Faro de Punta Rasca Tenerife

The Cita En El Mar was a typical Canaries Tuna Vessel, built in 1961 in Madeira, Portugal….. apparently, although to date I can find no evidence of that, nor can I find a reference to a shipyard or shipbuilder in Funchal, or any other Madeiran Port that might have constructed her, so we begin this story with a conundrum, the bigger mystery becomes how and why she sank off Punta de Rasca in 1995. Even the date of the sinking of the Cita En El Mar (City on the Sea) cannot be comprehensively evidenced, I have seen 3 different dates quoted on the few diving sites that are local to the wreck, as the most invested in the sinking, Sergio Hanquet, a local Los Cristianos diver is likely the most accurate and he has the sinking on the 14^th of May of 1995

Sergio was confronted by two of the crew, still wet from their ordeal, arrived from the sunken vessel in his Los Cristianos shop, and, as a well-known local diver, was asked to dive the wreck and recover documents on behalf of the captain and crew. Sergio dived the wreck that day, so I believe he is likely to be most accurate in reference to the sinking, his photos of the wreck are a record of her condition immediately after her loss and are visually quite stunning. The Canaries and their surrounding Atlantic waters have three national maritime (jurisdictional) borders, with Portugal, Morocco and Western Sahara (Africa). In its 2014 study on Tuna fishing in the Canaries the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna stated: “The location of the Canary Islands (between 27°N – 29°N and 13°W – 18°W) and their oceanographic characteristics, which are shaped by the cold Canary Current, the trade winds and proximity to African shores (particularly the easternmost islands), attract most species of tuna from both the temperate-albacore (Thunnus alalunga) and Atlantic Bluefin (Thunnus thynnus)—and the typically tropical groups—Bigeye (Thunnus obesus), Skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) and Yellowfin (Thunnus albacares). These highly migratory fish reach the islands from several areas of the Atlantic at different times of the year and are the main fishery resource of the Canary Islands”. (“ATLANTIC BLUEFIN TUNA (THUNNUS THYNNUS) (LINNAEUS, 1758) FISHERY IN THE CANARY ISLANDS” Delgado de Molina. A, Rodriguez-Marin. E Delgado de Molina. R and Carlos Santana. J: Online resource https://www.iccat.int/Documents/CVSP/CV070_2014/n_2/CV070020499.pdf Accessed: 24/04/2023). The report goes on to detail trends in the Canaries Fishing from early data sources reaching as far back (Blue Fin Tuna) as 1965, but more on that later…….

The seafloor “bathymetry”, the contours representing the same detail as used in an Ordnance Survey Map on land, show the Ocean around the islands has a typically abrupt fall away to the depths, with a narrow shelf surrounding the Islands but a steep slope dropping to over a 1000 m depth. This produces conditions similar to the open ocean very close to the Island’s shores. The Island group or “archipelago” is conveniently located in a cold water current which, in a similar fashion to the UK’s Gulf Stream Gyre (rotating current), acts as a moderator to the Islands and their maritime climate. The European Parliamentary Fisheries Policy document “Fisheries in the Canary Islands” (2013) piece states, in its executive study: (Part 3)  “The presence of upwelling along the West African coast brings deep cold nutrient-rich waters to the surface and stimulates primary productivity. As compared with the very rich fishing grounds in the upwelling area, waters around the Canaries are relatively poor(er)…….” (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/note/join/2013/495852/IPOL-PECH_NT(2013)495852_EN.pdf On-Line Resource: Accessed 24/04/2023). This is clearly concluding the Tuna fishing in the region is better off the African Continental shelf than it is off the smaller Island masses of the Canaries

For those of you who I know will need the details:

The same report goes on to detail some of the more recent figures in regard to Tuna fishing (P10: Para 9) “Tunas have constantly formed the large majority of the landings in recent years. Bigeye tuna was the most common species in 2011, with 31.7% of the total quantity and 26.7% of the value. Skipjack tuna represented 12.5% of the production and 5.1% of its value, but significantly increased in 2012 – up to four times the 2011 figure. Yellowfin tuna and albacore are also major species in terms of value (10.4% and 6% respectively)”. The European Parliament, or at least the Fisheries Policy Department, identifies the deeply rooted reliance the Canaries have on fishing and especially smaller scale, family type businesses: “The structure of the Canarian fishing fleet shows a high social and economic dependency on small-scale fishing. Apart from some specific areas such as Las Palmas and Arrecife, small vessels are the most important segment. The boats less than 12 m long represent 86.7% of the number of vessels and account for 7.8% of the total capacity”  Which confirms the Cita En El Mar as one of the larger of the Canaries Tuna Fleet as she was around 21m in length with a beam around 6m

The Cita En El Mar was a typical trawler of the day and of her region, the Tuna fleet of the Canaries were largely very similar, if not actually sister-ships of the Cita, having long rising bows and fairly open stern decks, ideal for deploying deck mounted or hold stored nets Port or Starboard, using the main mast and derrick gear aboard. The typical type of fishing carried out by these vessels in and around the Canaries and African coats is known as “Purse Seine” netting and uses large scale synthetic nets which can be deployed quickly by a fast boat around shoals of Tuna which can be drawn closed at their base before being hauled aboard. The Tuna boats spray water onto the surface which is an artifice to attract shoals of Tuna by simulating the disturbances made by small fish feeding at the surface. The top of the nets have floats attached, and the bottom have weights, the “Purse Line” is a line running round the base of the net through “Purse Rings” which, when reeled in, closes the bottom of the net on itself trapping the Tuna. It is also highly likely one of the reasons we continue to use the expression “keeping your purse strings tight” as early money purses used the same method of closure

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (“Fisheries and Aquaculture: Tuna purse seining, Handling Mode” Online Resource: https://www.fao.org/fishery/en/fishtech/40 Accessed 02/11/22) details the method as described above but also goes on to describe the difficulties of storing the catch “Storage of tuna once it is caught presents a problem, for the size of the fish is large. Some vessels are equipped to bulk-freeze the catch, but the commonest method is to keep the fish in refrigerated brine tanks (brine at 0 °C), which form much of the lower parts of the hull and are equipped with batteries of seawater pumps for circulation” The Cita En El Mar, although not strictly speaking, a “large Vessel” nevertheless had seawater tanks for keeping the Tuna catch fresh on the journey back from the North African fishing grounds that she frequented

The American Institution NOAA (National Oceanic Atmospheric Association) describe Yellowfin Tuna as: “……torpedo-shaped, they are metallic dark blue on the back and upper sides, and change from yellow to silver on the belly. True to their name, their dorsal and anal fins and finlets are bright yellow, Yellowfin tuna can be distinguished from other tunas by their long, bright yellow dorsal fin and a yellow strip down the side, they are also more slender than Bluefin tuna. Yellowfin tuna grow fairly fast, up to 400 pounds, and have a somewhat short life span of about 7 years” The Atlantic population are not considered at risk or overfished at the time of writing this so they are “sustainable” and an important source of both income and nutrition to a wide sector of the population (Online resource: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/atlantic-yellowfin-tuna Accessed 25/04/2023). The fishing fleets of the Canaries have hunted Yellowfin Tuna off the Saharan African Coast, formerly known as the “Spanish Sahara” (since Spanish occupation in 1884, up until 1975 when Spain abandoned the Western Saharan region) “Canarian fishermen had been working in these waters since the 16th century (Rumeu de Armas, 1956, 1977), when the population in such coasts did not carried out fishing activities” (La web de los “artesanos del Mar” grancanario: Online resource: https://www.grancanariapescaenred.com/en/about-us/brief-history/ Accessed 25/04/2023)

There are very few references to the build location of the Cita En El Mar, as I said at the beginning of this piece I found it difficult to state with any level of confidence that one was definitive whilst researching the vessel. I should state now and for the record that, despite several direct requests to the shipyards I suspected likely to have built her, none have responded and so there is at present no confirmed builder for this workhorse of the Canaries Tuna fleet which I find rather sad. The locations stated for her build include Madeira (Aquarius Diving Tenerife) which I would expect to be Funchal (the main port), the only reference I could find to shipbuilding there was in the time of Henry the Navigator, when Madeira wood was used on Caravels for sailors such as Vasco De Gama

I can find no shipyard in the 1950-1960’s associated with the Port which makes it seem unlikely the Cita En El Mar was built there. I corresponded with a Senor Gutierrez Gimeno, who is involved with the history of Canaries Fishing vessels and has a great archive of photographs of various Tuna Boats. Senor Gutierrez Gimeno believes the Cita En El Mar to be from the Astilleros Balanciaga (Balenciaga Shipyards) on the Urola river mouth at Zumaia in Spain. The Balenciaga yard began by building wooden fishing vessels in 1921 and still builds ships, although now much larger vessels, but still heavily involved with the fishing industry. I have to say, the similarity in the historic photos of wooden hulled Balenciaga Tuna vessels shows a very close similarity to the lines of the Cita En El Mar, sadly the yard did not respond to my requests for confirmation or information, so up to now although “likely” there is nothing to categorically state the Cita En El Mar was built at Balenciaga

So from her launch around 1961 the Cita En El Mar operated off the Spanish Saharan continental shelf and, over her 34 year career, no doubt brought home many thousands of Tons of Tuna from the rich grounds off the African Coast. The times were to change over that period and quite considerably so. What was a traditional and deeply rooted cultural occupation for the Canary Islands would come under attack from several directions, eventually becoming a paradigm shift that had unparalleled consequences for the Islanders and their way of life. In 1975 Spain withdrew from the Western Sahara region, this heralded a change to the fishing areas of the traditional Canary Fleet “The change was traumatic for the Canarian fishing sector, in particular for the artisanal fleet, as it led to the loss of the rich Saharan fishing grounds. Spain signed an agreement with Morocco and Mauritania in 1975, through which a fishing franchise was established for 20 years on the Saharan coastline for vessels based in the Canary Islands. As a result of the agreement, many vessels from other Spanish communities registered in the Canaries, which caused an artificial increase of the fleet and led Morocco to reconsider the agreement” (European Parliamentary Policy Report: Ch 2 Fisheries Management, Para 2: https:// www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/ etudes/note/ join/2013/495852/IPOL-PECH_NT(2013)495852_EN.pdf On-Line Resource: Accessed 24/04/2023)

It isn’t a surprise to find the situation changed again following the Canary Islands achieving a “State of Autonomy” from Spain in 1982. This brought some control over their fishing and allowed them exclusive rights to inland waters. In 1986 Spain joined the European Community, although it would not be until 1991 that the Canary Islands became subject to the EU Common Fisheries Policy and accepted the 3 maritime “Zones” contained in the agreement limiting inland waters to to the Canary Islands, the 12 miles from the limitation line becoming Spanish waters and the area from the 12 mile to 200 miles offshore belonging to the EU member countries as common fisheries

These zone changes and the shift in access to the traditional Moroccan and Saharan continental shelf grounds undoubtedly had an effect on the Tuna fleets although it would not be until a similar shift in policy by Morocco in December of 2011 when the Canary Islands Government would quantify the impacts on the fishing community such a change imposed “The rejection of the agreement on 14 December 2011 prevented 26 Canarian vessels from fishing in Moroccan waters (20 tuna vessels and 6 artisanal vessels). The Canarian Government showed that the rejection negatively affected the fishing sector and the related economic activities, and estimated a decrease of more than 50% of the landings at first-sales points, a loss of 250 direct jobs and more than 1000 indirect jobs, as well as a loss of more than 11 million EUR for the fishing companies and of more than 18 million EUR for the Producers Organisations and commercial agents”

It doesn’t take much imagination to understand what impacts such changes had on the Canary Islanders and their traditional way of life, fuel prices were going up, catch sizes were going down, and slowly but surely those families and fishermen started to look to other ways of earning a living. Coincidentally albeit anecdotally the Canary Island Tourist Industry began to bloom, as air-fares decreased and budget airlines like Easy Jet entered the market bringing cheaper, and more accessible Island Holidays with them

So, to the story of the loss of the Cita En El Mar, an ignominious end for such a vibrant and vital part of the Canaries psyche for over 3 decades and the lifeblood of an economy intertwined with the Island life, its simplicity, and its obvious attraction to those of us with hectic treadmill like existences. There are three versions of the loss, all have a central thread and all have an air of authenticity…….which is the absolute truth?……I doubt any but the captain of the vessel on the day truly know. So version one of the sinking of the Cita En El Mar goes that her crew were celebrating a catch far better than they had seen in a long time, heading back for the fishing quay at Puerto Las Galletes. A storm caught the Cita En El Mar as she headed back loaded down with her catch and, with the crew and obviously the Captain somewhat distracted, their navigation fell short and the Cita En El Mar hit the headland at Punta Rasca. Her hull breached, the plucky little boat sat on the rocks as the Captain sent a mayday call out, the call brought other vessels to her aid but the damage to her bow had been too great to survive and, despite being dragged back off the rocks successfully, she foundered pretty much against the headland. The water is deep fairly close in at that spot, the Cita En El Mar took her fishing gear and her catch down with her to 50m, where the sand met the rocks of the headland just a few tens of meters out, and there she lay until her wooden hull was torn from her steel bridge, her wheelhouse and crew accommodation, and was smashed to matchwood over the coming years, leaving only her superstructure on the seabed

Perhaps the only luck to come from the wreck of the Cita En El mar came to Diver Sergio Hanquet, (I believe the photo from diariodeavisos to be one of his superb shots taken the day after the sinking) when, whilst behind the counter in his sweetshop in Los Cristianos, Sergio was confronted by two fishermen from the Cita En El Mar who had asked a friend of his if anyone could help retrieve the ships documents from the wreck. Sergio was a well-known diver locally and must have thought all his birthdays had come at once as the story unfolded. I doubt it took more than a couple of seconds for him to agree to dive the wreck and we are left with some of the most eerie and artful photos any wreck diver has probably seen

Version two of the sinking of the Cita En El Mar has the same core, navigational error, but has the crew simply too insensitive from celebration to notice their course onto the Headland at Punta Rasca, so no storm……just a combination of enthusiastic reverence and a complete disregard for either time, or distance, the end result, the vessel and catch lost to the depths in the same place and manner as version 1. Whilst “possible” (in a similar manner to the Italian Job and the bus ending up hanging over the cliff edge) it is unlikely that a crew, dependent on the revenue from their supposedly record catch, would start to celebrate before that catch was safely landed and the money in the bank…….It’s entirely “possible”, but I find it rather unlikely

So version three of the story again has the same core, the Cita Loaded with a record catch heading back to her Quay to unload, however this version has it that the storm and the sheer size of the catch made her hard to control and, nearing the headland, that situation got worse and she became unmanageable and was essentially driven onto the rocks by a combination of weather and an unusually large catch, in one telling of this version by our dive guide there was a possibility the nets became tangled in her prop as she approached the headland in the storm, pitching and rolling due to the size of her catch……..so it seems the Cita En El Mar, a perfectly sound fishing vessel, having just made a fabulous catch and about to land that catch and make her crew a lot better off, found her way onto a headland that it is hard to imagine a radar would miss, let alone an auto-pilot, or even a Captain & crew somewhat worse for wear and celebration……….or…….. there is another possibility, that despite a good catch, perhaps exactly because of that catch, the owner of the vessel had decided enough was enough, that Tuna fishing had run its course and that it was time to bow out and cash in………I have no idea if the Cita En El Mar carried insurance, I am not for one moment suggesting that a vessel laden with a record catch of Tuna, and clearly beyond any real suspicion in light of that catch, would have been purposefully driven onto a shore, in sight of a lighthouse, placed there to warn vessels away from a treacherous headland……….but you never really know…..do you

I was lucky enough to dive the Cita En El Mar in August of 2005, the Green Navy Dive Log records: “08/04/05 Tenerife CITA DEL MAR Los Galletas Great Descent, whole wreck was visible from about 20m down & lies bow deep to 53m stern at approx. 40m, large wooden fishing trawler which the wood has mostly broken/rotted away from but the metal is fully intact bridge & railings, fuel tanks etc – very picturesque dive nets wound as if caught in the prop (a theory as to its demise from one local diver). Huge shoal of local tropical fish at stern & 1 large Ray swam off as we arrived – beautiful & well worth 15 mins deco! Viz 30m Air In 230 Out 75 Buddy Pieto (Polish dvr)” She was a deep dive and I relished the clear warm Blue of the Atlantic off Tenerife, the long descent with the spectacle of the disembodied superstructure visible very early on, the abandoned nets still evident around the bridge and trailing out to where the stern used to be. It was very odd to see such a strange sight, if anything I had been used to the remnants of ships’ hulls, far more often than their superstructures. In most wooden shipwrecks, if anything, the deck houses and wheelhouses are the first to become flattened or dislodged, usually during the initial sinking. It is a short time below the waves until the surge of current and tide carries the smashed remains away from the hull and therefore these pieces of the ships structure are often absent, but to see an absent hull, that was a different thing altogether………

I hope, in the future, I get confirmation of the shipyard that built the Cita En El Mar. I would very much like to confirm that and perhaps even get hold of her plans……but until that happens I will just thank those who’s help with this piece cannot be underestimated, the wonderful & haunting photos of Senor Sergio Hanquet, Holidaydiver, DanSea, astillerosbalenciaga.com and the photos, information and help provided by Senor Emmanuel Gutierrez Gimeno to both of whom I am very grateful and without whom this piece would be a far lesser telling of the story of the Cita En El Mar

Vassilios T

Vasilios T would start her life in Osaka, Japan as Yard Number 10, she would eventually be named Eastern Temple and become part of the war requirements of the USA, following their entry into World War 1, 02^nd April of 1917. For those of you who love the technical detail:

When The USA finally joined the First World War in 1917 it was after a series of meetings between the First Sea-Lord of the British Admiralty, Winston Churchill, and the US President Woodrow Wilson, Wilson did not want to commit US troops to the war in Europe however Churchill was desperate that he did….. Some say it was no co-incidence that two years earlier, in 1915, the Luxury Liner Lusitania continued to cross the Atlantic carrying American citizens aboard despite the war, and despite the Germans declaring unrestricted warfare on the high seas

Lusitania’s owners, the Cunard Line were British and trade was brisk, Lusitania was one of the fastest ships afloat, between 1907 & 1909 she had won the Blue Riband for the fastest crossing between Queenstown, Ireland and Sandy Hook in New York, no less than 4 times, a crossing of 2780 Nautical Miles, completed in 4 days Sixteen hours and 40 minutes, almost a full 12 hours better than the previous holder, the German Liner Deutschland. There was something to be said for Cunard’s assertion that Lusitania, capable of 25 Knots (47 MPH), could outrun any U-Boat, but the Lusitania didn’t have to outrun any German U Boat……She had to outrun their torpedo’s

It only took one of those torpedo’s, from the German Type 19 U-Boat, U20 on the 07^th May of 1915, to send the Lusitania, to the bottom of the Atlantic off Old Kinsale Head in Southern Ireland, just a couple of hours out of Liverpool and safety. Lusitania had been carrying 1266 passengers with a high contingent of US citizens aboard it, 123 of whom perished in the attack, Germany issued a statement in which they claimed that because Lusitania “carried contraband of war” and that she “was classed as an auxiliary cruiser,” which, in the eyes of the German’s meant U20 had a right to destroy her regardless of any passengers aboard

Germany also pointed to warnings printed in the US papers, alongside all advertising by Cunard and the major passenger liner companies, stating any passengers sailing on British ships did so at their own risk, it didn’t stop international outrage at the sinking of the Lusitania, but it is doubtful Kapitanleutnant Walter Schweiger or the crew of U20, suspected they had sewn the seeds that would bring the US into the war on the side of Britain and her allies almost two years later

Why did Woodrow Wilson wait two years to enter the war, with 123 US citizens at the bottom of the Atlantic you could be forgiven for thinking an act of war against the US had been carried out, and immediate response was necessary, as I am sure Winston Churchill believed, but Wilson was determined to stay neutral and act as nothing more than peacemaker between Britain & Germany, Germany apologized for the loss of American lives on the Lusitania and pledged to end unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic from that point

In 1917 Germany, suffering from the effects of British sea blockades around their very small coastal region, and, with a population on the verge of starvation, declared a return to unrestricted submarine warfare and worse, the Germans were caught red-handed (Zimmerman Telegram) offering Mexico support for any action towards the return of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico (if they supported Germany against Britain and her allies) should the US join the war on the side of Britain…….

