard seem to show in the side-scan albeit with the roof on both sides missing. It would not take a leap of faith to think the roofs were thin steel, which would have quickly perished even if the LCM only went down sometime after the 1978 photo….. What doesn’t fit so well with Becky9’s proposal is how a disparity of some 34 years was “lost” in local folklore, (there were no tales of a later wreck, Budgie was explicit on that point) especially considering L3507 was described in admiralty records as “stricken”, a naval term for “removed from the records”, not a term used for “sunk”, and, as such, that means she was still afloat at least until 1980, nor does it explain how such a recent wreck could possibly have been believed to have been a WWII era loss……

You can watch the ATTURM Instow Trials of LCU L3507 here:

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060044448

  Anyhow, when I dived the Portland Landing craft I had little curiosity in regards to which type it was and to be honest the little craft was kind of underwhelming: “13 07 97 Portland Dorset Landing Craft: Very low viz made this eerie but still little to see – the historic interest is there & the wheelhouse is still just about in one piece but the wreck is barren & only of limited interest as it is largely a skip with no cargo & a hut on it. Buddy Michael 12L Nitrox 32% 50% Deco Dry Bag”

I am embarrassed by my curt treatment of the little landing craft at the time, I can see why the interest just wasn’t firing me up on the day, however I have always been fascinated by the war years, my mother having told me of her time as a child in Liverpool and the bombing raids, the gas-masks and the privations of rationing. I don’t really know why this pivotal type of craft, with its historic role in the freeing of half the globe from Nazi oppression, didn’t spark more in me? Perhaps it was because there was, in truth, little to the actual wreck itself, it wasn’t a complex piece embedded a foot or so in the mud in Portland harbour, it really was little more than a skip with a hut welded to it, but to those advancing under fire onto beaches it must have been a sleigh-ride into Hell itself…..

In truth, until someone can make “positive” identification of the era and type of the landing craft at Portland, she seems doomed to be a mystery, like almost every one of her peers during the war years, given the most cursory of references in naval records and, in all but one case it seems, not even investigated when reported lost……. a mysterious, if ignominious end

David, Goliath……. and Inconvenient Truths

The Aeolian Sky was a modern titan, 148 metres long and 14,000 Tonnes, as she navigated the English Channel November 02^nd of 1979 heading West. The Storm coming in from the south-west was making the Channel an increasingly nasty place to be, but the Sky was shrugging this off easily, her size making the weather little more than an irritation. The Aeolian Sky was sailing out of Hull, bound for Dar es Salaam, Africa, and had not long left Rotterdam, The Anna Knuppel was   heading in the opposite direction, back to Hamburg and the Anna Knuppel would perhaps not have been feeling quite as at ease, at 84 Meters and 2497 Tonnes fully laden, the weather would not have been so easily brushed aside as she made her way East. Neither ship’s captain would have taken the weather lightly, the English Channel is one of, if not “the” busiest waterways of the world and the shipping lanes, whilst easier to navigate using today’s electronics, were not by any means an easy sail even in good weather back in 1979   

This being a diving blog, and the section you are reading being dedicated to shipwrecks, the conclusion is inevitable, however the circumstances and the outcome are perhaps not quite so predictable….. Given the size differential between the Aeolian Sky and the Anna Knuppel (some 11,000 Tonnes), and the conditions at the time, and given that the Aeolian Sky was a brand new ship out of the Japanese shipyard at Hashihama, built by the world’s pre-eminent engineers (using the most modern technology possible and valued at £3 million, a huge sum in 1978 when she was launched), one might have expected the rather diminutive Anna Knuppel to have simply been ploughed under the immense bow of the Aeolian Sky, but fate is fickle indeed………

When the fates of the Aeolian Sky and the Anna Knuppel brought them to the exact same place and at precisely the same time the resultant impact left the Aeolian Sky, behemoth that she was, mortally wounded, and the Anna Knuppel battered but unbowed. The Anna Knuppel would not only live to see another day, but stand by the stricken Aeolian Sky to give assistance, should it be possible in the storm in which they were both caught, on that dark and fog shrouded night, somewhere round 04:30 am, just before the dawn on 03^rd November