Enough was enough it seemed and despite the obvious reluctance to join the “European” conflict that had coloured US public opinion for the intervening years, in April of 1917 Woodrow Wilson went to the US Congress and asked for a formal declaration of war against Germany & her allies. The request went to Congress and the House of Representatives but, after both agreed, on the 07^th of December 1917 The United States finally declared war on German and her ally Austria-Hungary

So what has U20, the sinking of the Lusitania, and the USA’s entry into World War I got to do with the Vasilios T, or as she was known in 1918, The Eastern Temple? To understand this we need to go back a little, before the sinking of Lusitania, indeed to 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, when it seemed the USA had little ambition for international ocean trading (Day, Edmund E. “The American Merchant Fleet: A War Achievement, a Peace Problem” in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol 34, No 4, pp1-41. Aug 1920. Oxford University Press. Online Resource: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1885158.pdf Accessed 26/01/2022) “In 1910 the American fleet had fallen to one-twentieth the size of the British; and less than one-tenth of American seaborne foreign trade moved under United States flag. For years before the war, attempts to foster merchant shipping met with stolid indifference when not with vigorous opposition. The business men of the country were convinced that ocean transportation was an industry in which American labor and capital could not profitably engage” As the conflict in Europe became more and more likely to drag the US unwillingly, and ill-prepared into war, the Americans, perhaps realizing their merchant fleet was unlikely to serve their needs in regards to increasing trade between the US and the needs of those in Europe (on both sides, for supplies and materials to immediately sustain their populations, and to enable them to continue fighting) opened their merchant shipping registry (Day, Edmund E. “The American Merchant Fleet: A War Achievement, a Peace Problem” in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol 34, No 4, P570. Aug 1920. Oxford University Press. Online Resource: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1885158.pdf Accessed 26/01/2022) Edmund Day has it that the Panama Canal Act of August 24 1912, supplemented by an act of August 19, 1914, removing a five year age limit on vessels applying for registry, accepted that: “Foreign-built vessels thereafter could obtain American registry upon passing the Steamboat Inspection Service test for seaworthiness. Numerous owners of foreign-built vessels quickly took advantage of the free registry act. The greater safety under neutral flag was apparently more than an offset to more expensive American operation.”  Meanwhile cries were going up in the US press for more home built ships…..

Although the US Government took up the cries for merchant shipping production, with ship-yards such as Philadelphia’s Hog Island turning to mass-production techniques and making a significant difference to the speed of construction, the US simply could not keep up with demand for shipping to replace losses, and cope with the increased trade demands of the Allies necessary for the war effort: Charles Geisst, writing in the Encyclopedia of American Business History, “….The domestic yards were swamped with orders and had a backlog of many years. Another shipbuilding boom, reminiscent of that during the civil war, had begun, but builders could not produce ships fast enough to end the crisis” (Geisst, C.R. & Gargano, C. “Encyclopedia of American Business History. P386. Shipbuilding industry, Para2.” Online Resource: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5dGig0fYlj8C&pg=PA386&lpg=PA386&dq=US+cries+for+shipbuilding+1917&source=bl&ots=2vqI-8zYhB&sig=ACfU3U2MYROQVyH0dS2XtDAT7CgGbhmRXA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjLsd_239H1AhVPf MAKHZrABxoQ6AF6BAg7EAM#v=onepage&q&f=false  Accessed 27/01/2022) There would have to be another way to ensure the need for merchant shipping was met by the supply of merchant ships

When WWI broke out in 1914 the Japanese had not long ended their war with Russia (the Russo Japanese war of 1904-1905), Russia was an ally to Great Britain against the Austro-Hungarian & German Empire in what was, at that time, mostly a European war as far as the US was concerned. Japan was also an ally of Britain, despite serious misgivings at their motives by the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, however his caution was not shared quite so explicitly by Winston Churchill, obviously losing patience with Grey in a terse telegram of August 1914: (Saxon, Timothy, D. “Anglo-Japanese Naval Cooperation, 1914-1918 In: Naval War College Review. Vol 53, No 1, P66, Para 2” Online Resource https://www.jstor.org/stable/44643068?seq=16#metadata _info_tab_contents Accessed 27/01/2022) “I think you are chilling indeed to these people. I can’t see any half way house between having them in and keeping them out. If they are to come in, they may as well be welcomed as comrades. This last telegram [to Japan] is almost hostile.” Churchill rounded off with “You may easily give mortal offence_which will not be forgotten_we are not safe yet_by a long chalk. The storm has yet to burst”

Despite Grey’s obvious concerns, Japan was both an ally and a ready and willing supply source of available merchant shipping, desperately needed for the war effort, there was little choice and an easy decision to be made: “In 1917, Japanese shipyards hastily constructed (in five months) twelve destroyers identical to the Japanese Kaba class for France: Japanese sailors delivered the ships to French forces in the Mediterranean. In December of 1916, the British chancellor of the exchequer sought and gained the War Cabinet’s approval for the purchase of six Japanese merchant ships, totaling 77,500 tons, The British further requested in May 1917 that the Japanese supply shipping for Chinese workers recruited to work in Europe: Japanese warships helped to escort the convoys to France. Later in the war, Japan and the United States agreed that Japanese shipyards would produce 371,000 tons of shipping for the U.S. Shipping Board.” 

(Saxon, Timothy, D. “Anglo-Japanese Naval Cooperation, 1914-1918 In: Naval War College Review. Vol 53, No 1, P77, Para 1” Online Resource https://www.jstor.org/stable/44643068?seq=16#metadata_info_tab_contents Accessed 27/01/2022)

The Japanese had capacity to help the allies and were willing to turn their impressive and modern shipyards to the war effort too, “Across the harbour from Nagasaki are the Akuno-ura Engine Works, and the Mitsubishi Dockyards, the latter one of the largest of its kind in Nippon [Japan]. It was established in 1856 by the Tokugawa shogunate, under the tutelage of Dutch engineers, but was transferred to the Mitsubishi Co. in 1877; since then its growth has been rapid. Battleships and ocean going steamers of large tonnage are built here (ships like the Tenyo Maru and the Chiyo Maru of the Toyo Kisen Kaisha) and upward of 5000 men are employed. There are 3 dry-docks, salvage steamers, etc” (Terry, Philip. “Terry’s Japanese Empire” Houghton & Mifflin Co, Boston & New York, 1914. In “Old Tokyo Mitsubishi Shipyard, Nagasaki, c1910”. Online Resource: http://www.oldtokyo.com/mitsubishi-shipyard-nagasaki-c-1910/ Accessed 27/01/2020)

So, it was to Japan that the US Shipping Board turned to in 1916 following the introduction of the Shipping Act of September 07^th 2016: “The Shipping Act was a compromise between those favoring a comprehensive program of government ownership of merchant shipping and those advocating continued reliance upon private initiative. Under the provisions of the act, the United States Shipping Board was empowered to build, repair or alter, buy, lease, or charter merchant vessels.” (Day, Edmund, E. “The American Merchant Fleet: A War Achievement, a Peace Problem” in “The Quarterly Journal of Economics Aug 1920 Vol 34 No 4 P 571.” Oxford University Press. Online Resource: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1885158.pdf Accessed 28/01/2022). The year following brought an even more significant act of congress when the US introduced the Urgent Deficiencies Appropriation Act of June 15 1917 authorizing Woodrow Wilson, amongst other things, to: “To place an order with any person for such ships or material as the necessities of the Government, to be determined by the President, might require during the period of the war;” Congress authorized $250,000,000 for the spend and Wilson signed an executive order delegating his powers under the act to the Emergency Fleet Corporation and the Shipping Board

As it was clear there were insufficient ships available from the US yards to meet the requirements of war, even with the transfer of part constructed merchant shipping to the war effort, it was necessary to buy from foreign sources, and Japan could help……..Edmund Day (P586) notes “From the Japan- ese, however, it was possible to purchase thirteen steel cargo vessels already constructed and to contract for the building of thirty others.” The Thirteen Japanese ships already complete were given a classification “Eastern” of which the Eastern Temple would become the Vasilios T

Of the Japanese ships from the 1917 contract, there were only the thirteen which had been available from the outset (none of those who’s keels were on the slip, or that were ordered to be built were delivered in time to see service), but of the thirteen that were contracted, only three from the Osaka Iron Works seem to have been delivered in time to take part in the war, the Eastport (Yard No 907), the Eastern Star (Yard No 915) and the Eastern Light (Yard No 951), (McKellar, N.L. The Belgian Shiplover No96, 09/1963, P503. Osaka Iron Works: in “Steel Shipbuilding Under the U.S. Shipping Board, 1917-1921” Online Resource: https://www.shipscribe.com/mckellar/Contract6.pdf Accessed: 29/01/2022) so we know that Vasilios T (Eastern Temple) did not see service in WWI. Information on these ships is elusive; the few sources available hold little information, perhaps due to the tenuous nature of the initial contractual arrangement with the US, perhaps due to the scarcity of remaining WWI records    

The Eastern Temple eventually arrived in the US to no small fanfare, following her departure from Osaka on the 18^th of June of 1920, it seems three vessels were departing for the USA at the same time, each with a Japanese crew and each with a captain determined to make the crossing and arrive on US soil before either of the others, so much so there was a wager between them (Editorial: Morning Oregonian June 24 1920 P20 Online Resource https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83025138/1920-06-24/ed-1/seq-20/ocr/ Accessed 09/02/2022)

 “With a prize of $3000 at stake, three Japanese-built freighters for the account of the United States shipping board are racing across the Pacific from Yokohama with San Francisco as their goal. The vessels are the Eastern Leader, Eastern Soldier and the Eastern Temple, and all three left Yokohama within 48 hours of each other. According to reports dispute arose between the skippers of the respective crafts as to their steaming capabilities. It was finally decided that each of the captains put up 91000 In American gold, the vessel making the best elapsed time between the two ports to receive the wager. The vessels sailed from the oriental port June 18”

I have nothing but admiration for the 3 captains who’s names have disappeared into history so far, the vessels were pretty much identical, I suppose the speed of crossing was down to the routes the captains took and their navigational skill, rather than any particular advantage from the vessels themselves, sadly history does not record who actually won the wager

The Eastern Temple’s arrival was announced in the 03^rd August edition of the Morning Oregonian, without fanfare, it could be assumed therefore that she had perhaps not won her captain the wager: “The 5500-ton steamship Eastern Temple, which arrived here last week, will be delivered to the fleet corporation Thursday or Friday. She is a product of the Osaki yard of the Nitta Kisen Kabushiki Kaisha, but will be delivered by the Suzuiki company, which brought her across the Pacific”

It did not take long to put Eastern Temple to work and again the Morning Oregonian (14^th September 1920) has her: “To load lumber for Peru & Chile the Eastern Temple is loading at the Danaher mill. She is taking 60,000 feet there. She will also take 100,000 feet at the St. Paul mill export dock” The mills identified would be Washington Lumber Mills, Danaher’s was a significant operation beginning in 1893 “Danaher had purchased a mill from Abraham Coon Young after the panic of 1893. Danaher eventually acquired mills in California, large tracts of timber throughout the Northwest, and logging camps at Darrington and Port Orchard, Washington. During 1918 and 1919 his mill turned out forty million feet of cut lumber making it the fourth largest mill in Tacoma” (Holcomb, J. “Lumbermen and the Four Ls: It’s Time for All Lumbermen to Spruce Up!“: Pacific University, May 1999 Online Resource: https:// commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/File: Logging_crew_and_donkey_engine,_Danaher_Lumber_Company,_ca_1916_(KINSEY_139).jpeg Accessed 09/02/2022)

Lumber was a huge export from the US in the early 1900’s, by 1924 Grays Harbour celebrated loading its billionth foot of board, and the seemingly inexhaustible forests and associated logging trade had named it “King Timber”: (Caldbick, J. “Deep-draft Ports of Washington: King Timber and the Growth of Ports” HistoryLink.org Online Resource https://www.historylink.org/File/9529 Accessed: 09/02/2022) “In the early decades of the twentieth century the forest resource in Washington still seemed infinite, and the magnitude of the harvest each year was staggering. Billions of board feet of lumber and countless tons of raw logs were shipped through the state’s deep-draft ports, and they all cut their teeth on the timber trade.” It couldn’t last, but the US was certainly making hay whilst the Sun shone, and the Eastern Temple would play her part in that

The Eastern Temple was set to the South American trade by her managers, the General Steamship Corporation, her first trip would be carrying the Washington Lumber from Tacoma to Peru & Chile. It seems she narrowly missed a devastating explosion when, on the 10^th September 1920 two barges, both carrying Dynamite, collided in the port of Callao (Peru’s main Port & Docks) and exploded. The blast killed fifty people in the port and surrounds and was reported in the Chicago Daily Tribune (11^th September 1920 P1). Wherever she was headed the Eastern Temple seems to be at the heart of some type of drama from the start of her career……

Even though Eastern Temple had left the US and was now in the South Americas controversy was not far behind her. The arrangement that the US Shipping Board had bought her under was explicit, the ship would be delivered to the US by the selling yard, Osaka, that’s fine, the crew would therefore be Japanese and likely the Captain (although not compelled to be), a US citizen. It clearly had not been lost on the Japanese crew that the US offered a potentially better life than that they enjoyed in Japan, the Oregon Daily Journal of 03^rd August of 1920 (P3): “…..eight Japanese members of the crew of the Japanese liner Eastern Temple were in custody here today charged with attempting to smuggle themselves into this country”. The crew of the Eastern Temple, or at least the eight in custody clearly believed the US was a better prospect than a return to their native Japan. If nothing else, this shows the times were fast turning in favour of the US, immigration into America was on the increase, and it wasn’t just Europeans that believed it to be the land of opportunity. The US immigration officials clearly believed this was a common occurrence, the Oregon Journal goes on to note: “This means of entry, according to immigration officials, is common. Japanese, for a suitable consideration, are said to be signed as part of the ships “crew”, this being merely a ruse.”

Whilst the USA dealt with the problem of absconding crew from the Eastern Temple and other fleet ships bought from Japan in the closing year or so of World War One, other countries were challenged by the conflict, in ways they had not dealt with beforehand, one of those countries was Greece. First we go back to 1917 when Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, known to most as Lenin (embracing the theories of the German philosophers Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels), Leon Trotsky and the Bolshevik workers of Russia overthrew the Romanov Dynasty and brought Communism, with its idealistic socialist rhetoric and its revolutionary fervor, to a huge swathe of Eastern Europe. No one knew of the murders being committed at the time, and seemingly, no one noticed the disappearance in July of 1918 of the entire Romanov family, Tsar Nicholas, Tsarina Alexandra and their 5 children, Olga 22, Tatiana 21, Maria 19, Anastasia 17 and Alexi only 13, who had been herded into a basement room in Ekaterinberg, shot and bayoneted to death….. The murder did not stop at the Tsar and his family, their physician Eugene Botkin and servants Anna Demidova, Alexei Trupp and their cook Ivan Kharitonov were also murdered with them, and then buried in woodland in the Koptyaki forest, but not before grenades were used to ensure identification would be impossible should they be exhumed. To overthrow oppression in the name of human rights it seems first you have to remove the human rights of those that you wish to depose…….

The ripples set in motion by the overthrow and murder of the Romanov family reached far and wide, not just in terms of the next hundred plus years, but likely for generations to come as the insipid reverie & barbarism of “socialism” replaced the hubris and, in Russia’s case, failure of Royal sovereignty. One small country that would feel the fall of the Tsar was Greece, or to be more specific the merchant fleets of the Greek Islands. As Greek merchant shipping was used to transport goods during WWI it is unsurprising there were heavy Greek shipping losses during its 4 year period. Following the war the Greek merchant fleet was considerably reduced but an even greater impact, perhaps, was that of the fall of the Russian monarchy. Traditionally the Greek merchantmen had traded the Black Sea via the Aegean Sea and the Bospherous, the narrow entrance between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea at Constantinople, now Istanbul, a Turkish territory from Byzantine days (following the fall of Constantinople to Sultan Mehmed II, of the Ottoman Empire, in May of 1453)

The Bolshevik revolution would bring about changes to the traditional relationships in the whole Black Sea region, the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) under Marxist/Leninist doctrine, latterly known as Communism, would oust the traditional carriers to and from the region, and impose restrictions that pushed the Greek steamer fleets making it difficult to trade profitably. It did not help that in May 1919 the Greeks, persuaded largely by the British, had landed a military force in Izmir in the Anatolian region of Turkey. This was an allied attempt to take advantage of the 1914-1918 World War defeat of Austro-Hungary and its Ottoman Turk allies, but also a reaction to the Turkish advances into allied areas. The Turkish military, despite being ordered by the Ottoman Government to stand down following the war, refused and, in an atmosphere of nationalism and resistance to the Allies, had advanced into Greece, French held territories and Armenia (Macfie A. L. “The Chanak Affair” P1 Para1 Online Resource: https://ojs.lib.uom.gr/index.php/BalkanStudies/article/viewFile/5126/5155 Accessed: 15/02/2022). The Turkish Army headed by Mustafa Kemal Pasha would be a rallying call as Turkish nationalists rose against their Government, carrying out massacres of Christians to purge the area, and establishing the boundaries of what is modern day Turkey. Turkish control of Constantinople (Istanbul) was re-established and the Greek push into Antalya not only halted, but, in what the Turks called “The Great Offensive” was routed completely, giving the Turks complete control of the Chanak region, the entry to the Sea of Marmaris and, therefore, by extension the Bosphorous. Not only did this lead to an enduring mutual loathing between Turkey & Greece, but also to the Greek merchant fleet removing itself almost completely from the region in favour of other cargoes and ports…..

Greek vessels of the time were largely family owned, a family would pool together funds, go to the Greek government for a low interest loan and then buy second hand ships, often not in particularly great condition, man and run the vessels with family members throughout. As the Greek mainland is surrounded by Greek Islands, most of the merchant vessels were owned by traditional Island sea-farer families “Almost all of them come from the rocky Greek islands. The neighboring islands of Chios and Inoussai, for example, have produced such shipping families as Lemos, Kulukundis, Pateras, Carras, Papalios—who collectively own more than one-third of Greek shipping” (Editorial “Shipping: The other Greeks” P1. Para3. 15 August 1969. Online Resource: http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/ 0,33009,901268,00.html Accessed: 15/02/2022). Some Greek owners had bought before the end of the war, when shipping was scarce, hoping to capitalize on the high price commanded for running supplies between the allies and their critical supply-chains, once the war ended those high priced cargoes were scarce, merchant shipping was in decline and some of those expensive investments started to flounder in fairly suspicious circumstances, so much so that British Insurance Companies apparently “Black Listed” Greek merchant vessels from 1920 (Editorial “From a War to a Crisis (1919-1929)” Para 8. Online Resource https://greekshippingmiracle.org/en/history-2/1919/ Accessed: 15/02/2022)

Now let us return to 1920 and the voyages of the United States Vessel the Eastern Temple! With the help of the US Coastguard and the US National Archive it is possible to dig out the various registration and transfers of Trade routes for Eastern Temple, and that begins with her original registration and the issuing of a Department of Commerce, Bureau of Navigation Number, 31^st of August 1920. The official number was requested for her by Celias Miller of Seattle Washington, her declared purpose was “Ocean Freight”, Celias Miller was acting on behalf of the US Shipping Board, the original purchasers. Eastern Temple had only reached the USA from Osaka in late July of 1920, her first voyage from Tacoma 16^th September of 1920 which would have meant some time for her new crew of 36 and her Master to get the feel of her before departure

The Eastern temple was engaged in Ocean Trade under Master Albert E Winslow out of Seattle in September of 1920, then under Master Constantine Philip Zannaras out of New York in September of 1927, then under Master George D Skeriot out of Norfolk & Newport News in December of 1927, and, then under a Master T Nelson (likely Thorvald) out of Miami in July of 1929 and finally, as far as I can determine, under Master Thorvald Nelson out of Norfolk & Newport News in November of 1935, all the other masters were under registry licensing for coastal trading from the various ports noted. The means of determining this is by no means certain, it is assessed against the registry purpose stated on the license and the Captain and port noted on the license, I’d be delighted if any of the families or descendants of these Masters or crew can enlighten me with more detail from personal archives?

The Eastern Temple continued in both Ocean & Coastal roles between 1920 and 13^th December of 1922 when an entry in the Consolidated Certificate of Enrollment & License, the yearly record of inspection and licensing for the USA has her “To be towed to the James River to Lay Up. No Inspection in Force” The US Shipping Board, presumably running out of cargoes or taskings by this time. It had largely been expected that a huge programme of re-building would take place and that there would be a continued need for shipping, this doesn’t seem to have materialized and the US Shipping Board has clearly got more ships than it requires

The laying up of the Eastern Temple would have been a new phenomenon after WWI, with a surplus of merchant shipping the US created the James River Reserve Fleet, wooden & steel ships moored up on the James River from Hampton Roads, at its height, the fleet consisted of somewhere around 800 ships. With such a huge fleet and the potential problems surrounding maintenance, access, up-keep etc the administration of the reserve fleet was given to the US Maritime Administration, a division of the US Department of Transport, not a military dependency, a civil authority who assigned it to the National Defense Reserve Fleet

Colloquially known as the “James River Ghost Fleet”, not particularly surprisingly, the vessels were gradually reduced in number with some of the wooden boats ending up in the Potomac River. In 1920 around 169 of 218 vessels brought to the Potomac were beached in Mallows Bay (Shomette. D. “The Archeology of Watercraft Abandonment: The United States Shipping Board Fleet at Mallows Bay, Maryland: Inventory & Assessment” Abstract. Online Resource https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4614-7342-8_6 Accessed 15/02/2022) sadly most did not find further employment “….most were sold at auction in 1922 to the Western Marine and Salvage Corporation for reduction and salvage of the metals” despite several attempts at salvaging from the fleet, eventually they were lined up in rows and burned to the waterline, they rest where they sank, as a macabre but colourful nature reserve to this day

In what must have been a very close run thing, with so many vessels to choose from, the Eastern Temple would be fortunate enough to not share the fate of the Potomac Fleet, and would be brought out of the James River Fleet to go back into service after 5 years at anchor. The Eastern Temple is mentioned this time, 16^th September of 1927, as a “Surrender of Ownership and Change of District” which sees her pass the into private ownership when a mortgage was arranged to the tune of $76000 at a rate of 5% interest on behalf of the High Seas Transportation Inc of 1819 Broadway, New York, a reasonably prestigious address by all accounts, at the Columbus Circle end of Central Park. Her new Master, Constantine Philip Zannaras, would have probably had his work cut out getting her crew to bring her back to inspection standards for her new owners the High Seas Transportation Inc of New York

So Eastern Temple returns to the US Merchant fleet, purchased for the princely sum of $95000 with a balance due by mortgage (Judge Northcote: “The Eastern Temple in The Eastern Temple Zannaras v. United States.” Case 4223   13/01/1938 Online Resource: https:// www.leagle.com/decision/ 193846894f2d3741363 Accessed: 17/02/2022) “The amount secured by the mortgage had been reduced and amounted, in March, 1936, to $34,742.72. The vessel was purchased by High Seas Transportation, Inc.” It would seem that Constantine Philip Zannaras held a position as president of the purchasing company (High Seas Transportation Inc) and had also been employed as chief engineer on the Eastern Temple between September of 1927 and December of 1935 when the Eastern Temple was sold on by the US Marshall and the mortgage was to be cleared. Constantine Philip Zannaras claimed a debt against the sale value (closure of the mortgage) in respect of “wages owed” for the performance of duties other than those of chief engineer, it does not say anywhere I can find that Mr Zannaras was successful in his claim………. If nothing else, the claim of Mr Zannaras, and the various changes of Master and Ports of Registry during these years indicate that the Eastern Temple was at work, occasionally Ocean trading, more often Coastal Trading

The use of “to” dates is not exact, however they are dates we can definitively say those captains had charge, even if some were named “in Lieu” of the former captain as noted when documentation (Port Registry etc) took place in the various ports identified. What this demonstrates is the varied Ports Eastern Temple was operating from and to during her US career. There is no account I can find of cargoes except for the arrival where she brought with her (according to the Morning Oregonian of 23^rd July 1920) to the US “a full cargo of oriental merchandise”. As already noted, the Eastern Temple departed Tacoma with a full cargo of lumber when she left for her first voyage from the US 16^th September of 1920. We can of course speculate at other cargo’s because of the nature of the major exports of a country from particular ports, it is likely The Eastern Temple carried Nitrates from Chile as that was the sole export at the time: “For years the Republic has enjoyed a monopoly of nitrates and supplied the entire world with this product. Chilean prosperity depended almost entirely upon this single industry….” (Green. S. & Lane. R. M. “Trade of the Pacific Coast States with the West Coast of South America: The present economic Condition of Chile” US Dept. of Commerce, Jan 1928, P12 Para1 Online Resource: https://books.google.co.uk/ books? id=F19zJ8JTZFoC&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq= Trade+of+the+Pacific +Coast+States+with+the+West+Coast+of+South+America&source=bl&ots=sAhgsSm0xR&sig=ACfU3U2py0JLwGWRmyJk9wMT7Mywzil2uw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjj__KXl4n2AhVSXMAKHUHKBGgQ6AF6BAgrEAM#v=onepage&q=Trade%20of%20the%20Pacific%20Coast%20States%20with%20the%20West%20Coast%20of%20South%20America&f=false Accessed: 18/02/2022)

It is at this point we circle back to the Greeks, by 1925 Greece has moved a high percentage of its sea trade to the routes outside of the Sea of Marmaris, leaving the ports of the Black Sea to the Turks and the colonial companies still trying to establish relationships with the USSR and its communist leadership. Despite the move, perhaps because of it, the Greek shipping business was in crisis, the situation wasn’t helped by Britain recognizing the impact of Greek shipping in the 20’s entering their traditional markets for grain, and produce in Argentina and other South American ports, and raising insurance premiums on the Greek fleet. By 1925 with insurance of cargo’s going up and a market in decline: “The commercial secretary of the British Embassy in Buenos Aires reported that ‘the depressed condition of the market resulted in many steamers laying up in the river, and at one time some thirty Greek vessels alone were tied up at Villa Constitucion for several months’. After a short upheaval in 1926, freights fell again in 1927” (Harlaftis. G. “A History of Greek Owned Shipping: The making of an international tramp fleet 1830 to the present day” Routledge 1996. Online Resource: https:// www.academia.edu /5607030/3. _Gelina_Harlaftis_%CE%91_%CE%97istory_of_Greek-Owned_Shipping._The_Making_of_an_International_Tramp_Fleet _ 1830 _to_the_present_day _London _Routledge_1996 Accessed: 18/02/2022). By 1929 major ship-owners submitted a memorandum to the Greek Prime Minister laying out reasons the majority had moved their business to London as a trading base, and suggesting a re-flagging of all Greek shipping was imminent (Editorial “Greek Shipping Miracle: From a War to a Crisis (1919-1929)” Online Resource: https://greekshippingmiracle.org/en/history-2/1919/ Accessed 18/02/2022)

The First World War years saw the Greek fleets hit by torpedo, mine, lost in action etc…. following the losses of  World War I, the World’s Port’s rapid growth was reversed, the USA was not the only country with too many ships and not enough cargo to keep their fleets viable. International trade declined as ravaged countries spent meager funds on reconstruction, then, in the 1930s, came the great depression in the USA and international trade plummeted as a result.  It is surprising to see at least one Greek ship owner seemed to be unconcerned, a Senor E.M. Tricoglu of Eleftherios, Ándros Island, a visionary perhaps? The alarming rate of Greek Shipping  losses of the First World War did not slow in the interwar years and was cause enough to see studies and even books & articles written (“Α history of Greek-Owned Shipping. The Making of an International Tramp Fleet, 1830 to the present day”: Harlaftis, G. Publisher: Routledge, 1996. And “At THE MERCY OF THE WAVES MANAGING RISK AT SEA IN THE GREEK FLEET OF THE INTERWAR PERIOD”: Harlaftis, G. In “The Great Circle” Journal of the Australian Association for Maritime History, Vol. 19, No. 2, 1997: 73-92) in later years trying to explain the unusually high loss rate

The Eastern Temple had operated under the ownership of the United States Shipping Board – USSB, Washington D.C. from 1920 to 1927, being sold on to another American concern, the High Seas Transportation Inc. of New York in 1927 and sailing under their flag until being sold on again by the US Marshall on behalf of the US Secretary of Commerce in 1935 to a Senor E.M. Tricoglu of Andros Island……. Now there had been several ships in the ownership of Senor Tricoglu that came to ignominious ends for one reason or another, the Filia E. Tricoglu, a 274hp, single screw, 3 cylinder steamer of 2489 grt, launched at Bremen 02/12/1895 (formerly the SS RUDELSBURG: 1895-1907, then the BABYLON: 1907 – 1923), which wrecked, “run aground” 27/01/1926 on Siphanto Island on passage from Sulina for Sweden with grain (http://www.teesbuiltships.co.uk/). Then, again in 1926, there was the ELEFTHERIOS M TRICOGLU, another single screw, 3 cylinder Steamship of 269hp & 2659grt (Launched as the SS BEEFORTH: 06/02/1894 – 1908 then as the PRODUGOL: 1908 – 1920, then becoming the ERGINUS 1920 – 1925), wrecked 29th January ’26 on Aranmore Island, County Donegal, on a voyage from Braila to Sligo with a cargo of maize (http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/). Finally there was the MINA E. TRICOGLU (Launched as the SS HAWKSER in 1915, becoming the SHEAF MEAD: 1919 – 1930) engaged in ‘deep sea tramping’ along the Pacific coast of North and South America with forays to Australia and the Far East until 9.10.1933 when she became “stranded at Civitavecchia” en-route from the Tyne carrying coal, then being a write-off, scrapped at La Spezia in 1934 (http://www.wrecksite.eu)

Now a loss rate such as that for one ship owner would raise eyebrows under almost any circumstances but war, and, following a global shipping crisis such as that seen between the wars, it cannot have gone unnoticed, however, it is not legally sensible to suggest anything more than a “healthy interest” in what my old boss would have called “previous” whenever such circumstances arose in the behaviors of those engaged in somewhat “concerning” activities…….

Suffice to say there are various theories as to the sinking of the Vassilios T, and a variety of possible causes noted:

 (https://dive.site/explore/site/vassilios-t-wreck-q7vR:)

“Vassilios T. is a well-preserved wreck located off Vis Island, Croatia. In 1939, the 105-meter-long steamer loaded with coal was swept by strong winds on its way to Venice. Officially, it hit some rocks and sank off the western side of the island, but rumor has it that the crew sank the ship on purpose to receive compensation from the insurance company”

(https://divingvis.com/vassilios/:)

“In the stormy conditions the rudder of the ship – built in 1920, belonging to Greece and called Vassilios T. – got destroyed. This 104 m long steamer hit the rocks and finished the cruise on the western side of the island of Vis. There is a rumour that the crew specifically caused the accident so that the owner could have received compensation from the insurance company. Although in times of accident such delusions were commonplace, these are only anecdotal conjecture”

I will leave the reader of this piece to come to their own conclusion in regards to the loss of the Vassilios T, so recently the Eastern Temple, bought by a Senor Tricoglu in 1938, having run against the spit of land at Stupišće, within sight of Komiza harbour, indeed within around a 20 minute walk from the town itself, off the island of Vis, 19^th March in 1939………

I first dived the Vassilios T in September of 2016 and have dived her regularly over the last 6 years, she is an outstanding dive lying on her Port side some 50m or so off Stupišće, a promontory just two miles or so out of Komiza, you could shore dive her from the steps leading to the shipping light placed on the spit to prevent other “accidents” to large, old coal carriers absentmindedly passing such a well charted and, even in 1939, well populated island…….Back in my old Navy Log I recorded: “07/09/16 WRECK OF THE VASSILIOS T off Komiza on Vis Island Croatia. This wreck hit the main part of the island in fog with damaged steering & now lies from 30 -55m on its side close in to shore I had serious tooth pain @ 32m descending along the port side towards the stern & had to stay above that to avoid pain. Swam back along the Port rail over 70 or so m of the 100m long wreck and it is a fantastic ship with so much to penetrate as it was an open hold steamer two front two rear this is one to do again. Viz 25m Air In 230 Out 150”

I only got the one dive on that holiday as my tooth really had a problem, it took root canal extraction to sort out and it would not be for another 3 years that I could get back to dive her again, by that time I had moved on to the Blue Dive Log and it records: “15/07/2019 VASSILIOS T KOMIZA CROATIA Redemption following 2016 tooth issue! This is an awesome wreck on its Port side from around 30m down to 50m we dived over the bridge just for’ard & dived along to the stern & over the rudder & prop & back along the starboard rail & in and along the promenade. Passed the bridge and up to the bow then back to the bridge and over the side to decompress the only issue is thick oil inside & tourist beaches don’t mix  so penetration is prohibited Great Dive!”

I managed to get back to Vis in August of 2021 following the Covid 19 outbreak over Christmas of 2019, when I got seriously ill and had a bad couple of months recovering some semblance of respiratory function, one of the few times I wondered if I was going to pull through an illness to be honest. I eventually felt well enough to dive again and arranged a week of diving with Andi & Aniska, the Blue Log recalls: “28/08/21 VASSILIOS T KOMIZA back to this wonderful 1939 wreck another navigational error! On her way from Swansea with a hold or 3 of coal she is sunk on her port side – Dropped in to the buoy on the anchor & swam the bow all down her length with stops at her bridge & mast & funnel, on to her stern mast & up over her railings to the rudder & prop. Carrying a side-mount for deco not room enough to pass between them went back over the side to swim the stern to forecastle & take a trip through the walkway up to the bow then on to deco a wonderful dive”. I dived her again three days later when a turn in the weather prevented us going to the Brioni which lies another hour round the headland, the Blue Book says “31/08/21 VASSILIOS T KOMIZA Back to Vassilios T  for another dive as we cannot get round to Brioni. This time decided to stay around the bridge & forward end & got permission to enter the bridge area. Swam down to midships and over the starboard side& onto & into the bridge deck. Descended to the sea bed & swam round & through on various paths, great picking ways through easy to see & navigate as she is bare of wooden decking. Swam to the bows lighting up the forward hold on the way!”

Why not join me on that dive?

As I had not got much diving done in the August of ’21 I persuaded Ellie to go back in October for a second crack at the B17 and Brioni, as usual I started to work down to the depth taking another dive on the Vassilios: “11/10/21 KOMIZA CROATIA VASSILIOS T Trimix dive 19/19 to use up some of Andi’s spares from last week. Down to the bow then along her from stem to stern, plenty of wonderful fish shoals and Yellow/Purple coral growth on her superstructure & masts. A brief stop @ her bridge then down to her rudder & prop. Up & over her stern to the emergency steering locker & on to her holds & down her length. Another stop to swim through the promenade starboard deck & into the bridge over her spare anchor. Through the bridge & on to her bow & deco” 

And so to this year’s escapade and my last dive to date on the superb wreck that is the Vassilios T and was, so recently before her demise, the Eastern Temple…. I failed to mention earlier that following the October dive on her of 2021 I once again succumbed to Covid 19, this time I was in Komiza and taken seriously ill with what I thought was Diverticulitis, something I have occasionally suffered from over the last ten years or so, I couldn’t stop violent stomach cramps for 4 days and sacked any idea of trying to get into a dry-suit and put on a weight belt….it wasn’t until we got back to the UK I found out it had actually been Covid…..again! Anyhow, I digress, this year everything went perfectly and I started the diving on the pinnacles to break in gently and followed that with Vassilios……. “29/08/22 VASSILIOS T ( EASTERN TEMPLE)  Another fine dive on the Vassilios dropping in to find the anchor & chain then following the bow & starboard side down to the stern, a drop down to the sea bed & then a view of the prop & back up gently past the emergency steering room deck & up to the bridge. A quick swim through the bridge passage then on to the bow & back up for 11 minutes of deco” On this dive I noticed the impact to the bow, and the minor crack in her that eventually led to her demise, such a gentle and almost superficial break which would indicate a very slow speed when she hit Stupišće, perhaps caution in the fog had driven the captain to “slow ahead”…..perhaps…….

You can take a look for yourself on the dive, where you will perhaps also notice the Vassilios rudder looking completely untouched and serviceable……..

I have to say, Vassilios T is an amazing wreck, if there had not been so much doubt about her sinking, and perhaps such restrictions on penetration, maybe she would have been an equal favourite to the Brioni……….

Once again I am indebted to those who have taken or, where I was able to contact them, allowed the use of their photos for this piece, specifically those of the iliveunderwater.com dive blog site, Lindsay Muha & Frankie Witzenburg of the US National Archives at College Park, Scuba Diving Croatia.Com and Andi & Aniska of Manta Divers in Komiza

2024 Update: I returned to Komiza this year to dive with Andi & Aniska again and 1st off was the Vassilios T, in post dive conversation with Andi it turned out the history of the wreck had been largely unknown until her Greek ownership, Andi did not know her as the Eastern Temple and when I mentioned that it sparked a light……There had been, for as long as Andi knew, a bell, seemingly from Vassilios but with the letters RN somewhere as Andi recalled…..It turns out the bell was sat in front of a beach restaurant on the island of Bisevo and is indeed that of the Eastern temple

Tenerife

The Condesito sits in 20m of water just outside the harbour at Las Galletas, in the Canaries off the island of Tenerife, she sank following a storm in September of 1973, engine problems having left her at the mercy of the sea and her proximity to the coast. El Condesito, or the “little count” when translated from Spanish, was a typical coaster, at 41m long she had two For’ard main holds and a smaller Stern hold, and on the 27^th of September, was carrying cement from the Arguineguin cement factory at El Pajar Beach, Gran Canaria, destined for the construction work being carried out at Los Cristianos, hence locally she is known as “The Cement Wreck”

You would not describe the Condesito as elegant and I doubt she would want you to, El Condesito was function over form every way you look, from her no nonsense bow to her rounded stern, she was built to carry as much cargo as a small sub 50m coaster could carry and in an efficient effective manner, enough to profit from Post War austerity whilst building a new future for her owners. Utility was the necessity and the Western World was familiar with frugality, there were no corners cut on Condesito, nor were there frivolities. The Condesito was a workhorse and could be run with minimal crew to eke out slender profits from cash strapped and often shoe-string businesses, as they tried to re-build what had been destroyed during the last 6 years of war in Europe. The previous 3 years of the Spanish Civil War (prior to WWII), didn’t help, as the Spanish economy was at the point of collapse. The Condor Squadron and military support the Nazis had given General Franco had proven a concept of Blitzkrieg, “Lightening War”, emboldening Hitler’s ambitions for a German Empire, which lead into Hitler’s attempt to impose a “1000 year Reich” on Europe, at the cost of anyone and everyone not willing to buy into that ideal

Following the defeat of the Spanish Republicans by General Franco’s Nationalists in 1939, Spain was practically bankrupt. Payments made for arms and support from the various countries and regimes that supported either side had battered the economy, and the various “purges”, street executions of opposition supporters, by both Republicans and Nationalists, would mean large movements of Spanish civilians out of the country trying to escape the violence. It would be international trading that would bring the Spanish economy back to strength, trading with all Europe, and in order to accomplish that, not taking sides with either the Germans or the Allies would be the key

It was into the landscape of political unrest and post-civil war economic austerity that the Astano shipyard had been born in October of 1941. Started in an existing commercial premises on the banks of the Perlio River in Fene by Jose Caruncho (buying a small carpenters yard from Ramon Perez), who, along with his sons Jose & Jacobo, and another half dozen locals, began the repair and, eventually the design and building, of fishing vessels up to 32m in length (Online Resource: fenecom.bogspot.com “Astano in Memory (1), Astano History 1941-2006 1941” Accessed 16/05/2022)

“The company would be controlled as Astilleros y Talleres del Noroeste, SL, in abbreviation it was defined as ASTANO, SL With a duration of twenty years, extendable for the construction and repair of small wooden and steel boats, which would later give way to ships of a certain size. , motivated by the adaptation and expansion of the facilities of its slipway workshops, slipway cars, dry docks and the means of production to the needs of the shipyard” Astano would launch their first fishing vessel a year later in December of 1942, the Comandante Lobo, and by 1943 they had moved from wooden ships to riveted steel hull construction. Astano did well, business was growing and in 1944 they went public as a limited company

El Condesito began life June 22^nd 1945 as the Marujin, sistership to the Rosita Iglesias No2, a Coastal Vessel owned by Enrique Lorenzo registered out of Barcelona, she weighed 168 Tons, and was 41meters from Stern to Bow and powered by a Triple acting Steam Engine pushing 9 Knots through her single prop, but for those of you expecting figures:

The Marujin was a technological leap from her wooden predecessors built at Astano (being a steel hulled, riveted steamship), and would prove her design and serve a long and (presumably) profitable career eventually outlasting her sistership, the Rosita Iglesias (scrapped in Barcelona in July of 1969), by 4 years. It would not be until 1948 that she took on the name we now recognise, El Condesito, when she transferred ownership from Enrique Lorenzo y Compania to the oddly similar Lorenzo Docampo y Compania who would own her until almost the end of her days when, in 1973, she would transfer to Filiberto Lorenzo de Honor……now I am not doubting, for one moment, the legitimacy of these undoubtedly honourable maritime trading edifices…..I am just rather curious as to the continued theme implied by “Lorenzo” in their titles…….however that is another story, bound, and no doubt legally constrained, by the statutes of several sea-faring national interests we will no longer speak of………

The Marujin was originally owned by the Vigo entrepreneur, Enrique Lorenzo Docampo, a businessman who, like so many of his time started with little and worked his way to fortune, first graduating from art school, then working in the Port and later emigrating to Argentina. Enrique returned to Spain in 1915 at 23 and started a workshop making and repairing steamship boilers

By the 1920’s the workshop, known as “La Vulcano” had 40 workers, branching into railway engine boilers in the ‘30’s and elevating Enrique to become a figurehead of local industry and bringing with that wealth and position. In 1941 Enrique and his chief engineer Florencio Garcia de la Riva established a shipyard, initially repairing wooden hulled ships but launching its own steel hulled vessel in 1948 (VigoEmpresa.com “ENRIQUE LORENZO DOCAMPO MEMORY OF A GREAT VIGUES AND UNIQUE MAN” Online Resource: https://www.vigoempresa.com/enrique-lorenzo-docampomemoria-de-un-gran-vigues-y-hombre-singular/ Accessed 18/05/2022). Enrique never forgot his origins, his factory workers were treated well, Enrique funded a co-operative where the Vulcano Factory workers could take out interest free loans to buy houses, and jobs at Vulcano were considered as lifelong, Enrique seems to have been a man of the people, with a philanthropic side, eventually becoming President of the local provincial council

There has been plenty of confusion surrounding the builders of the Marujin, several dive sites and wreck websites continue to state she was built in the Vulcano yards by Enrique’s company, Enrique Lorenzo y Compania, however Lorenzo ordered her built “for” his company, rather than by his company, the reasons seem lost in time, perhaps hidden away in an archive somewhere to this day? The pictures of her launch are distinctly that of the Astano yard, the two buildings noticeable behind the launch party are a clear match for the drawing of Astilleros depicting the yard as it stood in 1943, and even hinting at the sliding doors in the centre of the building. Pictures of the Vulcano yard in the same era would not have had any resemblance as the slipways were not estuarine, as in those at Astillero, but open sea shore at Vulcano. The launch photos of the Marujin also confirm the shipyard slipway at Astillero, the opposite shore of the Perlio river in Fene being clearly visible and again, not in any way resembling the slips of Vulcano. If that is not sufficient for you then the local history of Fene (fenecom.blogspot.com) has the Marujin as Astano yard no NC 007 (although distinctly more Sean Connery’s “Bond” era than Daniel Craig’s)……..