As dawn began to break the situation looked optimistic to begin with, the Captain of the Aeolian Sky signalling for assistance and the French dispatching the tug Abeille Languedoc, out of Cherbourg, to undertake the towing of the wounded Aeolian Sky. Assistance came from the UK too, in the form of a Royal Navy helicopter from Lee on Solent, which managed to lift 16 of the crew between the Aeolian Sky and a Dutch Navy vessel, the Overijssel, before experiencing engine problems and being forced to return to the mainland

  The Abeille Languedoc arrived at the Aeolian Sky somewhere around 8 am, some 4 hours after impact and sent a salvage inspector across to her. Inflatables were used to ferry most of the remaining crew, less the Captain, the salvage inspector and a couple of crewmen, to the Abeille Languedoc. Those staying aboard would make fast a tow-line and help on her journey towards the safety of Southampton. At this point the bows of the Aeolian Sky, where the impact had occurred, were swamped and for’ard deck cargo was coming loose and floating away. The tow-line from the Abeille Languedoc was secured to the stern of the Aeolian Sky, even at that point it was becoming evident there was a possibility that the Aeolian Sky would not survive the journey to Southampton and might sink while under tow. There were calls made to the coastguard at Dover and, at some point, in what I would see as a very inconvenient truth, the port authorities at Southampton refused entry to their shipping lanes, believing the Aeolian Sky might flounder and block entry to the port, a potential disaster in terms of the trade into and from Southampton and a huge financial risk to the port authority and indeed potentially the city itself   

It took a day for the situation to go from impact, through potential recovery into a spiral of inevitability for the Aeolian Sky, and, whilst finally under tow to Portland, having been again refused entry, this time to Portsmouth, on exactly the same basis as her refusal from Southampton. Sinking further by the bows off St Aldhelm’s Head around 12 miles from the safety of Portland harbour, still in the midst of the South Westerly gale, the Aeolian Sky was finally abandoned to her fate and slipped below the storm lashed Channel seas. Might the Aeolian Sky have been saved should Southampton or Portsmouth port authorities have been more accommodating? The Abeille Languedoc was forced to change towing direction once both Southampton and Portsmouth refused entry, meaning that, with the storm coming in from the South West, she was now fighting to make headway with the not inconsiderable stern of the Aeolian Sky making that far harder than running with the wind in the opposite direction…….  I have yet to see anything from that day to this in terms of an enquiry, I am sure there was an enquiry, it is unthinkable that there might not be in the circumstances, however neither the Aeolian Sky nor the Anna Knuppel were UK registered vessels, but we shall see, I will keep looking!

The Aeolian Sky is one of the best dives I have done off Portland, her size and her cargo make her one of the most interesting and her depth makes her achievable for most sports divers, whilst still offering technical divers plenty to see over extended dive durations, using decompression to enjoy longer dive-times. My first time diving on the Aeolian Sky was 13^th of July 1997 off one of Budgie (Eric) Burgess’s ribs out of the Breakwater Hotel, I remember a good journey out on what was a bright day with calm seas on the way, a good job considering the Sky lies some 11 or so miles off Portland, the little Red Book recalls: “Aeolian Sky. A Greek freighter that went down in 1972 after an engine room fire popped some plates from the hull and the pumps packed in. Originally lay upright within 6m of the surface till blown in half for clearance, Stern (Aft) section now over on Starboard side. We dropped to 29m and there was at least 5m left to the sea bed (H W Springs) then up and around the damaged area – she’s huge – it took 5 minutes to recognize where we were on her, huge damage to the area but companionways still intact – can’t wait to return 36% Nitrox 50% deco buddies Michael- Tim- Carl”……How wrong can you be? I had asked about the Aeolian Sky when Budgie suggested we went out to her, but hadn’t had time to ask Budgie anything of her history. At that time I was only just getting into the history of the wrecks I was diving, the interest had been sparked, but there was no internet (that would take until 1983 to be “real” and 1990 before Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web…) and research was either local dive-guides, which weren’t cheap, or word-of-mouth. The information in my log came from our skipper on the RIB out and over the site itself, clearly not a diver himself and going on what others had probably told him along the way. Either way I clearly should’ve bought the Dive Dorset guides or the Dive Wight and Hampshire, either of which I think had a piece on the Aeolian Sky. My next and last dive on the Aeolian Sky was 02^nd April of 2005 and I remember it very well, the ride out on a local RIB (not one of Budgie’s), was bloody nightmarish, I was on my twinset and the rib was full. I had ended up towards the bow and slightly twisted in an awkward position in order to hold on, as an over-enthusiastic young skipper seemed to target every wave on the rather choppy sea of that day. The persistent and rapid raise and crash of the RIB bow, coupled with my rather poor seating, and difficult hold on the lifeline running the length of the hull, left me delighted to roll back into the sea off Portland that day and my log records: “Portland Dorset Aeolian Sky. Horrendous journey out by RIB seasick and damaged back! Wreck was very low viz (1m max) and difficult to locate any references but stern – before the bridge is suspected. Air in 230 out 100 Buddy Jim” I really was pre-occupied with the damage I had sustained out and on the way back in, I had to lie flat on my back for well over an hour before I even considered properly de-kitting. The Sky is another wreck I really should go back and experience in a far better way!

  If you fancy owning a piece of history you might want to take a look at the Lavinia, on Ships for sale Sweden https://shipsforsale.com/en/ships-en/shipid/1019/cargo-tank-ships_8_lavinia where you will find, for a very reasonable £500,000 you can sail away your very own genuine historic ship, perhaps you might even negotiate a small discount if you mention the work inevitably done on the Lavinia’s bow, following her brief appearance on the world’s stage and her giant killing role in the demise of the Aeolian Sky……..

How two such ships collide in a storm, whilst navigating the shipping lanes of the world’s busiest waterway, is only one of the unexplained mysteries of the Aeolian Sky. For weeks rumours of a treasure aboard her set the South Coast diving community alight, millions of dollars were supposed to have gone down with the ship, local divers were keen to see if they would be the first to find the fortune and get rich doing so. The rumours were true, the Aeolian Sky was not only carrying a mundane cargo of chemicals, Land Rover parts and steel pipes, she had two railway engines, diesel locomotives bound for Tanzania…….and she was also carrying a secret treasure on behalf of the Government of the Seychelles, 60,000,000 Rupee worth of their currency which had been commissioned from, and printed by, Bradbury Wilkinson and Co. Ltd of New Malden in Surrey, and it didn’t take long for those notes to start appearing locally…..  The first notes were handed to the authorities by a fisherman from Lulworth, he had picked up 4 of the Seychelles 100 Rupee notes at Christmas of 1979, it didn’t take long for the authorities to act, a team of commercial divers were sent down to the Aeolian Sky to recover the 12 wooden boxes of banknotes from a cabin, some believe the Captain’s cabin, others the Purser’s accommodation and even the medical bay has been whispered to have been the location. Whichever location it actually was, that information remains with the loss adjusters, the authorities and, no doubt the commercial divers assigned to search the wreck. The approximate Stirling value for the 12 sealed boxes of notes was £4.5 million, a huge amount, no matter, the serial numbers were known and recorded and would have been cancelled almost immediately by the Government and Treasury of the Seychelles Islands. Still the notes would have found some value, if not just as souvenirs of the time, perhaps sufficient numbers of notes might have been “laundered” by unscrupulous means? Who knows, the mystery still surrounds the wreck, the divers found only open, empty rooms wherever they searched, had someone beaten them to the prize or had the sea claimed them to follow the currents of the Channel to the Gulf Stream and then where………?  