It seems the confusion is easily understood as the current web-site for the Vulcano yard in Spain (Vigo) has a picture of the Marujin docked (see the photo below titled “Marujin Loading at Dockside c1948”) in its “Historical Builds” section (Factorias Vulcano: http://www.factoriasvulcano.com/en/construcciones-historicas “Historical Builds” 1948 Marujin. Online resource: Accessed 25/05/2022) which states: “In 1948, the first vessel built with a 50 metre long steel hulk cargo ship, the MARUJÍN, was delivered.” The key to the confusion being the translation which has the Marujin both “built” and “delivered” the root, it would seem, of the confusion, both in and of itself. Wikipedia does not help as the entry for the Vulcano yard under the 1940’s decade entry (Wikipedia. Online Resource: https://es.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Factor%C3%ADas_Vulcano_S.A.&action=edit&section=2 Accessed 10/06/2022) states “At the end of this decade, specifically in 1948, the Marujín cargo ship, 50 meters long, was launched. The ship was commissioned by Enrique Lorenzo himself and was later sold to Naviera Condal.” Although again there is no mention of “built” or “constructed” in the translation, however, it does rather imply Enrique Lorenzo commissioned the Marujin from his own Vulcano yard……..

I asked both the shipyards directly, to confirm the Marujin construction with documentary evidence, I remained convinced that the Marujin was built and launched out of the Astano Yard in 1945, and that any work on her associated with the Vulcano yard was, at most, outfitting, or perhaps enhancement. There is a good case for such work to have been carried out as the Marujin started life as a steamship, and was later converted to Oil, as Enrique’s Vulcano yard at Vigo began life making boilers for rail engines and work barges, it would not be inconceivable it was the Vulcano yard that converted the Marujin to a Heavy Oil fired engine, however it seems that did not take place until c1967

I was delighted when I received an e-mail from Ainhoa Leal Diaz, the documentation librarian at The Exponav Foundation, custodians of the Astano Yard files. Ainhoa confirmed my belief that the Marujin was indeed designed and built at the Astano Yard as NC7 (Her sistership being NC6) of 1944, launched of course, June 22^nd 1945! “The ship you are asking about, the Marujín, was indeed built in the shipyard of Astano. This statement is supported by the following information:The existence of a document that contains a list of ships built in the shipyard; among them is the name Marujín together with its assigned construction number, NC7” I was very privilidged to be allowed to look through the archive of documents from the Marujin and her sistership Rosita Iglesias No2 and have been allowed to use a couple of the design arrangement drawings from the archive in this piece. The first is the hull blueprint which details the Marujin’s conservative lines and utilitarian draught

The second is the Steering Arrangement detail drawings showing the Marujin’s Stern Deck, Wheel-House, her quadrant and the steering linkages. The detail is excellent, as that presented in these drawings always is, they fascinate me and not only as a result of my early exposure to the Blue Funnel ships of my father’s years in the merchant navy, but as living history. There is something about the hand drawn nature of the blueprints which harks back to an age when people carried out the work rather than computers, now there is nothing wrong with computers, I wouldn’t be able to write these dives up were it not for my PC, but they are impersonal and technical tools, they are not the stuff of tangible physical remains, not hand drawn in inks and graphite’s by skilled human beings, but more the stuff of the ethereal more metaphysical and of the future. Perhaps I just feel more connected to the past than I do the future, perhaps as we age all of us do…….

It appears that in 1948 the Marujin was sold to the shipping company Naviera Condal owned by the Condeminas brothers, and based out of Barcelona. At this point she was renamed Condesito, the name she would carry until her eventual loss. The Condesito was re-registered in Barcelona and began sailing in territorial waters on national routes, (“The Little Count” https://www.sacaletatenerife.com/buceo-en-el-condesito/ Online Resource: Accessed 25/05/2022) “….on several occasions they were in the ports of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife although they also made frequent trips to the south” going as far as France and Italy. In February of 1970 the Condesito was again sold, this time for around 2.2M Pesetas, at that time around $38.6k, to Naviera La Palmense, becoming part of a fleet of 7 vessels owned by Filiberto Lorenzo de Honor

So, digging a little deeper into the maritime history of the Canaries and, specifically, Tenerife, it seems the final owner of the Condesito, Filiberto Lorenzo de Honor, was a figurehead and leading entrepreneur of marine trade on the island. Juan Carlos Diaz Lorenzo, writing in Puente de Mando in August of 2018: “For almost thirty years, the name of Filiberto Lorenzo de Honor was part of the maritime environment of the Canary Islands. Since the beginning of the 1960s, he had become the most important of the 20th-century cabotage palm shipowners” (Diaz J. C. “Protagonists of the Sea: The Palmero Shipowner Filiberto Lorenzo de Honor 1911-1999” Puente de Mando Online Resource: https://www.puentedemando.com/el-armador-palmero-filiberto-lorenzo-de-honor-1911-1999/ Accessed 17/05/2021) It is easy to imagine the man himself from the description of Juan Carlos Diaz Lorenzo, a wild child refusing to be constrained by established dogma, and at 9 years old, on the run from school and fascinated by his father’s contacts as a provisioner of local shipping, stowing away on the steamer Viera y Clavijo and ending up as cabin boy and deck hand…….. These were very different days than the cossetted age we find ourselves in today, an age where adventure was still available, even if, in an era where the sun had actually begun setting on the empire, and some of the colonies were actually in open revolt

Filiberto sailed with various steamers, from 1920 the Viera y Clavijo and over the next 20 years others owned and run by the Compañía de Vapores Correos Interinsulares Canarios, then in 1930 with the Compañía Trasmediterránea ending up on Álvaro Rodríguez López’s ship “Sancho II” having become an accomplished ship’s cook by that time. Filiberto changed direction at that point and took up running a hotel in La Palma, it may have been the needs of his hotels and those of his peers and his knowledge of the local steamers and their trades, but something pushed Filiberto into ship ownership. Starting small with a motor-sailer in 1947 Filiberto eventually built a small fleet of ships whilst acting as shipping agent for Naviera La Palmense in Santa Cruz de la Palma, by this time, 1955, his fleet comprised of 7 vessels, Guadarrama, Compostelano, Tío Pepe, Airoso, Aranguín, Nicolás Lafuente and Manen

Right up until the 1970’s Filiberto operated his fleet adapting to the emerging requirements of the islands in typical entrepreneurial style, if it was sand required, his ships carried sand, if it was fresh fish, he acquired refrigerated ships, if it was trucks, Filiberto would make use of the tides and ingenuity to off-load using “thick wooden planks” in the absence of cranage (Diaz J. C. “Protagonists of the Sea: The Palmero Shipowner Filiberto Lorenzo de Honor 1911-1999” Puente de Mando Online Resource: https://www.puentedemando.com/el-armador-palmero-filiberto-lorenzo-de-honor-1911-1999/ Accessed 17/05/2021), these were indeed “different times” as Juan Carlos Diaz Lorenzo has it, quoting Filiberto himself “That was – Filiberto himself recalled -, on the one hand, ignorance and on the other, the desire to make money.”

By 1970 Filiberto’s son, also Filiberto, was now manager of the fleet and bought several ships to supplement it, one of which was the Condesito, acquired in 1970 from the Naviera Condal Company of Barcelona. The Condesito would now find herself shipping cargoes under the ownership of Naviera La Palmense, for Americans, leased out at $300 per day to carry “provisions and water from the palms of Gran Canaria to different farms in the areas of Tarfaya and Agadir. (Morocco).” That wasn’t the only cargo she carried as it is also noted she carried “tubes” and “dynamite” although what type of tubes is not distinct and might easily have been anything from tyres to water pipes. The routes the Condesito sailed broadened too, she would now not only call at Las Palmas, Los Cristianos and Santa Cruz, but wider afield from Barcelona to  the Levant (Istanbul), Spanish Sahara, the Canaries and Cape Verde, adventurous, perhaps even ambitious for a modest 43M, 28 year old veteran coaster…….. 

 The evening of September 27, 1973 should have been no different than any other for the Condesito, she had sailed from the Arguineguin cement factory at El Pajar, Gran Canaria, with full holds of bagged cement, intended to help expand the tourist hotels and infrastructure, and desperately needed to meet the demands of the ever increasing tourist trade on the island of Tenerife. The Condesito was approaching the port at Los Cristianos in what some say was a storm, there are conflicting reports of the events, some describe Condesito colliding with the rocks in the Punta Rasca area, just a mile from her final destination, some suggest the crew abandoned the vessel deliberately, with her insurance to claim, and still others argue that her steering failed and that drove her onto the rocks. I can find no mention of a storm in September of 1973 in the Los Cristianos area, that does not mean a local storm did not occur, there are limitations to any non-native trying to identify events, especially with no local contacts to provide an insight to those long lost news sources from the day, more so as that person is also not a Spanish speaker ………  On the realisation the Condesito was floundering, Local fishermen and maritime services tried to save her, but it seems nothing could be done for the Condesito, she ended up firmly stuck on the rock outcrops of Punta Rasca. The remaining crew, although there is no mention of who or indeed how many, abandoned the Condesito on the morning of the 28^th of September of 1973, when those attempting to save the ship became convinced she might break her back. It only took a few hours more before Condesito lost her fight for survival and slipped beneath the seas where she lies today, broken, and abandoned, save by those she draws in to dive her……….

I dived the Condesito with some of FSAC who had joined me and my family for an early sun seeking dive break April of 2005. As I recall it there was Tracy, Jim, Rob and myself and we used Calipso Diving on the recommendation of Jason, one of my Divemasters and his then girlfriend Nerina, both of whom had moved out to work for Calipso as dive guides for a couple of years, but were back in the UK at the time to see relatives.  My Navy Log records “07/04/05 TENERIFE “Condesito” Los Cristianos Ten minute rib ride out to the right of a small harbour near Los Galetas, past the cactus and palm farm. Spent 15 mins in the gullys with all kinds of small tropical fish – most notable were the pipe-fish the biggest I’ve seen at near 1m long. Some smaller ½ m Barracuda & plenty of Urchins & their small black & blue fish. The Condesito was carrying cement & ran aground near the shore, broken & battered- no bows just the stern but wonderfully sited & a photographers dream. Plenty to get inside for & well worth a few more dives Air In 230 Out 90 Buddy Tim”

Another of my rather short descriptives, lacking much in detail considering I really liked this wreck which I remember quite vividly as being lit marvelously whilst we dived her. She only sits at the deepest in 25 or so meters of water, and the light dances on her making her a very picture perfect wreck. I recall her hull being broken but still in line with her stern at the time and much of it still vertical, there being a host of small fish sheltering amongst the debris

I enjoyed the dive at the time but looking at modern pictures of her she was not as broken when we dived her, I recall more of her hull being upright along her length at least, and her engine not being as exposed as it clearly is more recently. I cannot remember the boiler being exposed to the same extent either, so I have a picture in my mind of more of her structure being almost intact along her hull. Clearly time makes a difference, the photos here are more likely 2020 or so and our dive was a good 15 years earlier, it is hardly strange that she has become far more broken than I recall

Whatever the condition of the Condesito now, she is still an interesting wreck, the opportunities to get in and around her clearly a lot safer than when more of her hull was intact. There was only the one opportunity to dive her at the time, we had another, deeper wreck to visit the next day, so our dive was restricted by common sense and was limited to runs around her and, even then the limited penetration that might have been rewarding on the day, went unmentioned in my log. I recall mainly the deck, and the gully she lay in as dive runs, I remember her prop and rudder, vaguely, but can’t see any sign of them on the shots I can find on the websites and, sadly, Jason has nothing in his photo archive on the little wreck we enjoyed in the flashing of sun-beams, dancing in the shallow gully we found Condesito resting in that April morning in 2005

As ever this piece would not be as complete as it is without the help and generosity of those who have contributed to it. My personal thanks go to Harry Bakker of Aquarius Diving in Tenerife www.aquarius-divingtenerife.com for the use of his excellent photos, and to Ainhoa Leal Diaz of the Exponav Foundation www.exponav.org for the information, launch photos and blueprints of the Marujin used in the piece

His Majesty’s Submarine HMS M2

HMS M2 was one of four Monitor Class submarines ordered for the Royal Navy in the latter years of World War 1, in fact only one of those ordered would ever see service during that war, HMS M1, a submarine fitted with a single large gun, as all of the class were first intended to be. The use of such a weapon on a submarine platform seems odd today and perhaps was so even back in the day. The logic seems to have been a surface attack using a large gun was far more likely to result in the sinking of an enemy ship than an experimental torpedo, before the start of World War 1 in 1914 there had not been a recorded successful attack from a submerged weapon since the American civil war, when a charge was, literally, rammed into the side of the Yankee USS Housatonic by the Confederate submarine H L Hunley, in February of 1864 (Clive Cussler in Hicks. B: “Sea of Darkness: Unraveling the mysteries of the H. L. Hunley” ISBN-10 1938170601. Spry Publishing LLC, Mar 2015)

The role the M Class submarines, of which only 3 were ever completed, were intended for was as replacements for the last of the obsolete “K” Class steam powered submarines, the M Class being Diesel Electric and far more efficient than their steam predecessors. The weapon platform was operated at near surface depth, the sighting of the gun being crude to the point of “line of sight”. It seems the drill was to achieve periscope depth, line up to the target, and then rise until the gun was out of the water to fire. An absurd sequence considering if the first shot was unsuccessful, or further targets were observed, the sub had to surface to re-load. It must have come as a complete and devastating shock to the admiralty when, in September of 1914 the German U Boat U21, commanded by Kapitanleutnant Otto Hersing, sank the British Light Cruiser HMS Pathfinder off the Firth of Forth in Scotland, becoming the first submarine in history to sink a ship with a self-propelled torpedo

Perhaps it was the outdated concept of operation that doomed the M Class submarine as a weapon platform, perhaps it was the perfecting of the self-propelled torpedo, and the pace of progress in war, outdating the design of the M Class submarines that demanded the Admiralty stopped thinking of submarine warfare as somewhat underhand, and even ungentlemanly (if that even registers in terms of global conflict)? Then again, perhaps it was the fate of the M1, lost in a collision whilst submerged on an exercise in 1925 (only 7 years after the end of WWI and a mere 14 before the outbreak of WWII in 1939), when the Swedish merchant vessel SS Vidar struck her gun, knocking it from its hull mount and opening the hull to water ingress, flooding her and sending her to the bottom of the Channel off Plymouth with all hands lost? Whatever the reason, two of the three M Class submarines were assigned to other roles and their guns removed M2 becoming a submersible aircraft carrier, M3 becoming a minelayer and M4, still under construction was scrapped before completion

The M2 had started life in 1916, from an admiralty order for four K class submarines an order that increased to 17 (6 were built at Vickers & one, K26, a joint Vickers/Chatham build) which was later changed to an order to build to a new Diesel Electric design, and the Vickers Barrow In Furness yard converted K17, 18, 19, (K27 & 28 were cancelled Vickers orders) into “M” Class Diesel Electric Submarines, M4 (K21) was an Armstrong Whitworth build when cancelled & scrapped in build (K+M Class Submarines. Online resource:  http://www.gwpda.org/naval/ks000001.htm Accessed: 20/04/2022). Of these K class submarines it would be K19 that would become the M2, originally fitted with the 12” 40 Calibre Mark IX Gun, as were all 3 of the completed M Class submarines, M2 also had four 182 torpedo tubes as standard. For those of you who love the technical specifications:

So why was M2’s gun removed and for what reason was she fitted with an aircraft hangar and a stowable aircraft? The initial role of the M Class submarines was supposed to be coastal bombardment, appear out of nowhere and shell coastal batteries defending approaches to harbours and strategic coastal cities, I imagine Gallipoli and the Dardanelles were still in the minds of some at the Admiralty at the time of contract, an enemy submarine appearing off Constantinople and shelling the city, or its defences, might have been the final straw that could have turned the campaign around completely. Anecdotal evidence from the time says the Turks were within 8 hours of fleeing to the hills, in truth there is a quote from one of the senior Turkish Generals to that effect from the day (which despite some hours of looking for it I cannot get my hands on it so you will have to take my word for it until I stumble across it again!), suffice to say there was at least some merit in the proposed concept of operations

There was perhaps more merit in the role of commerce raider, a submarine challenge to the supply chains of Germany, surfacing when steamers were inbound and fully laden with war supplies, or bringing imported goods for retail and much needed food supplies for civilian and military uses. Neither role would be undertaken by the remaining M Class submarines, they were not completed in time to see service during the First World War, and would spend their time on exercise or flying the flag for Britain around the world as a show of strength and sea power. Following the loss of M1 in 1925 both M2 and M3 were taken out of service, the Admiralty no longer confident the huge guns were of any use, nor the roles realistic. M2 had her gun removed and was modified to carry an observation plane in a hangar, M3 re-designed to undertake mine laying duties, the large platforms of the M Class seemingly ideal to take such dramatic changes in purpose and function, but still able to submerge and manoeuvre in the anonymity of the sub surface world

The idea of a submarine equipped with a spotter plane might seem odd, it was certainly a novelty at the time and, on her completion in 1927, it propelled M2 into the headlines across the world. The basis of the need might be a little less evidenced, however the concept of a submarine, ahead of the main battle fleet, surfacing out of the depths and launching a lead spotter plane to look for enemy shipping, or potential enemy threats to the battle fleet, clearly has its attractions. The practicalities of such a submerged operation were not insurmountable, the stowing, launching, and recovery of such an aircraft posed significant problems. The aircraft would have to have foldable wings to reduce its width, it would have to be light enough to take off in a very limited distance, and from a potentially unstable platform, after all, submarines were not the largest craft even given the size of the M Class, and they were prone to rolling from side to side in anything other than mild swells

The M2 re-design, proposed by Greenwich in 1916, would take almost the entire width of the Sub’s pressure hull and have a distinctive domed appearance being slightly narrower at the hull joint. There would be a Jib above, capable of a 180’ pivot across the hull to facilitate the recovery of the aircraft back onto the vessel following a flight. The plane would require pontoons to enable it to land back on the sea and position itself for recovery. Perhaps the most challenging of the problems surrounding carrying an aircraft on the submarine would relate to its stowage and deployment. Lift of any aircraft is dependent on the surface area of the wing in relation to its weight and engine power, to fit the available space of the hangar the wings had to be stubby, and they had to fold back on the hull to narrow the planes stowed cross section, that limited the lift generated and, combined with the size and power of the engine, affected the take-off potential significantly. It would take the ingenuity of perhaps the first aircraft catapult launch system, and definitely the first submarine mounted steam launch catapult, to finally ensure the specially designed Parnall Peto bi-plane could take off from its ground breaking submarine platform

The submarine and its hull could take the modification, the Chatham design proved that, the optimal space available when all the parameters had been calculated, gave the plane its dimensions, and an aircraft manufacturer, George Parnall & Company, took on the design. The Parnall Peto began life as prototype N181, built to Air Ministry Specification 16/24 which described a “Submarine Bourne Reconnaissance Sea Plane” with general characteristics:

This gave George Parnall and his team another challenge as the intended crew was 2, this would allow an observer and a pilot, ideal for spotting missions, far from ideal when considering power to weight, to wing area, on a necessarily small aircraft. However, that was George Parnall’s speciality, probably why he was chosen to prototype the requirement in the first place? Parnall specialised in small aircraft and his answer, designed by Harold Bolas, the Parnall Peto, was exactly that. Harold Bolas, design engineer at Parnall’s, proposed a wood and fabric construction, strengthened with Aluminium and occasional Steel, it was originally powered by a Bristol Lucifer Engine giving out 128 Hp, with plywood floats. Graces Guide (Parnall Aircraft, Peto. Online Resource: https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Parnall_Aircraft Accessed 26/04/2022) has it that it was generally a success, however “….modifications were put in hand and the machine was rebuilt with new wings, metal floats and a 169hp AS Mongoose engine. Tests both on the sea and in the air showed that Bolas had fully met the requirements and it was officially judged to be exceptionally good”