The Bombardon & Tug………. of Mulberry’s & Men

  This is a dive I have taken several times and one that holds a personal family investment of a scale I can only reflect on, the dives carried out on the wreckage of two of, perhaps, the second world war’s most pivotal, if unsung historical pieces. Lying in 16m of sheltered sea at the base of the harbour wall, the Bombardon & Tug are a tangible link between my step-father, Vic Marley, and I on many levels, but more of that later……… Some of you will have read the opening lines of this dive in the “Training” section of this blog, a smaller and only partial telling of the bigger picture as I hope will become evident as we progress this piece, and look a little closer at the sea bed in Portland harbour and, perhaps it’s most important but little celebrated wreck site

  Anyone who has dived from the Breakwater shore or the Aqua-Sport Hotel will be very familiar with the Caissons floating just off the Left side of the beach and a couple of hundred yards out from the Aqua-Sport Pier. These would be hard to miss no matter how poor the weather may be, standing some 10m from the water a feature of the harbour for as long as I have been diving Portland. Set in the harbour since April or May of 1944 and expected to be part of “Operation Neptune”, the Allied code-name for the D Day invasion of France that took place 06^th June of 1944, the equipment required for the re-taking of Europe from the Nazis had to be in place in Normandy to supply the beachhead for that invasion to be effective Somehow the Caissons at Portland were left behind, I have no idea why, perhaps they were late into the operation and everyone had already deployed, perhaps they were “surplus to requirement” (unlikely), or maybe their “ride” across the Channel didn’t make it to Portland to tow them….who knows (and I’d love to update this piece if anyone can enlighten me?) but what they have become, in glorious isolation, is an iconic reference to an operation of staggering audacity and one that ultimately set Europe free, a visual and physical reminder of the largest seaborne invasion in human history! I suppose the Caissons themselves need some explanation too, they are clearly huge, visibly made of concrete or some such material at first glance, making it difficult to imagine exactly “what” their purpose or function might be…….When I called Operation Neptune one of “Staggering Audacity” I meant it quite literally, the ingenuity of those who planned a massive and violently opposed beach landing knew the success or failure of the enterprise pivoted on the ability to sustain, and therefore re-supply, those fighting through the beachhead and into the heartlands of Normandy and on into Germany itself

The story I have always heard in regards to the sinking of the Bombardon and “Tug” is that the tug was towing the unit in the harbour during a storm and the bombardon floundered, perhaps due to a leak or just instability, and that she dragged the tug down with her. I have tried over the years to verify that story and, despite the “power of the Internet” have yet to confirm any part of it. The lie of the two vessels isn’t definitive, although if the Bombardon did drag the tug down then I would have expected them to remain in line with each other, clearly not the case when you get down there as the Tug is lying with the Bombardon close alongside, the Tug facing towards the centre of the Bombardon

Of course that doesn’t categorically say the sinking was not the result of the Bombardon dragging the Tug down with her, it just is somewhat at odds with the lie of the wreckage. Then there is the “Tug”, since the diving I did on the units there has been speculation that the craft alongside and almost under the Bombardon is more likely a “Vic Lighter”, a variation of a Clyde “Puffer” commissioned or requisitioned by the Navy for harbour duty during the latter stages of the war. It is true, both “regular” Tugs and Vic Lighters were likely to tow Bombardon units, those who have posed the VIC as more likely have had a far better look around the vessel than I managed over my dives, and the sonar scan would certainly point towards the hull shape of the typical Clyde Puffer, or “VIC”, the Navy abbreviation for “Victualing Inshore Craft”!

  I have dived the Bombardon and Tug several times over the years and always found it fascinating, and somewhat confusing, I have never quite shaken off the belief there is a “whale” down there along with the Bombardon. It might be that my memory fails me but the belief persists as between the tug itself and the Bombardon unit the metalwork seems too “open” and “latticed” to me to just represent the Bombardon alone…..but it is a very long time since I dived Portland and the Bombardon, and, at that time I had no real appreciation of what actually comprised the “Mulberry” harbours, my dive log records: “…The Bombardon & Tug Nitrox IANTD Inst Cse Drills in zero viz (kicked silt) Then around the wreck for a look, she tipped the Bombardon over & towed the tug down which rests on its side with ½ in silt, great swim up between the two of them, Atmospheric & would have liked more time to ferret about but it was great to hang on 5 min deco above the barge & see the outline disappearing in the murk.” That dive was on the 03^rd May of 1997 and my buddy was Don Shirley along with an IANTD Nitrox student of Don’s called James