The specification of the Parnall Peto gave it just about enough lift to ensure it could get off the ground, or in this case the M2’s hull, fly a spotting mission with its two occupants and get back to the submarine. This wasn’t an elegant solution it was one born of necessity….compact and bijoux Mostyn….compact & Bijoux

The land trials of the Peto had proven the concept, the steam catapult provided sufficient lift to launch the aircraft, and the jib would allow recovery. In 1927 the M2 had completed fit-out at Chatham and would now take to sea to undergo a more immediate and realistic sea trial, with swells, whitecaps, repetitive submerge and surface trials to check the seaworthiness of the submarine, and the execution of the concept of a stealth platform the like of which had never been seen before

Submarines had occasionally previously carried aircraft, the German U-Boat U12 had sailed to within 30 miles of the Thames Estuary carrying a Friedrichshafen FF29 strapped to its hull. However that was just floated off when the submarine dived, and the plane had to fly back to Zeebrugge itself following its mission over the South Coast. The M2 was an entirely new weapon, one that could appear out of nowhere, in the days before Sonar, deploy its spotter plane, and then lurk at periscope depth awaiting the plane’s return, before lifting it back aboard and sinking into the anonymity of the sea with its aircraft back safe in its hangar. Conditions aboard any submarine of the time were not ideal, there were two shifts of crew in order to carry out “watches” as in any naval vessel, and as a result space was at a premium, even more-so in a submarine than on a Battleship

The M2 seemed to perform well in her sea trials and the aircraft hangar maintained its watertight status throughout, drills became slicker, and the times taken to surface and deploy the tiny Parnall Peto improved with each new exercise. Perhaps the M Class had finally found its place amongst the submarine fleets of the Admiralty, perhaps wars had become far less “gentlemanly” and now, of necessity, were going to be far more clandestine affairs

Deploying the Parnall Peto quickly, in order to maximise the element of stealth and avoid chance encounters with enemy ships, meant preparing her before the submarine was surfaced “The crew of 5 squeezed into the watertight hangar and electric heaters warmed the engine oil.  On the surface, the lowered hangar door was part of the launching ramp and the Peto was pushed onto the ramp and the engine started.  The aircrew climbed aboard as the wings were being unfolded and the sub turned into wind” (Subaeronautical Tales, Para 4. Online Resource: https://www.a-e-g.org.uk/subaeronautical-tales.html Accessed: 01/05/2022). To ensure readiness 24/7, there were two teams of flying crew, and to maintain and launch the aircraft there were 5 mechanics/crew aboard the M2

Contemporary comments have the deployments of the aircraft at around 5 minutes from surfacing. It seems the period between the 1927 conversion completion and 1932 were a continual round of exercises and trials and, on January 26^th of 1932, it seemed just another exercise when M2 and her crew left Portland, in the company of another submarine, to take part in an exercise in the bay area off Chesil Beach

The M2 had sent a radio message at 10:11 that morning to her surface ship the Titania, to announce she would dive at 10:30 (Aviation Safety Network “ASN Wikibase, Occurrence #210792” Online Resource:  https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/210792 Accessed: 01/05/2022). By a twist of fate the M2 had been seen by a passing vessel, the coaster Tyneside, on her way in to dock at Portland:  “That afternoon the coaster Tynesider put in to Portland where the captain told a man at the coaling wharf that he had seen a submarine dive stern first that morning. Later he had seen a surfaced submarine enter Portland and assumed it must have been the same boat. The Tynesider then sailed on to Gravelines and it was not until the evening that the M2 was reported overdue and a search began” (Rod Arnold “The Dugout” Issue 20 May 2020 “M Class Submarines” P19, Para 1. Online Resource: https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/media/11774/dugout-20.pdf Accessed: 01/05/2022)

Nothing more would be seen or heard of the M2 until divers located her hull in 30m of water on the 03^rd February, following extensive searches of West bay, the M2’s last known location. It seemed the M Class of submarines was ill fated, perhaps just like the K Class before them, all further M Class operations were stopped by the Admiralty and Ernest Cox, famed for the Scapa Flow German High Seas Fleet Recovery Operation, was hired to bring the M2 back to the surface to discover what had gone wrong and sent her to the bottom

When Divers located the M2 30m deep in Portland Bay, the hangar door was found to be open, the Parnall Peto was still in its hangar, and several of her hatches were open, what had gone wrong? The two most often proposed scenarios cover the most likely causes, firstly that the hangar door was opened before the submarine had properly surfaced. The second most likely scenario is that the stern hydroplanes, the method the submarine uses to pitch its bow down and drive the hull under the water to submerge, failed in some way causing the submarine to flood the hangar and the main of the hull

There is a third, perhaps less palatable explanation too, if the captain of the Tyneside, who presumably had not seen an M Class submarine before, had identified the stern as the bow……and you will perhaps agree, from a distance the conning tower of the M2 gives the impression the hangar is located behind it…….then the M2 was actually diving as usual, with the hangar doors not fully closed, or worse, the hangar doors failed as the M2 dived and flooded her through the hangar

Apparently there were procedural issues from the outset, the manner in which the M2 maintained her launch state on the surface was unusual, “High pressure air tanks were used to bring the boat to the surface in an awash condition, but to conserve compressed air compressors were then started to completely clear the ballast tanks of water by blowing air into them. This could take as long as 15 minutes to complete. The normal procedure for launching the aircraft was therefore to hold the boat on the surface using the hydroplanes whilst the hangar door was opened and the aircraft launched” (Aviation Safety Network “ASN Wikibase, Occurrence #210792” Online Resource:  https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/210792 Accessed: 01/05/2022)

As far as I can make out the writer of the piece (apologies if I am in error with this), Dr John Smith, makes the conclusion that, if the M2 was using this method to hold surface, then a failure of the hydroplanes would have forced the stern down and dragged the submarine under, as the captain of the Tyneside said he observed, until the hangar flooded and the M2 was beyond saving. There is no doubt the sinking of the M2 could have been caused by a combination of factors, an attempt to improve deployment times, mechanical issues, or just plain human error, whatever the real reason it is unlikely we shall ever truly know exactly how she ended up on the sea bed

The attempts to salvage the M2 were unsuccessful, even Ernest Cox couldn’t get her to the surface, although he came very close, reaching a couple of meters from the surface on one occasion, the weather hindered every attempt and the equipment available to Cox clearly was not up to raising a flooded submarine, from 30m in a series of sets of increasingly bad weather conditions, “The process of making HMS M2 ready for lifting was dogged with a number of severe setbacks. These included bad weather and the parting of the lifting “camels” from the wreck. In fact a total five different attempts were made to raise HMS M2 and they all ended in failure. Finally, in December 1932, plans to salvage the wreck were abandoned.” (Innes McCartney “Lost Patrols: Submarine Wrecks of the English Channel No 3/21, HMS M2 – Aircraft Carrier” P82). In December of 1932 the M2 was finally allowed to rest where she sits today, in Portland Bay. Whatever the reason, the M2 was the final loss of an M Class submarine, the Admiralty could not ignore the repeated failures, and would not tolerate the continued losses, the M Class was abandoned and all remaining craft sold for scrap, including the (up-to that point), successful minelayer M3. M2 is the final, tragic resting place of 58 of her crew, a living memorial to the arms race of the inter-war years, and the ultimate sacrifice of 60 sailors in the service of their country

I dived the M2 in April of 2004 and was lucky enough to have a student with me taking some video, the quality of the video isn’t up to today’s HD standards, but it was early days for your average diver to have a video set-up, it was early days for Brad filming too, but you can see what he shot later in this piece. My Navy Log records: “M2 Portland Dorset  Good descent to the hull with viz @ 5-6m and plenty of life – a great Lobster which came out to play fearlessly! The wreck is splendid with dead man’s fingers everywhere & intact throughout. The bow is odd with cut-outs in the centre. The hangar is silted but we entered for 2 – 3 m then went round the rails & then the conning tower area before ascending. The masts are still in place – remarkably. Buddy Keith Air In 240 Out 100”

As usual, the description is brief noting the main points of the dive. Remembering the dive, I recall trying hard to work out what the launch system was, and how it would have worked, the steam piston tubes were still present but, apart from a basic understanding, the technical details were lost on me. The viz was not bad, it gave enough to see the area you were in, but not enough to get the scale of the wreck. I know I was surprised how long it took to reach the bow and circle back to the conning tower. The hangar was very silted on our dive and it would have been great to see it when cleared, perhaps there are even remnants of the Peto in all the debris blocking it? All I could think at the time was how tragic such an end would have been, I had no idea bodies had been recovered back then, believing there had been total loss. It is clear some tried to escape and, to have been caught in a hatch perhaps indicated the first to attempt to escape failed, and blocked the way for others behind them. At the time the Davis escape gear was a very new piece of kit, I wonder how many would have put faith in it, whatever the circumstances……but we will never truly know

You can watch the edited version of our dive on HMS M2 courtesy of Brad, Considering the conditions on the day it’s a good introduction to the wreck

As ever, the details included here have been supported by the research of others and, for the opportunity to stand on the shoulders of giants, I am indebted to: Dr Innes McCartney, Peter Mitchell (1947-2015) and the infinite resource of the “Tinterweb”

Want to see M2 launch & recover her Parnall Peto aircraft on Movietone News?

Rosalie Moller

The Rosalie Moller began life in 1910 as the steamer SS Francis, built for the Booth Line of Liverpool by the Clydebank shipyard Barclay, Curle & Company of Whiteinch, Glasgow. The Francis was built to be an intermediate Passenger & Cargo ship, her capacity sufficient to take economic loads whilst able to accommodate some passenger trade. The Francis had accommodation for 17 First Class passengers, 5 x 3 bed cabins and 2 x 2 bed cabins, these would most likely see senior executives of the Booth Line, transiting to Manaus and back, or its premiere customers, (Booth Line had several larger “Tourist” vessels, notably SS Hildebrand & SS Hilary and others… far more luxurious than the SS Francis, for larger scale tourism & Grand Tour purposes) and perhaps some senior managers and foremen, essentially upper management. The SS Francis also had accommodation for up to 76 passengers to her stern in the No 4 Hold area indicated as “steerage”, she was also, ahead of her time, fitted with a “Marconi House” for a telegraph

Barclay Curle & Company, shipbuilders, had a traditional Clydebank Shipyard, typical of the  Scottish opportunists of the Victorian era, a yard having begun with sailing ships and progressed to building Iron, and eventually steel hulled vessels, as the industrial steam age accelerated the industries of Great Britain in the late 18^th and early 19^th century. Founded in 1818, by John Barclay, the yard was successful and, when John died in 1845 the sailing-ship business was taken over by his son, Robert, who took James Hamilton and Robert Curle into partnership as Robert Barclay and Curle. The name changed again in 1863, when Robert Barclay died, becoming Barclay, Curle and Co

The SS Francis was a typical ship of her time, a triple expansion steam engine driving a single propeller shaft, producing some 400 or so nominal horsepower, and giving her a top speed of 11 knots. The Francis was a workhorse, reliable, well designed, and using dependable technology, in order to ensure the Booth Line many years of service, hauling Leather and Rubber in her Four spacious holds, configured Two to her For’ard and another Two to her Aft. The Francis was a good looking, utilitarian ship, economic but attractive in a kind of “industrial” sense, exactly what the Booth Line wanted for the long journey to Brazil and the colonies

Additional Details:

It would only be two years after the successful delivery to Booth Line (in 1912) that the Barclay & Curle Shipbuilding business would be taken over by Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, including the Clydeholm and Elderslie shipyards and dry docks, and the dry docks in Govan. You might remember Swan Hunter Wigham & Richardson built the Port Napier, another Clyde wreck on this site……..another 6 degrees of separation!

Barclay Curle & Co had begun making their own engines in 1857, they were Steam driven, largely triple expansion engines from what I can determine. The SS Francis was certainly fitted with a triple expansion engine, and it was one of Barclay & Curles’ own designs with an output of 401 horsepower, the boiler likely of the Inglis Marine design of 1909, illustrated in the Barclay & Curle trade advert from Graces’ Guide (Grace’s Guide: “Barclay, Curle & Co” illustration 3 “Inglis Marine Boiler”. https:// www.gracesguide.co.uk/ Barclay,_Curle_and_Co Accessed: 09/01/2022) shown below

Triple Expansion engines work by passing steam (from boiling water), under pressure, into a chamber containing a piston, the “Triple Expansion” method makes use of the highest pressure in the smallest cylinder first, the expanding (cooling) steam then passes into a second slightly larger (slightly lower pressure) cylinder, activating a second piston, and then finally the steam moves into the largest, lowest pressure cylinder where it activates a third piston. Following the expansion, or driving, cycle the remaining steam is passed into a condenser which re-cycles it back, as water, to the boiler for re-use. If you want to see an example of a Triple Expansion steam engine sat on the sea-bed, then look up the video of the Torpedo Alley wreck “Caribsea”, which will eventually be loaded on this site………….  Craig and I get to swim around the engine from the Steamer Caribsea, in the Atlantic, on the North Carolina coast, and it gives you some idea of a smaller sized triple expansion steam engine, and offers some perspective of scale  

The Clydeside shipyards mostly relied on the heavy lift cranes at Glasgow Harbour, at the western end of Plantation Quay, for fitting engines, transmissions, and the larger plant into the ships they constructed. The first built was the Clyde Villa Crane, capable of lifting up to 130 tons. (“Finnieston Crane, History” Online Resource:  https://www.scotlandguides.org/tour/finnieston-crane-glasgow-3281.htm Accessed: 18/11/2021) installed in the 1890s in Princes Dock, in front of Govan Town Hall

A sister crane (The Finnieston Crane) was located a bit further upriver on the site now occupied by the City Inn. These cranes would eventually be complimented by “Titan” cantilever cranes, luckily Scotland is proud enough to have kept these reminders of their shipyard history, and examples of the Titans can still be seen alongside the Barclay, Curle & Company buildings and in the Glasgow port

The SS Francis owners, Booth line, were trading in Leather exports, Rubber imports and passenger routes between Liverpool and the Amazon basin. In 1910 the global rubber trade centered around Manaus, 94% of the substance originated from the Amazon region, Amazonia, and this was shipped via the River Negro (Rio Negro) primarily by the Booth Line, the most significant traders in Amazonia, with palatial offices in the town that would not have looked out of place in any British city, typical statement edifices, not unlike those in the City Centre of Liverpool itself

Discovered by Spanish explorers in 1499, the mouth of the Amazon River is 70 odd miles wide, Francisco Orellano sailed it in 1542 and it was settled at Sao Jose de Rio Negrinho in 1699 (“Port of Call, Manaus” Middlemiss, N. Oct 2021 in “Features” Online Resource:  https://www.shippingtandy.com/features/manaus/ Accessed: 20/11/2021). “…….the Rio Negro and Solimoes rivers that combine to form the mighty Amazon leading eventually to the sea. The black waters of the Rio Negro form a black diving line with the brown waters of the Solimoes at the junction, and do not mix together for many miles downstream” The situation and environment conjures scenes from the Roland Joffe film The Mission, not a million miles from the exploration and early settlement of the Amazon Basin, and the challenges met on the Rio Negro I imagine?

Manaus, the capital of the Amazonas State of Brazil, is situated in the heart of the Brazilian rainforest 900 miles inland from the Atlantic coast in an area colloquially known as the “Amazon Basin”…..There is another more descriptive name for the area….”inferno verde” which translates as “green hell’. There were two million square miles of tropical rainforest in the Amazon Basin in 1900, with an average temperature of 25’c, the Rio Negro and its tributaries feed the Amazon River and, as Manaus is only 302 feet above sea level, navigation from the distant South Atlantic using both rivers, allows travel to Manaus by vessels such as the SS Francis. There are two floating wharves in Manaus’ Port (Paredao and Malcher). The Paredao has four deep sea inside and outside berths, the Malcher floating platform is for river passenger craft and fishing boats. The snows of the high Andes melt and flood the Rio Negro in February and March, receding in June. A record 29.97 metres was recorded at Manaus in 2012, (ebb level of 13.63 metres) a range of almost 16m, as a result all waterside properties in Manaus were built on stilts

Founded in 1866 by Alfred & Charles Booth, “Alfred Booth and Company” was a British trading and shipping enterprise, born in Liverpool, that would eventually trade for more than a century. The company was managed well, and grew to become a significant merchant shipping company, with commercial interests in the United States and South America, specifically, in the time of the SS Francis, Brazil and the Amazon Basin

Liverpool, in Victoria’s reign, was a thriving hub of empire, it was also a centre of industrial development, seeing the birth of the railways of Great Britain, the transition from wooden sailing ships, to Iron, and then Steel hulled steamships, and the immense wealth associated with global trade and commerce. Alfred and Charles Booth worked together at Lamport and Holt Shipping Company in Liverpool, they were cousins of the owner, and co-founder of Lamport & Holts, William Lamport. In 1851 Lamport, transferred shares in the SS Nile, a cargo steamship, to Charles Booth and George Holt. Booth, and Holt’s father, later took minority shares in another of Lamport’s steamships, the Orontes, meaning Charles Booth had shares in the Nile and one in the Orontes. In yet another of those 6 degrees of separation George Holt would, with his brother, Alfred, eventually establish the Blue Funnel Line in Liverpool

In 1862 Charles Booth joined his eldest brother Alfred, and invested part of the £20,000 his father (also Charles) had bequeathed to each of his 5 children, on his death, in the construction of two steamships, the Augustine and the Jerome. The Booth brothers’ acumen grew the Booth Steamship Company, slowly building up a substantial fleet, to carry merchandise to and fro across the Atlantic. The enterprise was very successful, becoming a huge concern which had interests in many countries, especially the Amazon River trade of Brazil. Charles Booth was also something of a radical in his time, he was a philanthropist and champion of the poor, devoting 17 years to the study, and detailed reporting, of the grievous social conditions suffered by the Victorian working classes in London. Booth, pictured above in an unusual manner for the time (perhaps specifically to emphasize his “difference” from traditional Victorian gentry), shows him in an almost scruffy, casual pose, tie somewhat adrift, aloof, but with piercing, if distant stare

Charles Booth funded his own research, and his business interests, throughout those years and tirelessly campaigned for the introduction of old age pensions, laying the foundations of Bevan’s welfare state through the influence of the “Beveridge Report” of 1942 on “social insurance and allied benefits” where the post war “home for Hero’s” was supposed to become reality, and the rhetoric espoused nirvana,  “Now, when the war is abolishing landmarks of every kind, is the opportunity for using experience in a clear field. A revolutionary moment in the world’s history is a time for revolutions, not for patching.” (National Archives: “The Beveridge Report and the foundations of the Welfare State” Online Resource: https:// blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk /beveridge-report-foundations-welfare-state/ Accessed 19/11/2021) Charles would remain Chairman of the Booth Line until 1912. Charles Booth retired and passed the chairmanship to his nephew (Charles Booth 1868 – 1938) in 1912, however, in 1915 he returned to help the company get through the First World War, but sadly died in November of 1916 before the war ended. Charles memorial is on a tablet in St Paul’s Cathedral:

By 1914 the Booth Line fleet had more than 30 ships, 11 were requisitioned for war service, Booth Line lost 9 to enemy action, by 1919 only 18 ships remained. There were no more ships built between 1919 and 1927, a ship was purchased from Germany, perhaps the war office reparations fleet, re-named Dominic. The Booth Line renewed another 7 vessels and bought another second hand ship between 1928 and 1935, but in 1931, having given the Booth Line two decades and more of stirling service, between Liverpool and Brazil, with the demise of the India Rubber trade out of Manaus, the SS Francis was about to change ownership….. Not only was the Francis now 21 years old, but the route she had sailed, and the trade goods she had carried, were now dwindled to almost nothing. The monopoly on the rubber tree, (up until then only grown and harvested in the Amazon Basin and Brasilia’s) was broken when, In 1876, British traveler Henry Wickham stole (or exported, depending on your perspective), 70,000 seeds of “Hevea brasiliensis”, also known as the Para Rubber Tree, and seeded areas of Southeast Asia (including Ceylon (Sri-Lanka) and Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia), then under British Empire control), in order to break the Amazon monopoly and gain control of the product for Britain

By the 1920’s it was becoming less and less economically viable to trade rubber out of Manaus, “By the early twentieth century the economy of Manaus entered a downward turn, as managed plantations in Malaysia outperformed Brazilian forest extractors. Whereas in 1909 Amazonian rubber constituted 94% of the world supply, by 1918 it had fallen to 10.9%. The Amazonian rubber boom was over,” (“An End to Difference Imagining Amazonian Modernity at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century” 2018 Chernela, J & Periera, E. P28, Para 2. Online Resource: https:// anth.umd.edu/sites/anth.umd.edu/files/2018chernelaboom.pdfAccessed 14/11/2021). The monopoly the Amazon Basin held over rubber extraction had been effectively, and fatally broken, (“Rubber in Brazil: Dominance & Collapse, 1876-1945” Resor, R. R. Online Resource: https:// www.jstor.org /stable/3113637 Accessed 19/11/2021) “For the first few years of this century, Brazil was the major supplier of rubber to the world. However, the Amazonian wild rubber industry was unable to compete, in either price or quality, with the Asian plantation rubber that began to appear on world markets after 1906. Development of a successful plantation culture in the Amazon seemed imperative, but even with public subsidy, plantations remained an economic impossibility. By 1945 the Brazilian rubber industry, overwhelmed by Asian production, had virtually disappeared”

Chernela and Periera write a succinct and telling obituary on the rubber industry of the Amazon basin and the decline of Manaus as an exporter: “…..with no export commodity to replace rubber, the city entered a period of stagnation. The population contracted to a fraction of its former size, dependent for revenue on the export of a few raw forest products with limited markets” and the Booth Line stalwart the SS Francis was duly sold on to Nils Moller of Moller & Company Shipping, a Shanghai based Swedish Company

Nils Möller, a Swedish sailing-ship Captain, suffered the death of his first wife Jenny in 1859, the effect this had on him must have been very significant as it prompted him to sail his brigantine, the Osaka, to China looking for commissions (Online Resource: https://www.myheritage.com/site-186892972/moller Accessed 14/11/2021). Captain Moller not only found cargoes there, but must also have fared well, as he ended up in an argument with the Swedish government over the right to fly Swedish flags on his ships. It was apparently forbidden for a Swedish national, living abroad, to fly the Swedish flag, and that seems to have caused Nils to register his fleet of ships in Great Britain, more so, he removed the umlaut (double dot) from over his last name, presumably in anger or frustration, and declared himself a citizen of Shanghai!