The next dive I took on the Bombardon would be over two years later in September of ’99 off Budgie Burgess’s Maverick, with a buddy and great friend of mine Mark Hill, one of the early divers of FSAC detailed in another section of these ramblings! That dive was recorded as: “….Bombardon & Tug, Refreshing to get on one I’ve only “skimmed” before. The unit has holes in along its side and shelters Bass among other life (Wrasse etc) Large Bass on the odd glimpse we got plus a large shoal of Pollack. The Tug lies next to the unit and would warrant more time than we had to look round properly – next time!” Neither of those dives was sufficient to be honest, I need to go back and take another dive at some time. Unresolved in my mind is still the Bombardon structure, I now know the full structural make-up of the Bombardon unit and it is so frustrating to have a picture, residual in my mind, that says there was a distinctly different shape and structure between the tug and the Bombardon itself, I just can’t “categorically” coalesce that into the reality of a “Whale”…….I just know the Bombardon did not have the significantly “open” appearance of the lattice effect of the whale units, even after so long underwater, but that is what I distinctly recall on the dives…..perhaps it really will be “next time”! 

  June 06^th 1944, all the French ports were heavily defended and well garrisoned with German troops. Rommel, the German Afrika Corps Field Marshall of Tobruk and El-Alamein fame, the decorated “Desert Fox”, had been placed in charge of Germany’s “Atlantic Wall”, the defences placed coastally and stretching from Norway almost to Spain, designed to throw any assault back into the sea, and, whilst he was quite late to that endeavour, he took the task very seriously indeed. The obvious points of approach were heavily defended with combinations of anti-landing steel-work, mines, heavy artillery and inter-sectional fields of fire covered by multiple machine gun and infantry positions, considered practically impregnable to all intents and purposes…..at least that was the impression

The problem was clear from very early on, and was articulated by Winston Churchill himself in a memo, referred to as the “Mulberry Minute” contained in, or following his memo “Piers for the use on Beaches” of the 30^th May 1942, which also adequately reveals the 2 years of preparation that went into the final operation: “….They must float up and down with the tide……..the anchor problem must be mastered. Let me have the best solution worked out. Don’t argue the matter. The difficulties will argue for themselves…..” (Wikipedia: In “Allan Beckett, The Mulberry Minute” Online. Accessed 14/10/2020) 

That was only part of the problem, but probably the most important, along with the fact the beaches in question had shallow gradients, necessitating long roadways between sufficient depth of sea to dock supply and troop ships, and the sand of the beach. Churchill knew from bitter experience at Gallipoli (see the “Best Dives” section of this blog) that beach landings were monumentally difficult to prosecute and sustain, without sufficient docking facilities for the attacking forces, he had himself submitted a plan to take the islands of Borkum & Sylt (offshore of Holland and Denmark) using caissons sunk and filled with sand during the first world war in 1917, to effect re-supply and troop landings, although that was never undertaken at the time. It would take another 25 years, a second global conflict, and the problems of Normandy landings to bring a similar, ingenious design to the forefront, almost overlooked for a second time, a Welsh civil engineer named Hugh Lorys Hughes submitted a design for the use of floating, sinkable “Caissons” as part of a jetty to the war office. If it hadn’t been for his brother, Alain, a commander in the naval reserve, who championed the design to the war office, the Mulberry system may never have been initiated

  So we have the Allies preparing for the invasion of France, the Germans defending some 2400 miles of coastline, and engineers designing the means to deliver a sustainable military operation on a scale never seen before, from the sea to the beach, a gathering storm the like of which the defending German army could only imagine, a storm Erwin Rommel had imagined in very real detail, and was determined to stop in its tracks, on the beach, before the attacking troops could even escape the beach

Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel was one of Germany’s best, not just a soldier of both wars, Rommel was a published military strategist (Oberstleutnant Rommel: “Infanterie Grieft An” Published 1936, (Written when Rommel was a Lieutenant Colonel, roughly translated as “Infantry Attacks”)) Rommel’s personal belief was that the Atlantic wall was just a fantasy, and that Hitler had conjured it out of “cloud cuckoo land”. Rommel had watched in 1940 as the German army simply by-passed the French Maginot line, another massive static defensive “wall” built to prevent Germany invading France, modern asymmetric warfare or “Blitzkrieg” had made such emplacements a thing of the past, a dinosaur, Rommel knew the Atlantic wall would fall, but his job was to defend the beaches and he set out to do so

Rommel knew “first-hand” how to prosecute a military attack, and therefore how to defend against one too. Rommel knew his best defence over the 2000 miles plus of the Atlantic Wall, an almost impossible task, was to win the beach, essentially pin down and destroy the attacker as they tried to cross the open beachhead. The guns placed to defend the beaches of Normandy were sited to fire across the beach…….. not directly out to sea, that meant fewer troops would be needed to man fewer defensive weapons, as any fire from the guns would cover the beach out to the effective range of the weapon itself. Rommel set out to destroy any ships attempting to land troops, to do so he had stakes driven into the beach topped with mines, any ship using high tide to get in close to shore would not see the stakes, they were laid deliberately to be under the surface towards the high water mark

  So the scene is set, the German defences in place and all that remains is planning the Allied assault…… I have already said that Operation Neptune was a staggeringly audacious plan, to assault Normandy Beaches at low tide, (bringing everything necessary to deliver massive military force in a sustained attack), across twenty odd miles of English Channel, to arrive in broad daylight in June of 1944, relied on two years of planning and a year of practice. When it came down to the time to risk everything for real, it all came down to a gamble on a weather window predicted with spectacular accuracy by the meteorologist (Group Captain) James Stagg, who, despite conflicting reports, advised the American General Dwight Eisenhower to delay through the 4^th and 5^th of June due to cloud cover and high seas. Stagg was under extreme pressure to get things right, tens of thousands of lives depended on it, Stagg predicted a lull in the weather on the 6^th of June and advised Eisenhower it was the only opportunity…….Stagg was right, the 6^th of June 1944, although marginal in terms of conditions, offered reasonably clear skies for air cover and choppy, but manageable seas on the French side of the channel

So how was all this to be put together and what were the pieces of the “whole” puzzle? Well, the battlefield looked exactly like this from the air:

  The breakdown of constituent parts into “systems” gives us the outer defences against the sea,

The Bombardons:

A line of floating units linked together to take energy from the incoming tide and achieve this by dispersing the waves as they impacted the outer line of Bombardon “+”’s floating at the limits of the landing areas, the Three arms of the + invisible as the main of an iceberg is, the uppermost arm of the “+” showing as a vertical barrier to incoming waves

Then there were the Mulberry (Phoenix) Caissons:

Another line of units, sunk in place to provide an outer harbour and dock where liberty ships and merchantmen could dock and unload equipment and ferry vehicles and stores, ammunition and men ashore

Then there were the Lobonitz Piers:

These ingenious pieces of the puzzle acted as floating pier supports allowing roadways to connect and to maintain safe passages at any state of the tide, rising and lowering on the pier pillars seen in the photo as the tide ebbed and flowed

Finally there were the roadways themselves:

These were the floating “Beetles” anchored with Allan Beckett’s ingenious “Kite” anchors at each corner, holding them in place with greater “bite” than any other anchor type available weight for weight. Then there were the “Whales” at either side of the roadways, the skeletal framework holding the roadways together and sitting upon the Beetles in lengths up to a mile out to sea

And so the systems finally come together and form the road to the freeing of Europe, very viscerally and literally built upon the bodies of those who gave their lives and their futures to secure a future for those they would and could never know…………

It should not be forgotten by any generation what awaited the young men assaulting those beaches, the defenders were well placed, well supplied and knew the Allies were coming…..they didn’t know exactly where…or when….but they knew they were coming, and that the only real way to stop them…….was on the beaches of Normandy

  But before any of these technological marvels of their time could deploy, the beaches had to be secured, those golden stretches of sand covering some 50 or so miles of Normandy coast. And so disembarkation began, the first waves of troops aboard landing craft, ferried to shore having descended nets over the side of their transport ships, driven against an ebbing tide towards Gold, Sword, Juno, Utah and Omaha beaches, the code names given to Longues-sur-Mer (Gold), Saint Aubin-Sur-Mer (Sword), Courseulles-Sur-Mer (Juno), Pouppeville (Utah) and Sainte Honorine-Des-Pertes (Omaha), some more heavily defended than others, the American 1^st Infantry landing at Omaha taking by far the worst casualty’s. It was wave upon wave of allied troops across these 5 beaches that secured sufficient hold to enable the deployment of the Mulberry harbours and the steady re-supply of those ashore facilitating the relentless push off the beaches and on….eventually to Berlin, D Day was a beginning….the beginning of the end of the Third Reich

That “choppy but manageable sea state” had done nothing for my step father, a Royal Marine Commando of the Forward Artillery Observation detachment. Berthold Victor Marley (Vic to everyone then and after), had hated his early deployment in the Navy. Vic had been assigned to motor torpedo boats, fast craft designed by Vosper Thorneycroft and high powered, ideally suited to Channel patrols and picking up downed pilots and crew from fighters and bombers shot down by the Luftwaffe over the channel, or attacking Nazi shipping foolhardy enough to be close enough to England’s South coast to be chased down and torpedoed in hit and run manoeuvres……. But Vic was constantly sea-sick and his role as radio operator and signaller on the little craft was a constant nightmare, when Vic heard the Navy wanted volunteers for Commando training, and that meant no more MTB’s, he didn’t hesitate. I know something of the training for special forces and the Commando training was no cake walk, up to Scotland with long arduous marches carrying heavy kit in poor battledress was no joke I’m sure, but Vic passed the exercises and got badged up, I don’t know if that stirred something more in him, or if the training team saw some quality beyond the Green Beret earned in the glens and hills around Lochaber and Achnacarry camp, perhaps it was his skill with radio signalling, but it wasn’t long before Vic was assigned to Forward Artillery Observation, an elite amongst an elite…… part of 4^th Special Service Brigade formed in March of 1944, specifically for the D Day invasion

  Vic didn’t speak of his D Day experiences so this is second hand and from my late mother’s conversations with Vic’s own mother and sister…… Vic had a lasting back injury which was treated by state of the art tech of the ‘70’s, a heat lamp, which gave some degree of relief of the pain from a broken piece of his spine, the result of his eventual extraction from the beaches of Normandy. It turns out Vic, at just 19 years old had parachuted into Normandy (Operation Tonga at Ranville we believe) before the landings, at night, with the assistance of free French resistance in the area, squirrelling himself away, along with colleagues from forward artillery observation, dropped a mile or two behind enemy lines off Sword Beach (in the general “Roger” area by Ouistreham) in order to call in the naval bombardment and radio in corrections to the navy gunfire trying to shatter any opposition to the beach landings

    That part went well, a couple of days later, when the allies had overrun the positions, Vic had to break cover and identify himself to the friendly forces without getting himself shot, and then it was back to the beach to re-join the war effort in another theatre…. That’s where it went wrong, gaining a place on a ship returning injured troops to the UK, Vic’s ship was torpedoed, or perhaps struck a mine, his back was damaged in the explosion, and the ordeal of getting up three decks and out of a sinking ship put him in a body cast, when he eventually got pulled from the water by a fellow marine and found himself back in Southampton after waking in a hospital following surgery……. I believe it was almost a year in and out of various plaster body casts before Vic was discharged from the service, his war over, as indeed was the main of WWII by that time, just one story amongst hundreds of thousands of the day, but one that represents a couple of days in the lives of the men who won back the freedom of this country with courage, tenacity and personal sacrifice…….

Rest Well Sir, Thank you for your service! At the going down of the Sun….and in the morning  

RIP
Lest We Forget…….