Nils operated sailing ships from 1882 on the China routes and to Eastern Russia, Japan and the Philippines, sailing out of Shanghai, and he obviously liked the place, settling down and having two more families, one with Alethea Stephenson, and a later one with Hannah Clappison. In 1903 Nils’ two sons took over the business and it was registered as Moller Bros, in 1907 ownership was taken over by Eric Moller and the name changed to Moller & Company. In 1910 the Moller Co bought their first steamship, the same year the SS Francis was launched, Moller Line & Company prospered in Shanghai, opening several subsidiary companies and trading globally, until Moller shipping became the largest fleet of tramp traders in the China Seas, only ceasing to trade in the early 1980’s

The SS Francis was re-named the Rosalie Moller in the tradition of the Moller line, named after one of the Moller children although, to present date (20/11/2021), I can’t find which line of the family Rosalie Moller belongs to. In 1938 the Rosalie Moller was requisitioned by the Admiralty as a collier, transporting Welsh mined coal to a variety of UK Naval Ports. In 1939 she was running between Yokahama and Shanghai and Shanghai and Hong Kong, with occasional trips to Singapore and Haiphong. In December of 1939 The Rosalie Moller found herself directed from Singapore to Calcutta, a return journey which she would repeat in February, departing Singapore on the 22^nd Feb arriving in Calcutta on the 29^th  and returning to dock at Shanghai 27^th of March.  1940 heralded a change of scenery for the Rosalie Moller, there is no movement noted between April & September of 1940, and it is believed she was given a full overhaul around that time

In September of 1940 the routine for the Rosalie Moller changed, and her route was altered to put her in Alexandria, Egypt (via Singapore, Calcutta and Aden), at Port Said for the 12^th of November of 1940. From Alexandria she sailed to Columbo on the 22^nd of November arriving on the 22^nd of December from there she sailed to Sandheads Calcutta on Christmas Eve, arriving on the 31^st December and departing 15^th January 1941 when she sailed to Aden arriving on the 30^th. From Aden she journeyed to Alexandria arriving at Port said 18^th of March, after a quick turn-around the Rosalie Moller was dispatched via Mozambique, South Africa (@ Lourenço Marques, 19^th April), to Port Elizabeth, arriving on St George’s day, the 23^rd of April. It seems there were some repairs carried out there which completed on the 05^th May, not without the mention of “crew trouble”, however nothing more is noted, so what “trouble” that might have been is lost to history….

In July 1941 the Rosalie Moller was re-allocated to S.T.N.8, the Admiralty Collier Service, however it would not be until the 19^th of August that Rosalie Moller sailed again, this time to Durban, South Africa, arriving it seems on the 25^th of August, having been expected on the 21^st and there is a note of repairs in Port Elizabeth 18^th of August to 22^nd of August for some reason? Although she did not know it, it seems time was running out for the Rosalie Moller, her next assignment was to Capetown, 13^th of September, but again there is a note of repairs and dates of the 30^th August and 11^th of September, clearly something wasn’t right with Rosalie Moller, but whatever it may have been, she sailed again from Durban on the 11^th of September bound for Aden, arriving on the 28^th of September

Leaving Aden on the first of October for Alexandria, under the command of Australian Captain James Byrne, and laden with 4680 tons of coal, the Rosalie Moller was to use the Suez Canal to reach Alexandria on the 9^th October, but fate had other plans for her. A collision of ships elsewhere in the canal meant that Rosalie Moller was unable to transit the Suez Canal and was directed to “Safe Anchorage H, Towala” until the way was cleared

On 5th October 1941, German Intelligence reports believed the Queen Mary had been sighted in the area and dispatched 2 Heinkel HE111’s on a search and destroy mission. The Queen Mary had indeed been running from Suez to Trincomalee (Ceylon, modern day Sri-Lanka) under command of her master, Captain Irving. She had completed two trips, carrying troops and supplies, from the 16^th September to 23^rd September, and again from September 24^th to October 01^st…….but the Heinkel’s missed her…..

The Heinkel’s sent to find the Queen Mary were from Kampfgeschwader 26 (KG 26) which translates as bomber wing 26, the nickname of the group was “Löwengeschwader” or Lions’ Wing, taken from the insignia, although the translation reads more closely as “Lion’s Shield”. The Germans formed its Luftwaffe long before it was officially revealed in the Spanish Civil War, KG 26 were part of the then, newly formed, “flieger-Division” which included several different types of aircraft (also JU87’s, JU88’s and ME110’s) specific to different roles. The Heinkel HE111’s were bombers (designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter at Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in 1934), KG 26’s HE111’s were primarily anti-shipping aircraft, under the command of Generalleutnant Hans Geisler as of 03^rd September of 1939. Originally stationed in Germany as part of 10 Fliegerkorps, KG 26 was transferred to Norway in 1940, following the sinking of two of its own battleships, the Leberecht Maas and the Max Schultz (Operation Wikinger, February 1940), and then from Norway to Sicily in 1941 to support the Afrika Korps. Over the 17/18 January 1941, 12 of KG 26’s He 111s were sent to bomb the Suez Canal, however they did not have the range and 1. Gruppe lost seven machines to fuel starvation. On 31 January KG 26 sank the freighter Sollum and minesweeper Huntley, the unit also took part in missions over Malta, losing its first aircraft on 8 February 1941. Those of you who relish research can dig further into KG 26 in the book “Die Spur des Löwen” or “The trail of the lion” in English, (Alex Steenbeck) although it’s a challenge as the book is in German and there is no plan to release an English translation

Personally, I have a problem with the HE111’s as a presence in the Gubal straits, where Thistlegorm and the Rosalie Moller were anchored. As KG 26, 1. Gruppe had already seen (losing 7 aircraft in an attempt to bomb the Suez Canal earlier in 1941), the HE111, with a range of only 680 miles, could not have reached the Gubal area without re-fueling for the return or landing locally.  If the Luftwaffe records are accurate, and for the most part at that time of the war they were better than any allied records, the locations of the X korps KG 26 HE111’s in 1941 are tabled below (X Fliegerkorps in “Air Ministry A.H.B. 6 Translation of Enemy Documents” Online Resource: http:// www.ww2.dk/misc/obmed .pdf Accessed: 20/11/2021). The main of the HE111’s were at Comiso, a distance from Comiso airfield (on Sicily) to Gubal of 1,311 miles, one way. The only aircraft that could possibly have patrolled Gubal would have been those of St.G 3, based in Libya, which are anecdotal (in the comments column) to the records, giving no idea which airfield, how many there were, or from what Korps/Gruppe

Whichever Airfield was used, fate played out her hand, and the Heinkel’s sent to find the RMS Queen Mary on the 06^th of October found only the merchant vessel SS Thistlegorm, sat at anchor, awaiting a passage through Suez to Alexandria, and so they bombed her to the bottom of the Red sea on October 6^th 1941. It is said that the explosion from the Thistlegorm was so massive that it lit up the night sky, exposing another ship lying in Anchorage H, and in a final, bitter irony, the Heinkel’s spotted her and returned on the 8th October to send the Rosalie Moller to the sea bed

The only realistically achievable patrolling by HE111’s would be from Egyptian or Libyan airfields and, although those were sometimes available, they were constantly changing hands as the Allies overran strategic air-fields in offensive actions, or the Germans re-occupied airfields on counter-attacks. Even the authorities at the time had issues with the information available: “Sunk by Heinkel 111 bombers from No. 2 Squadron 26th Kampfgeschwader based in Crete bombing during night of 7-8/10/1941 at Anchorage “H”, Towala, Gulf of Suez (Durban for Alexandria with coal)(until 6/10 the Towala anchorages had been thought to be beyond the range of German bombers)” reported in many of the dive and steamship details for the SS Francis and Rosalie Moller alike, (“FRANCIS, Disposal Detail” Online Resource: http:// www.clydeships.co.uk/ view.php? ref=1616 Accessed 21/11/2021) I have trolled many archives, (the Air Ministry A.H.B 6 Translation, Henry deZeng’s “Luftwaffe Airfields 1935-45 Greece, Crete and the Dodecanese” (https://www.ww2.dk/Airfields%20-%20Greece%20Crete%20and%20the%20Dodecanese.pdf) and several Luftwaffe interest sites too),  but failed to come up with a plausible location for KG 26 to have attacked the anchorages at Gubal, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t KG 26 HE111’s that took down Thistlegorm & Rosalie Moller, it just means there are more pieces to fit in the puzzle!

Rosalie Moller was hit once, on her Starbord side between No4 and No3 hold, her cargo was coal, there was a high chance of a secondary explosion from accumulated dust, this was the Gubal area of Egypt and temperatures are always high, but there was no report of a secondary explosion and casualties were, thankfully, as low as could be hoped for in the circumstances, only two of the crew are noted to have died when Rosalie Moller went to the bottom, it is likely they were killed in the initial explosion

I first dived the Rosalie Moller in November of 2008, I had been told about her a couple of times by divers who compared her to the Thistlegorm, but said Rosalie was better than Thistlegorm. At the time I couldn’t take what was being said seriously, Thistlegorm was the most iconic wreck I had dived, the idea that the wreck of a Steamship, carrying a cargo of coal, could be better than Thistlegorm with all her splendor and variety was, to say the least, stretching my imagination….. But I would get to find out, Craig and I had just completed the “three dives in one” on Abu Nuhas, using nitrox to extend our dive times and keep the deco manageable, and Rosalie Moller was next up on the Liveaboard itinerary

The little Red Log was full, the Rosalie Moller was one of the first couple of wreck dives I wrote up in the Green Navy Log and it records: “26/11/08 ROSALIE MOLLER – EGYPT This is the second raid victim of the Thistlegorm saga being spotted by the returning Heinkel HE111 who went back the next day and sank her at anchor we dropped straight down to the prop which is very large with the stern & rudder making a great sight round the port side and up to mid ships to drop into the hold in front of the collapsed engine room. Sadly a diver died when this collapsed early in this year. We swam through into the next hold towards the bridge and then under the collapsed funnel. We went down the bridge deck corridor past the tool room and captains bath. Round over the stern & to the starbord bridge deck corridor and through that to pass over the holds & run to the mast and on to the bows. The bow winches and hatch covers are awesome looking back from the bow light post. Shoals of Glass fish all over the wreck being attacked by Trevally – lots of Fusiliers and other fish about – literally alive with fish. Back to the mast and then over the bridge to start deco an amazing dive a fantastic wreck. Air and 50% Buddy Nick”

I have to say, the sight of Rosalie Moller, appearing out of the blue haze as we descended the shot line, was impressive. Whilst Thistlegorm is a very damaged ship, a large area of her stern essentially blown off her hull, and a mass of tangled and rent metalwork where her cargo holds burst and her decking peeled back, Rosalie Moller is a complete ship, she looked as if she could have been sailed away, although her funnel lay over to her Port side the rest of her was just as she sank in October of 1941. As Rosalie is a deeper wreck we needed to see as much as we could without getting into too long a deco requirement. As is always the case, first dive on a new wreck is a tour and look around, we dropped to the prop first, it’s the deepest part of the wreck at 50m or so and, as always a main attraction of any wreck, Rosalie has a wonderful Prop & Rudder set amidships as can be seen in Derek’s photo. The return to her deck and subsequent tour is written up without much mention of the huge shoals of glass-fish we encountered and the multitude of life aboard her. Although Rosalie Moller has not a massive amount of soft or hard corals on her she teems with fish of small to mid-size, almost everywhere you go, but especially around her mast base, I have yet to see much in the way of the larger fish on her though

The superstructure is all there, Rosalie has great companionway swims for those diving her initially, and there is plenty of space in her holds to drop down a level to safely explore a little further too. The funnel, brought down by the most idiotic of skippers in 2001, in an attempt to pull the steam whistle away by tying a line to it and towing it off the funnel, now lies over to her Port side and you can look right down the length, it’s a temptation, and an effort not to try to swim through, but that’s another rather reckless thought considering the stiffeners within……  I loved Rosalie Moller more with every minute, it was beginning to be apparent why some considered her better than Thistlegorm, I still wasn’t sure of that at this point, but the complete nature of the wreck, the minimal damage (her No3 hold has the bomb hole which sank her and which would become an entry point in later dives on her) to her throughout, and the opportunities to see all of her as she had been on the day, a time-capsule, immediate and undeniable…..Rosalie Moller had made her impression on me

In 2010 I had the chance to dive Rosalie again, this was off the Tornado Fleet Vessel MV Hurricane, another great boat and one who’s captain was excellent, allowing us to choose our dive-sites within the areas he was scheduled to travel, there will be more on that in other wreck dives on here in the future…. But this was Rosalie Moller in April of 2010 and the Green Navy Log tells us “ Gubal Island “ROSALIE MOLLER” I love this wreck –tragically the stern mast is now down but still intact as the day she was hit by Heinkel HE 1111’s down the shot and along the starboard rails to the bow to 42m & then back up to the bow winches & into the forward hold along and between holds to come out on the deck just in front of the funnel across the bridge & along the starboard companionway & into the galley past the stove and out @ centre deck facing the stern passing a huge Lion Fish & tiny Peppered Moray. Dropping into the stern hold to cross and come out of the blast damaged deck & raise up onto the main deck again across the downed mast by the two huge winches & on up to deco for 29 mins Viz 10-15m buddy Craig Air In 200 Out 100” …….

I think by this time that if anyone had asked me which was my favourite Red Sea wreck it would be Rosalie Moller, the sheer exuberance of diving her, her near pristine condition, and the fact fewer divers dived Rosalie at that time would have been enough to swing it for me. I hated the fact that inconsiderate, no, moronic dive skippers were attaching their craft to such points as masts and funnels, rather than far stronger points such as mooring bollards. I hated the fact that after a mere 2 years the stern mast had been brought down, I hated the fact that someone was moron enough to try to drag a steam whistle off a funnel using a boat to try to wrench it away…….All these things, and far more, are really things that diving as an industry needs to address…… If any dive boat skipper was to do such things in the Great Lakes of Canada and the USA they would be prosecuted, small wonder there are still wooden wrecks with telegraphs and bells still in place in those lakes……what future is there for wreck diving in the Red Sea…….

My next dives on Rosalie Moller would be in 2013 and another amazing skipper, this time Blue O2 off “Melody” another excellent and modern Liveaboard with everything you could expect and great food too, no chance of coming back slimmer off this trip! But I digress… the Green Book says: “30/07/13 NIGHT DIVE – ROSALIE MOLLER- RED SEA! This is the first time I know that anyone has done a night dive on Rosie!! What a privilege it is! Down a shot to the No 4 hold at the stern then round the stern deck house along the starboard rail the full length of the ship with all the deck rails festooned with brittle star anemones & fan corals all out and blazing with colour the whole way. Past the holds to the Bridge deck accommodation & the lifeboat davits, past the winches & on to the bow over the fallen mast area & bomb damage to the bow deck house (chain locker) & over those to the bow itself then back to the main for’ard mast where the shot was for ascent. Great view of the bow as we ascended to deco & a whole sky of stars as we surfaced MAGICAL DIVE Air In 200 Out 100 Buddy Craig”   It should be clear by now that Rosalie Moller was without doubt my favourite dive, no two ways about that, she had just had an effect that still lasts to this day, if I could only dive one wreck ever again then, to this day, it would be Rosalie Moller. I should add that surfacing to a completely cloudless and beautifully moonlit sky, with the heavens lit across the whole horizon with tiny twinkling stars was like nothing on Earth….the feeling of being in the sea, but beneath the heavens on a tiny rock in one of, who knows how many Universes, was just……..well……..indescribable really, I truly lack sufficiently eloquent or profound enough words

The Captain of Melody asked if we would like to stay for a second dive the next morning or depart first thing, I don’t think a soul on board wanted to leave Rosalie Moller so the next morning, bright and early, we were back down to say farewell……. “ROSALIE MOLLER – RED SEA- A daytime return to the stern and first off the shot at No4 hold over the steering room & down the port side to go through the prop & rudder a run back over the starboard side to look and dive through the small galley (stove or bench) and then into the hatch to access the lower deck for a run from Port to No3 hold & across the decks to exit the bomb damage @ No ¾ hold. Through the blast hole & over the mast & deck to pick up the shot & deco out Air In 200 Out 100 Buddy Craig” This was one of those “Even better than that” Fast Show days as we managed to convince the captain to stay on Gubal until after lunch and allow us a third dive on Rosalie……could life get any better…… “31/07/13 Rosalie Moller – Red Sea Second day dive this time the bow area – down the bow shot to look at the Hawsed Port anchor then through the forecastle chain lockers & winch gear to drop down into No1 hold & pass through to No2 hold then up into the Bridge accommodation area, through the galley & workshop & across to the store & bunk rooms then out at the bridge front to do the funnel & the bridge roof before heading down the centre line over the midships & stern to deco on the stern shot – an excellent dive!! Viz 10m Air In 200 Out 100 Buddy Craig”

There were several more dives on Rosalie taking similar routes in 2015 “02/08/15 Rosalie Moller Red Sea an early start on Rosalie my favourite Red Sea dive down to the stern & a drop over to see the prop – three of four blades intact – 1 missing. We swam gently up the starboard side to the bomb damage & used it to enter the stern holds & swim round the tween decks to exit by the crew & officers bridge accomm block – down the gangway & out to the funnel & if I had no side-mount I swear I could do the funnel end to end! Swam in and round the bridge & forward hold for a while up & down the deck to swim the opposite (port) gangway & across the deck to the forward hold then on & up the bridge to the shot line & up to 6m for 30 minutes of deco which we incurred as we spent a fair part of the dive @ 35m plus! Deco was made easy when we were joined by 2 or 3 Bat Fish & then tiny jellies which ended up as a huge shoal passing us! Air In 220 Out 75 Viz 20m Buddy Craig”

No one quite shows a wreck like Rico Oldfield, of all the illustrators I have seen in 30 plus years of diving Rico is the one who captures a wreck as she sits, as she looks and feels to a diver. The routes I have taken on Rosalie could be traced on Rico’s stunning representation of Rosalie, but why spoil a great work with a bunch of squiggles? I will leave the reader, should they wish, to trace the routes I have described on the marvelous and most iconic of Red Sea wrecks. I have at last come clean and, as you have just read, described Rosalie Moller as “my favourite Red Sea wreck”, I apologise to all the other wrecks in the Red Sea, as most of those are pretty magnificent too, but Rosalie has that “something” which is hard to describe but stands her out from all others. I suppose it is easier to look at in this way, if you sign up for a Red Sea wreck diving Liveaboard you are pretty excited and the anticipation is high enough, but if the skipper hasn’t got Gubal Island on the itinerary you feel let down, it’s not that you won’t enjoy the dives, it’s not that you won’t have a great time, it’s just there will be “something” missing…..the Cherry on the top…..that’s what Rosalie Moller is…….the Cherry on the top of the Red Sea wrecks   

My last dive on Rosalie was taken on the afternoon of the 02^nd August of 2015 and the Green navy Log records: “02/08/15 ROSALIE MOLLER Gubal Island Red Sea this tour began at the stern but going for’ard we swam the starboard side to the bow & then swam in to the hawsed anchor & over onto the bow deck where we ran the chain lines & dropped between decks in the for’ard hold – a swim round that then to the bridge & in & out over the galley & through to the mess bathroom & down & out to the funnel  we spent time over & round the funnel & then over the decks to swim back through the gangway on the starboard mess deck – into & out the bridge & round the mast to end at the stern line & on up to deco – a wonderful dive captured on go-pro  – let’s see if it comes out!! Air In 220 Out 100 Buddy Craig”

Well…..shall we see if the video came out ok?

As ever this piece is only possible with the help of those who contribute most to it and I am indebted to Derek Aughton & Margaret Blair for their photos, to Craig Toplis for his patience, to Rico Oldfield for his illustration and to Roger Hull and the National Archives for their assistance with data & records

SS Breda

The Breda was a typical steamship of her time and named after a city in the Nederlands (Holland) in the North Brabant province of southern Holland, she had her keel laid on 16 December 1919 at the Nieuwe Waterweg Scheepsbouwmaatschappij (“New Waterway Shipbuilding Company”) yard at Schiedam in Rotterdam. Breda was constructed for the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij (“Royal Netherlands Steamship Company”) following completion, she was launched on the 2^nd of July 1921, her fit-out was completed 10^th  December 1921. The Koninklijke Nederlandse Stoomboot-Maatschappij (KNSM) which translates, in English, to The Royal Netherlands Steamship Company, was based in Amsterdam from 1856 to 1981. It was once considered the largest company in Amsterdam, and was one of the top five shipping lines in Holland. The company operated mid-sized freighters similar to the Breda, with most having additional passenger accommodation. KNSM at its peak in 1939 and at the outbreak of World War II, had 79 vessels, 48 of which were lost during World War II, many, like the Breda, were requisitioned for service with the Allied forces as transports

The Nieuwe Waterweg, (New Waterway in English) was excavated out of sand dunes at Gravenzande in 1872 and ran for 4.3 Km to provide the last part of Rotterdam’s connection with the sea. In 1877 the passage was significantly widened and deepened, and a new waterway reached the end of the dam that it shares with the Calandkanaal, where the Maasmond starts, making it now around 7 km in length. Today it is better known as the Hoek van Holland (Hook of Holland)

The Netherlands have been using Rotterdam for hundreds of years to build ships for commerce, and (out of the Dutch Admiralty Yard on the Haringvliet & Delfshaven), for military use too. The yards were initially financed by well-known Dutch families such as the Mees and Hoboken’s and, up to the end of the First World War, very successful on behalf of their investors too. In 1918, just after the Breda’s completion, the Dutch shipyard employed around 4700 in shipbuilding and its associated activities. For those of you who love the technical detail

The Breda was powered by two steam turbine engines, a high and a low pressure engine, by Metropolitan-Vickers, founded in the UK in 1899 as British Westinghouse. In 1917 Metrovick was formed to address problems with the degree of separation needed to isolate UK concerns over the USA involvement in British Westinghouse. The need came about in order to avoid issues surrounding bidding and awards of government contracts. British Westinghouse, up to that point, was a subsidiary of the Pittsburgh, USA based “Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company”. Following the purchase of equipment and titles British Westinghouse became a subsidiary of Metropolitan-Vickers in 1919. The Metrovick steam turbines, state of the propulsion art in the day, gave Breda a top speed of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph). She had five cargo holds, and could also accommodate up to 16 passengers

Whilst it was Charles Parsons who invented the modern steam turbine in 1894, the basic principal was harnessed in a design so ancient as to have been described in Roman times by a renowned experimenter & writer called Hero, (c10 AD to c70 AD) it was named “Aeolipile” and  was just 2 x 90’vent pipes, mounted opposite each other on a copper sphere, mounted on a rotating shaft through its centre which, when the reservoir below is filled half full of water, and heated over a fire until the water boiled, forced steam out of each vent, making the sphere spin on its shaft

Parsons design, a central shaft with small vanes along its length (arranged around the shaft radially, when allowed to pressurize with steam along its length, expended its energy driving the shaft round),  had revolutionized steamship speed in the 1900’s, from the first example, “Turbinia” unveiled at the Spithead review in 1897, the Steam Turbine had practically consigned compound steam piston engines to obsolescence. Designed & built by Charles Parsons in 1894, Turbinia embarrassed all other ships at Spithead when Parson’s showed her, completely unannounced, and evaded the review security boat by completely outpacing it, in front of the whole admiralty, and Edward VII, the Prince of Wales. Turbinia’s stellar performance on that day ensured the next generation of steamships, including the Breda, would nearly all be turbine powered

There is a little I can find on the SS Breda between the wars (although it doesn’t help that I don’t speak Dutch), she missed the First World War, which finished in 1918, however, as she was built for Koninklijke Nederlandsche, it can be assumed that a fair proportion of her employment would have been the transportation of raw materials for the Iron & Steel industry to and from Ijmuiden on the Dutch North Sea coast. The journeys I can find some detail on, and could probably dig a little deeper into have the Breda on a regular South America to Liverpool route

1924 the initial Port of departure for SS Breda being Corral, in Southern Chile, would probably mean a cargo of nitrates, the major export of Southern Chile at the time according to Robert Lane (Division of US Regional Information) ,  & Spencer Green (US Trade Commissioner to the West Coast) in their 1928 publication on Pacific & South American trade (Greene, S. B & Lane, R. M “Trade of the Pacific Coast States with the West Coast of South America” Trade Information Bulletin 525 P12 1928 Online Resource. Accessed 08/11/2021)

It can, perhaps, again be assumed that the export of Iron & Steel pipework from the Nederlands to Chile and South America also makes sense, although without cargo manifests the definitive answer cannot at this point be given. Trade is always a two way street, no ship wishes to undertake a voyage “in ballast” unless they really “must”, so an assumption of return cargoes of Lumber, Bananas (Cristobel Colon, Panama) and Nitrates seems reasonable. By 1937 Chile has an increased export portfolio and increasing output too, the January, May and September trips of the Breda could have had any of a dozen or more cargoes, however it is interesting to see Copper (a material commonly used in the manufacture of pipes) is one of the “majors” noted in the 1940 Commerce Report (“The Port of Valparaiso, Foreign & Coastwise Trade of Chile Feb 10, 1940 P145 Online Resource: www.google.co.uk / books / edition / Commerce _Reports Accessed 08/11/2021)

Koninklijke Nederlandsche (now part of the modern day Tata group) begins its history on September 20^th, 1918, when “Koninklijke Nederlandsche Hoogovens” was founded in The Hague, Holland. It was created to “……enable Dutch industry to become less dependent on imports” (Tata Steel Editorial “History of Koninklijke Nederlansche Hoogovens” Online Resource: https:// www.tatasteeleurope.com/sites/default/files/History_ KH.pdf  Accessed 02/11/2021). It made sense to establish an Iron & Steel company in Holland, it is very central in wider European terms, has excellent coastal and inland canal access, and therefore sits well for import and export of raw materials and final product. “By the mid 1930’s, Hoogovens had become the largest exporter of pig iron in the world. In 1936, they began producing cast-iron pipes. Steel production began in 1939, using open-hearth furnaces. In 1941, Hoogovens acquired Van Leer’s Walsbedrijven, a rolling mill that was renamed Walserij Oost (East Rolling Mill)”. So, it again makes sense that a ship with the capacity of the SS Breda, would be employed by her owners in a manner befitting their business needs, the import of raw materials for Iron & steel manufacture and the export of finished product from that industry

It is equally possible the Breda carried cement products “….In 1930 the cement factory, Cemij, a subsidiary enterprise, was formed in collaboration with ENCI, to produce blast furnace sealants. By this means a competitive war between the Dutch cement producers Hoogovens and ENCI was prevented, and independence from foreign competition achieved. Compared with pig iron turnover, sales of by-products were stable, and were sufficient to cover Hoogovens’s fixed expenses.” (Editorial in “International Directory of Company Histories, Koninklijke Nederlandsche Hoogovens En Staalfabrieken NV” Online Resource: https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/koninklijke-nederlandsche-hoogovens-en-staalfabrieken-nv Accessed 02/11/2021)

By 1920, due to the increased requirement for shipping materials and people, for re-construction projects after the devastating effects the war had seen, the number of employees in shipping had almost doubled to around 7500 people, that meant almost 40 percent of all Dutch shipbuilding production came from Rotterdam. That situation had peaked and following 1920 there was far less demand on Dutch shipping and the industry needed to adapt, in 1925 RDM bought the shares of Nieuwe Waterweg in Schiedam and brokered a merger between the largest shipyards at Wilton and Fijenoord. Information taken from Allard Schellen’s Piece ( Allard, S: “The end of the great shipbuilding industry in the region” vergetenverhalen.nl 23/09/2015 Online Resource: Accessed 03/11/2021) tells us the measure was less successful than anticipated, the 1929 crash on Wall Street exacerbated the problem, less was being imported by the USA as its economy tanked. Wilton-Fijenoord laid off 8,000 employees in 1929, and many smaller companies simply went to administration, RDM did survive, but not unscathed. As Europe plunged towards a second World War in the late 1930’s Germany had its eyes on the shipyards of Rotterdam, when war finally broke out in 1939 and Germany invaded Holland it took over  the yards and port of Rotterdam, and production was begun under the Nazi regime to manufacture for the Kriegsmarine

When Germany eventually invaded the Netherlands in May 1940 the Breda’s Captain, Johannis Fooy, fearing capture and the loss of his ship to the Germans,rather than doing nothing and letting the Breda fall into the hands of the Nazis, slipped Breda out of Antwerp and took her to Britain. On arrival in Newcastle the Breda was requisitioned for the war effort and given to the P&O Line to manage, she was also armed, although only with a single 4.7-inch (120 mm) gun. Fate was not going to be kind to the plucky steamship despite her gutsy escape from the German’s they were not going to let her escape quite so easily it would seem, fate bringing her, on 23 December 1940, to anchor off Oban, one of a convoy of 100 ships sitting in the Firth of Lorn, eventually bound for Bombay

The Breda was built to carry optimal quantities of cargo along with her potential 16 passengers, “She had 3 decks, a cruiser stern and a flat bottom.  The bridge lay between the second and third of the Breda’s five holds, and contained the radio and navigation rooms, officer’s accommodation and cabins for 16 passengers.  Aft of hold 3 lay the engine room whose four boilers were originally coal fired, but were converted to oil in 1938.  These produced steam for two turbines with double reduction gearing to a single screw.  Her service speed was 11.8 knots, and fuel consumption ran at 36 tons of oil per day.  The stern housed accommodation for the 37 crew.  On the main deck is the steering gear, with the emergency steering position on the deck above.  This had originally been open to the elements, but a platform was erected above this position to carry the gun which was fitted during the war” (J Banks Editorial: “The J Banks cargo of SS Breda” On Line Resource at https:// www.jbanks.co.uk/about-us/history/the-j-banks-cargo-of-ss-breda Accessed: 03/11/2021)

On Christmas Eve 1940, the Breda was bombed during a German air raid on Oban roads, while waiting to join a convoy from London to Mombasa and Bombay.  The aircraft were Heinkel’s He 111 bombers based at Stavanger, Norway, which flew across the bay, and straddled the Breda with four 250-kilogram (550 lb) bombs. Although not directly hit, the pressure of the explosions ruptured a water inlet pipe, and the engine room flooded,  eventually depriving the Breda of all power. Luckily Captain Fooy managed, just, to beach Breda on the limits of shallow water in Ardmucknish Bay. The next day, only part of Breda’s cargo had been offloaded when a storm swept in and moved her into deeper water where she now sits with her stern at around 26 metres and her bow near 15m at 56°28′32″N 5°25′04″W

Breda had been loaded with a varied, general cargo, a comprehensive listing can be found, with a little digging, on the J Banks & Co Ltd (originally of Willenhall, Manchester, but now based in Featherstone, Staffordshire) web-site, I am not sure some of this content has not been “borrowed” from one of the dive centre sites so I quote it here, on that basis: (Editorial “The J Banks Cargo of SS Breda” https://www.jbanks.co.uk/about-us/history/the-j-banks-cargo-of-ss-breda/ On Line Resource: Accessed 03/11/2021) “At the time of her sinking, the Breda was carrying a very mixed cargo, consisting of 3000 tons of cement, (now set solid), 175 tons of tobacco and cigarettes, (very soggy and hard to smoke), 3 Hawker and 30 de Havilland Tiger Moth biplanes.  Aircraft engines, propellers, windscreens, instruments and various other parts have been recovered.  The aircraft, which are now hard to recognise, are stored in holds one, two and three. Sandals with leather uppers and rubber soles, medical supplies, including kaoline in what may best be described as square-shaped Mk 1 waisted Coca Cola bottles, batteries, wide strips of leather, tyres, telephone pole insulators, lengths of solder, black boot polish and innumerable other items have been recovered from hold No1. On the deck alongside hold 2 lies an upside down 4×4 vehicle with the tyres still fully-inflated.  Another similar vehicle has fallen from the deck to the bottom of hold 2, which also contains aircraft and beer bottles. Hold 3 contains aircraft, tin lids, tyres, barrels containing stoneware bottles of Stephens blue ink, (how many divers can claim to have dived in in?), dental supplies, including what appears to be drinks coasters, but which are actually material for taking dental impressions, and the pink material for making gums of false teeth.  Regretfully, all efforts have so far failed to find the material for making gold fillings. Hold 4 contains truck spares, gas masks, spectacle lenses, fire hoses, the spare propeller, (cast iron), trolley compressors with brass, double-acting cylinders (for inflating tyres), brass fire extinguishers, aircraft batteries, and between holds 4 and 5, the 3000 tons of cement. Square porthole glasses of two different diameters, individually separated by pages of a 1940 Dutch newspaper were also recovered as recently as 1989.  The newspaper was still legible, and included the pages giving the BBC radio programmes.  Brass oil lamps with gimballed brackets cast in the shape of dolphins were also recovered at the same time. Apart from more of the cement, hold 5 contains bicycles, electrical equipment including switches, fuses and GEC ceiling fans, along with bales of hay for feeding the 10 horses, reputedly belonging to the Aga Khan, which was also part of the cargo.” It is a matter of record that the war office tried, wherever possible, to spread cargo’s throughout convoys to ensure as many ships that survived the journeys through the U Boat Wolfpacks, carried as much variety as practical for the supply of those in need, a common sense approach driven out of a necessity to supply under extremes of circumstance and borne out by the hugely varied Breda cargo

For those of you who rest better knowing an animal’s fate, rather than having it left to the imagination, there is a record of the animals of the Breda’s cargo, including the Aga Khan’s horses, (wartime reparations paid in barter by any other name) the J Banks piece details: “……When the Breda was beached, the horses were either released to swim ashore, or the horse boxes drifted off with the horses still inside.  One of these boxes came ashore near Ledalo Spit, with a horse still inside and a very distraught dog standing on top of the box.  They were rescued by Mrs Mary Mac Niven, wife of the caretaker at Dunstaffnage Castle.  Not all of the horses survived, but at least one was kept in the old smiddy adjacent to the cemetery at the southern edge of the village of Benderloch. The last survivor of the horses died in the Oban area in 1961. Sometime after sinking, the body of a monkey was found in the grounds of Letterwalton House, a few miles north of Benderloch.  Around its neck was a collar bearing the inscription “SS Breda””. I believe that the horse Mary Mac Niven saved was called “Bradshaws” and was one of the Aga Khan’s 10 racehorses on board the Breda when it sank. Mary was honoured by the Royal Humane Society for her efforts in saving the horse, which she rowed out to, as it was still tethered in its container afloat in the bay. Now the details regarding the monkey are often referred to as “local legend” which means either the truth of the matter has been lost locally over time, or that the story is seen as rather fanciful, either way it is not for the likes of me to judge!

The sinking of the Breda was another of those rather unfortunate events, the German Heinkel HE111 bombers had overshot their intended industrial targets and headed for the shipping routes around the West of Scotland as secondary targets of opportunity, although the bombing did not result in a direct hit, Breda suffered pressure wave damage, through her hull, in the form of ruptured plating and a fractured cooling water inlet pipe, taking in water. Breda still managed, under her own power, to make it to the east shore of Ardmucknish Bay, Captain Fooy, exhibiting remarkable cool in the circumstances, drove her into a shallow submerged shelf which extends 600 yards out to sea at a depth of only 6 metres.  Any further out from land and the bottom slopes quickly to over 30 metres.  Breda managed to sit on this shelf long enough for some cargo to be removed, however in another unfortunate event, a storm reached across the Bay and, just when the Breda had looked safe and her cargo recoverable, fate and the storm forces took her out and deeper under the waters of Ardmucknish bay

For some time after, until the 1960’s in fact, her goalpost foremasts were visible above the surface at low tide, but in 1961 the Royal Navy swept the Breda with towed wires and removed the goalposts along with the bridge, funnel, and forepeak to give a swept clearance of 28ft, the reports from HMS Shackleton (“Breda: Ardmucknish Bay, Firth Of Lorn” Online Resource https://canmore.org.uk/site/102573/breda-ardmucknish-bay-firth-of-lorn Accessed 05/11/2021) telling us: “The site was wire swept clear at 5.4 metres but fouled sweep at 6.1 metres. The least depth by echosounder was 8.22 metres. To the seabed is 22.8 metres. There is no scour. One sweeping sinker distinctly fouled a large piece of wreckage at 6.1 metres”, (HMS SHACKLETON, 25 July 1960) and “The site was again swept and it cleared at 8.22 metres, but fouled at 8.5 metres. The site was wire sweep to a least echosounder depth of 9.1 metres. To the seabed is 21.9 metres. The wreck twice cleared at 8.22, but three firm fouls were obtained at 8.5 metres. These were examined by divers. The highest point appears to be remains of after superstructure. A mast was sighted lying athwartships on the well deck”.(HMS SHACKLETON, 31 July 1961)

The superstructure remnants are now lying in the mud off the port side of the ship, you can see the stern goalposts lying back in the superb ADUS scan, from the Scottish Association for Marine Science Facebook page, from the Norbit iWMBS multi-beam sonar system above (Online Resource: https:// www.facebook.com/ SAMS. Marine/ photos/ pcb. 3653148651371407/3653146174704988 Accessed: 05/11/2021). The gun mounted on the platform structure at the stern was presumably also removed by HMS Shackleton’s divers at that time. It was not until 1966 that the Breda was rediscovered by divers from Edinburgh BSAC, and despite her bridge, derricks and funnel having been lost from the wire dragging of the Navy, otherwise she looked pretty much undamaged. Of course finding a “new” wreck sometimes brings its own issues and, from the J Banks piece: “Blasting by Oban Divers removed the bronze propeller in 1968 and further blasting has since removed most of the remaining superstructure, improving access to the lower decks and engine room.  The copper degaussing cable, for protection against magnetic mines, was also recovered by Oban Divers, and the insulation burned off on Eilean Mor”. I cannot confirm further blasting occurred on the decks, there is no reference other than the J Banks piece that I can find, but as BSAC did, in the early years, have an (albeit short lived), “underwater explosives” course, it is a very real possibility

The legacy of the Breda is not confined to the wreck itself, items of the cargo have been recovered, there are many noted, including Windshields from one of the de Havilland Tiger Moth biplanes, banknote paper destined for the Bank of India for 10 Rupee banknotes and, bottles, tiles, pages from an atlas, still coloured, a huge variety, the link to J Banks & Company, Brass “Button Sticks”, and yes, I am old enough (Just) to have used one of these to lift the buttons on No2 Dress Uniform & polish them, something I think may now be unique to the military, and was still the practice until recently, if a former Life-Guards colleague & friend is correct!

The J Banks editorial details how the button sticks are used far better than I could: “…..In 1992 a diver found a wooden crate, we believe in hold No 1.  Whilst the timber crate was rotting away, the diver originally thought the box contained Gold, but in fact was Brass Button Sticks manufactured by J Banks. The Brass Button Sticks were used to protect the fabric of a uniform or coat whilst cleaning buttons. The stick would be placed behind a button, the polishing cloth could make contact with the button and the stick would prevent the fabric from being damaged.  The sticks were stamped with J Banks & Co Ltd Willenhall and the diver traced them back to us and returned a handful that we still have today on display.” (Editorial “The J Banks Cargo of SS Breda” Online resource: https://www.jbanks.co.uk/about-us/history/the-j-banks-cargo-of-ss-breda/ Accessed 04/11/2021). I have half a mind to drop in to take a look at the button sticks and see if J Banks & Co might part with one, their Featherstone base is not far from me (in Uttoxeter) and it would be a great souvenir of my past on two levels!

The 10 Rupee unprinted banknote shown above bears a copy of the watermark “Reserve Bank of India – 10 Rupees” and a profile picture  of the head of George VI. The manufacturer, Portals, owned by the Bank of England, manufactured special paper for the printing of the Indian banknotes, watermarked with the portrait of King George VI. The transportation of unprinted banknote paper was an attempt to deter theft, the printing would be carried out on safe arrival at destination. The wooden boxes carrying the banknote paper had degraded during their 30 years or so immersion in Ardmucknish Bay before their recovery sometime in the 1970’s and the edges of the uncut sheets were a little ragged, the sheet in the New Zealand auction house catalogue above is in remarkable condition when all is considered

I dived the Breda in August of 2004, in what I described at the time to Brad, one of my dive buddies, as “marginal” conditions, the Puffin Divers location was being swept through by high winds and very choppy seas, it was going to be a lucky window to get on Breda and dive her……but we went for it, we were lucky too and the little Green Navy log records: “…29/08/04 BREDA Ardmucknish Bay Oban Descent down shot line in very green but clear water down to the starboard side & probably no 3 hold – broken up with swim throughs & cement bags forward & to the sides. Plenty of deck & machinery evident & two sets of broken hold ladders. Swim the line back to the shot & over the side to 22m at the sea bed towards the stern – several large Pollack & masses of tube anemones great dive – plenty left to do Air In 230 Out 180 (Eanx 32) Buddy Sam”

I had no means of recording the dive other than my ramblings in the log, I couldn’t afford the exotics of an underwater camera set-up and these were the days way before I could even imagine a Go-Pro, but Mark Kirkland’s superb Black & White shots from a dive on her perfectly match the feel of our dive, which I remember very well as the viz was not brilliant, down to a couple of meters as a result of the weather over the days we were there, but I tied off my run reel, as matter of course on a new and un-dived (to me) wreck, and we started up along her from the stern around the mid-ships. Breda was an eerie wreck in the viz, calm and Green, the Green you get in Stoney Cove when the Algae is in bloom, but darker as a result of the higher Tannin content from wash-off & percolation locally. The atmospheric nature of the dive, and the occasional tying off of the line, as we made our way forward was a slower process and meant not quite so much exploration of the Breda, she is also a mass of twisted metal due to the wire sweeps the Navy completed, but her decks and fittings are still clear and recognizable and our run along her was great fun, trying to figure out exactly where we were on her length, and peering into the hold spaces which we did not enter in the circumstances. Breda is another of those wrecks I’d love to go back and do again, there is plenty to explore in and around her 122m hull

I am, as always, indebted to the photos & scans contributing to the additional detail in this piece, notably, Norbit and ADUS for the use of their stunning side-scans & sonar work and particularly to Mark Kirkland and Steve Jones for their amazing Black and White shots of Breda

HMT Elk

The Elk was originally designed as a Steam Trawler, by Cook, Welton & Gemmell, of Beverley in Yorkshire, she was laid down in 1902 for the Thomas E. Fisher & Henry Morris Co., Ltd and was destined to spend her life fishing the prolific Cod grounds off Iceland for her new owners. There was no other expectation of her than she be fit for purpose and commercially effective, her lines had been honed over generations of sailing trawlers that had gone before her. Elk would be a side trawl, meaning her nets would be operated Port or Starboard, rather than dragged from her stern, allowing her catch to be landed and processed on the broader and longer forward deck, without using complicated arrangements to move the haul for’ard in heavy seas for processing and stowage. Icelandic trawling required sometimes 6 or 8 week long fishing trips from her home port of Grimsby, to get the Elk to the Cod grounds off Isafjordour or Seyoisfjordour and back, and for that, her Amos & Smith 3 cylinder 62 Hp steam engine would drive her well at around 9 knots until she cast her trawls

Why would such tiny vessels make such an arduous journey, after all it is 1229 miles, one way, to the West Coast of Iceland, at 9 knots that’s a 6 day trip before any fishing even starts! SigfÚs JÓnsson tells us in his piece (“The Icelandic fisheries in the pre-mechanization Era, C. 1800–1905: Spatial and economic implications of growth” Online Resource:    https:// www.tandfonline.com/doi/ pdf/ 10.1080/ 03585522. 1983. 10408006 Accessed 26/11/2021) “….The first steam trawlers were built in Britain and France around 1880. These proved an immediate success as the fishing operation became much less subject to wind and tide. The speed and flexibility of vessels increased drastically, catches grew proportionally, landings became more dependable and many new sea areas became intensively fished” so, from even an Icelandic perspective, the fishing of Cod from as far away as England and Wales made economic sense, even if it did come as a high risk activity. What is more, the boats designed to travel the North Sea and Arctic Oceans were very well built……and they needed to be!

The Elk had been made for the relatively new company of Thomas E. Fisher & Henry Morris Co Ltd, in the Grovehill Shipyard on the River Hull in Beverley. The firm of Cook, Welton & Gemmell was founded in 1883 on South Bridge Road, on the Humber bank in Hull, by founding partners William James Cook, Charles Keen Welton and William Gemmell

In 1901–1902 the business was moved up-river, nine miles, to a new yard at Grovehill, (acquired from Cochrane, Hamilton & Cooper). Now Hull might not be a place you would normally expect shipbuilding to be carried out, the river Hull seems an unlikely watercourse for anything but the smallest of vessels perhaps, however, in typical and ingenious manner, large ships, significantly larger than our small vessel the Elk, were indeed launched, sideways on, into the River Hull from the early 1800’s on up until as late as 1962 in fact

The river was dredged to facilitate the deeper draught hulls of the larger vessels Cook, Walton & Gemmell intended on building, photos of the time show the exercise to have been very successful, most vessels from 1902 were larger than the sail-ships that had gone before

Thomas E. Fisher & Henry Morris Co Ltd had been started around 1893 and, as the name implies, was a partnership between the main Trawler Owner, Thomas Fisher, and a local Trawler Captain Henry Morris. It would be Henry Morris that captained the Elk out of Grimsby, and his crew would be responsible for the catch, its cleaning and stowage and its landing back in Grimsby. The Elk was a traditional if innovative trawler known locally as “Ketch” rigged, meaning it still had the ability to deploy and use sails when or “if” the right moment called for it

It would be interesting to talk to skippers of the time to hear if the sails were ever deployed on these trawlers, they seem a throwback rather than anything really practical, although they likely wouldn’t have been fitted unless there was actual use envisaged, even occasional, a Yorkshireman would not waste the expense of rigging and sails unless there was good reason! Perhaps the truth of it is the period was a transition, sail giving way, reluctantly, to steam and perhaps the “learning curve” included judging the right amount of coal to carry for long journeys (with few ports of call once Scotland was to stern), or the expectation of occasional “issues” with the new steam technology, either way in 1902 the Elk was fitted with a sail to rearward and two on her main mast for’ard

The GA Drawings above show the arrangement & layout used on Elk, at hull 329, Elk was only a couple of years after Bardolph & Caliban and, as Cook, Walton & Gemmell were progressive rather than “cutting edge”, the assumption (born out by the hull of Elk and the few but reasonably clear photos of her), is that she was very similar to both those earlier trawlers. Elk was a “sidewinder” where her trawling gear was concerned, dragging her trawl from Port or Starboard side by means of a boom & tackle arrangement controlled from the centre of the deck just in front of the funnel where the steam winches were situated

The Elk would make many dangerous journeys for her owners, between her launch in 1902 and the onset of war in 1914, she proved herself a rugged and, it would seem, profitable little ship. Her owner in 1914 being registered as Morris & Fisher Ltd, a change of name of the original company but retaining the same shipping manager, Thomas E Fisher. It would be the rugged construction of the Elk and her companions, fishing the brutal waters of Iceland, which attracted her to the British Admiralty, as the declaration of war between Austro-Hungary and Serbia plunged the countries of Europe and the Levant into a mass conflagration, one that would eventually be declared a World War and be commemorated in history as World War One

The decision taken by the Admiralty, on the declaration of war in 1914, to requisition the Elk & many of the Grimsby & Milford trawler fleet vessels, had been taken as a result of a far earlier recommendation by Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, made in 1907 (“Hullwebs History of Hull, Trawlers at War-World War One” Online Resource: https://www.hullwebs.co.uk/content/l-20c/conflict/ww1/trawlers/default.htm Accessed: 27/11/2021) “….Beresford recommended that steam trawlers be used in the role of minesweepers in the event of war. This would free up warships for other, more appropriate, duties”.  Beresford clearly understood the trawlers were more than ideal, they were small craft and maneuverable, they were used to often working in close proximity to each other when catching tightly massed shoals of fish, they were also used to towing, something perhaps the British Navy were not! Minesweeping was a similar activity, and unremarkably both trawling and minesweeping were high risk activities, the men of Hull, Grimsby and the fishing ports of the UK were no strangers to imminent and often fatal danger……..

Dr Katherine Storr writes (“FISHING PORTS AND COASTAL TOWNS, War-Time” P4, Para2. Online Resource: https://www.heritagesouthholland.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/AOS-D-0166-7_-Fishing.pdf  Accessed: 27/11/2021) “On Tuesday, 4 August 1914, fishing craft returning to Grimsby found light cruisers, submarines and treacherous mines laid in the North Sea by Britain and Germany, so the fish dock quickly became clogged. Most trawlers were immediately commandeered for Admiralty service and within a few hours some were engaged in minesweeping” It is not hard to believe that the Trawlers of England, Wales & Scotland were put to use almost immediately, the Germans had developed new mine technology (see the piece on the Adriatic wreck Baron Gautsch) and it was proving very effective. The world’s battleship fleets had been engaged in a race for supremacy since the British invention of the “Dreadnought” class, and although Britain had the largest Dreadnought fleet, under Admiral John (Jackie) Fischer, berthed at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys, by 1914 the Kaiser’s “Hochseeflotte” (High Seas Fleet), under Admiral Alfred Von Tirpitz, was a very close (too close) second place

The first action of the German high seas fleet must have galvanized the trawlermen of Grimsby, it was very close to home….. Rear Amiral Franz Von Hipper’s “Scouting Group” tried to entice the British out of Scapa Flow by carrying out shelling of Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 15–16 December 1914

The Elk would be in the thick of WWI very quickly, she and many of her Grimsby fleet were needed for 1^st sea Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill’s, Gallipoli Campaign. Churchill had submitted a plan to the War Cabinet in late 1914 (as the land campaign in Europe became mired in trench warfare), to force a fleet of pre-Dreadnought battleships up the Bospherous, to bombard Constantinople (Istanbul), in order to prevent the Ottoman Turks joining the Germans in mainland Europe, (the Turks having refused to join the Allies against the Austro-Hungarians at the outbreak of war) and potentially to threaten Germany from the Southern flank of the conflict

The Elk sailed to Gallipoli, (a distance of 3686 nautical miles, expected to take 10 to 14 days at 9 knots) along with her trawler sister-ship fleets to take up various duties, they were, on arrival, and from the outset in mortal danger, undertaking the towing of “Lighters” the large rowing boats that carried troops ashore

They carried out transfers between ships and, perhaps most dangerous of all, minesweeping duties to keep the Allied fleet of British and French warships free to manœuvre. Churchill’s plans were thwarted when the Turks resistance proved far more effective than expected, the fleet did not manage to break through to Constantinople, the Ottoman shore based artillery managing to hold off several ferocious and determined assaults by the combined fleet

Indeed, in a devastating twist of irony, the Turks managed to outwit the Allies, having noticed the manner of attacks by the battleships, on several occasions, and, using guile and stunning alacrity, they laid a mine run of 20 mines across a stretch of the Dardanelles (Erin Keui Bay). The Allies had used the bay, repeatedly, to turn about (180’ about face) the well laid mines took out 3 battleships in one morning, the French Battleship Bouvet, the British Battleship HMS Irresistible and the British Battleship HMS Ocean, they seriously damaged 3 more (French ships Gaulois & Suffren and British ship HMS Inflexible), although there is modern day contention the Bouvet “may” have been hit by shore based Ottoman artillery

If ever there was a visceral demonstration of “Hubris” then this was it, from that point on the Dardanelles would not see another significant Battleship attack, and the allied fleet withdrew to the bays at Suvla, Gaba Tepe (Anzac Beach), Tekke Burnu & Hellespoint. The battle became land based on the headlands at Anzac Beach and Hellespoint, and quickly bogged down in exactly the manner of Ypres, Verdun and Mons. The trawlers of Grimsby, Hull and Milford would now be in a constant state of extreme danger, the Ottoman forces occupied the high ground with clear observation points across all of the allied lines of offence, although, at first undermanned, it did not take them long to grind the allies to a halt without them getting far off the beaches and headlands. The waters in front of the beaches were easily observed and it is a miracle that more ships were not sunk between the landing and the evacuation of troops in January of 1916 (New Zealand History  “The Gallipoli campaign, The Evacuation” P6, Para 4. Online Resource: https:// nzhistory.govt.nz /war/the-gallipoli-campaign/the-end-of-the-campaign Accessed: 28/11/2021) “The evacuation of Anzac began on 15 December, and 36,000 troops were shipped out over four nights. Support troops and reserves went first, then the fighting units were thinned out until only 10,000 remained on 19 December. They moved out that night in a coordinated withdrawal from the front-line trenches. At 4.10 a.m. on the 20th, the last men left Anzac Cove. Suvla was evacuated the same night, but British and French forces remained at Helles until 8-9 January 1916. Then the campaign was over”

Those who survived Gallipoli did not necessarily survive the war, when the trawlers came back from the Dardanelles the war raged on in Europe for another 3 years, and there was still mortal danger around the shores of Britain and France, the U Boat was a threat and mines were constantly being laid in nighttime forays by the Germans around our coasts, “….By the end of the war, of Grimsby’s 700 steam trawlers, 600 were requisitioned, 433 became fighting units, and some 60 were lost with 519 men, leaving 313 widows and 480 orphans. Altogether 5,875 Grimsby men joined the Navy or the auxiliary services on patrol and minesweeping duties” (“FISHING PORTS AND COASTAL TOWNS, War-Time” P4, Para2. Online Resource: https://www.heritagesouthholland.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/AOS-D-0166-7_-Fishing.pdf Accessed: 27/11/2021) Remarkably, the Elk survived her minesweeping duties and brought her crew back to Grimsby, fishing again (initially for the Admiralty, for the Fishing Reserve, flying the White Ensign but fishing under Navy control, but then returned to civilian ownership), for almost another decade in what was a more peaceful time, but would very soon become known as  the “Between War” years

By the time the Elk was sold by the Victoria Steam Fishing Company, to a Mr Oliver Curphey of Milford in Wales, becoming registered as the M36 14^th Nov 1929, there were rumblings from Germany of a new threat rising. A month later, in December of 1929 the German Nation held a referendum, in it the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (or Nazi’s for short), proposed a new law against the “Enslavement of the German People”, an attempt to formally renounce the Treaty of Versailles (which compelled reparations on the German economy in repayment for the damages caused by World War I)……. it would only be a little less than 4 years later that Adolf Hitler would become “Reichschancellor” of Germany and galvanize the German Nation, once more, against the rest of Europe and eventually most of the globe. In 1931, the Elk was again sold on, this time to move down to the South Coast, on the 21^st of Jun 1932 she joined her new owner, William Henry Edward Nichols, in dock at Plymouth to fish the waters of Plymouth Sound

  “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more”……Shakespeare’s King Henry V could not have put it more aptly, the Anschluss, or “annexation” of Austria in 1938 was nothing less than a declaration of war, but the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, as so often happens, sought to appease Hitler and the German Nation. It would not be until Hitler scornfully stormed into Poland, 01^st of September of 1939, that the world realised appeasement of an enemy just delays your potential destruction….it doesn’t…ever…. stop it (look up the Aztec Ruler Montezuma, the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra, or the Indian Nations of America to name just a few). Far better to let Shakespeare and King Henry V again lead the way “In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility, but when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tiger, stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage”. Once the realisation dawned, and Chamberlains’ “peace in our time” was seen for what it was, it would fall to another veteran of war, Winston Churchill, (former disgraced and removed 1^st Sea-Lord of the Admiralty, re-appointed to the same title by Chamberlain, only 2 days following the invasion of Poland, who by the 10^th of May 1940, had succeeded Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister)……. to ensure the days of appeasement were over 

The war did not come entirely unexpectedly, as a result, the British War Office had begun making rudimentary preparations in advance, at least where the Royal Navy was concerned. In the spring of 1939 the Elk and 39 of her sisterships were requisitioned, once again, for service as minesweepers and converted from their trawls to Oropesa (Paravanes) or Dan laying duties. Nick Stanley wrote a comprehensive account of minesweeping in WWII which details the preparations: “These measures included the conversion of trawlers into minesweepers; a process the Admiralty had started in Spring 39. Training for the new crews took place at sea throughout that summer from bases such as Sheerness & Chatham. With war drawing closer, Sparrow’s Nest at Lowestoft was activated on 1 September 1939 for trawler conversions. War’s outbreak on 3rd September 1939 saw the RN’s sweeping force stand at 36 Fleet Sweepers & 40 Trawlers crewed by 2000 personnel” (Stanley, N. in “World War II, Minesweeping in the second world war”, Online Resource: https://www.vernonlink.uk/wwii Accessed 03/12/2021). Elk was fitted out with a single bow mounted gun for self defence (likely a 6 pounder), and given her pennant (Admiralty Trawler No 706, Pennant FY 4.24) and assigned for Dan laying

Dan-laying was the task allotted to indicate “swept” channels cleared of mines “Mark buoys, “Dan” type, are casks with an axial spar and counterweight, causing the spar to float vertically. The moorings consist of a 500-pound sinker and a 30-fathom mooring line of 1/2-inch flexible steel wire with eye and thimble spliced in each end. The buoy itself is equipped with a vertical bridle for mooring, with two thimble cringles, for attachment of the mooring lines for shoal and for deep water” (Editorial: “Mine Sweeping Manual United States Navy 1917” In Online Resource: https:// www.history.navy.mil/research/library/ online-reading-room/ title-list-alphabetically/ m/mine-sweeping-manual-1917.html Accessed 05/12/2021) and the practice hadn’t changed much since HMT Elk’s last Naval experiences. This would be just as dangerous as clearing itself, often at the very limits of swept lanes, which meant the Elk was exposed to the unswept side of the lane and any mines within it…….

Elk took up her 1939 duties in WWII as she had in 1914, this time patrolling the approaches of Plymouth Sound, the area off Fort Bovisands and the Breakwater would have been very familiar from her fishing days. Elk patrolled with the Minelayers of the Royal Naval Patrol Service (RNPS) under a Captain J. S. Bush of the Royal Navy Reserve, not a regular Naval Captain but a usually seasoned seaman or recently retired Naval Officer. The threat this time even more potent than that in Gallipoli, the Germans were not only laying “contact” mines, the horned, acid circuit EMC mines, seen as cutting edge in 1914, but had added several new and dramatically improved versions such as the ground mine, an inappropriate name for a mine usually dropped by parachute from an aircraft, but named for its ability to sit on the sea floor

Now the threat included delayed mines, sitting in wait and counting a number of acoustic or magnetic contacts until the numbers crunched and the mine detonated, “…..mines in the Bristol Channel were observed detonating even though there had been no evidence of a ‘lay’. Suspicions over the introduction of arming delays & ship counts were then confirmed by Mine Destructor Ship HMS BUSHWOOD over a period of 4 days in Swansea Bay” (Stanley, N. in “World War II, Minesweeping in the second world war”, Online Resource: https://www.vernonlink.uk/wwii Accessed: 03/12/2021), then there were the acoustic mines that floated just below the surface, tethered to weighted “trucks” pushed off the back of their destroyers and E Boats, or free-floating dropped by aircraft or from boats, waiting for a ships engine signature noise and detonating as the noise reached a set level, and the most dangerous perhaps of them all, the electromagnetic mine

Although the Germans did not have a large store of these mines (developed from a British design) they were deadly, recognizing the magnetic disturbance a steel hulled ship gave off through the water and then detonating based on strength of signal, up close usually, which inevitably meant a devastating effect on any vessel caught out by one of these mines. The minelayers task being made even more difficult in mid-1940 “in May 1940, Germany had introduced bi-polarity into its magnetic mines, necessitating a second sweep and therefore a doubling of the influence sweepers’ workload. (Stanley, N. in “World War II, Minesweeping in the second world war”, Online Resource: https://www.vernonlink.uk/wwii Accessed: 03/12/2021). The only other mine to have a similar effect being the Oyster mine, set off by the bow-wave pressure of a ship, a deadly threat, but again the Germans lacked the number or delivery methods to make these effective either

Mine warfare was a denial tactic “The mine’s primary effectiveness is in its psychological impact. Mines can be laid by any platform (ship, plane, or submarine), encountered anywhere, and they are virtually undetectable. Thus, prudent mariners avoid known or suspected minefields. More significantly, mines require more effort to clear than they do to deploy” (Editorial, “Weapons and Warfare, Naval Mine Warfare, WWII” Online Resource: https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2020/05/31/naval-mine-warfare-wwii/ Accessed 04/12/2021) the Germans keenly remembered the starvation caused to their population by Britain’s denial of their ability to trade by ship. The blockading of sea trade into Germany had a devastating effect on the morale of the German public, they learned from this, and used U Boats and Minefields in an attempt to starve the British in the same manner, in fact Churchill is on record as saying his biggest fear of the war was the U Boats and the effect they could have on the war effort

So HMT Elk is laying Dan’s for minesweepers in 1939 and Plymouth is a priority target for the Germans, as many mines as could be laid….. were, by U-Boat through deck chutes, by Heinkel’s parachuted in at night or rolled from the back of Destroyers or E and S Boats……whatever method, there were likely thousands deployed in the early stages of WWII, all were potentially deadly, and all were targeted at British and Allied shipping, and it was indiscriminate targeting, as happy to sink a freighter as a passenger liner or a fishing trawler without thought, without conscience……

 As 1940 begins things are going well for the Elk, in fact very well, in January two of her crew receive the Distinguished Service Cross, Lieutenant Charles Chapple RNVR and Petty Officer Bernard Donnelly RNR are awarded for “…unfailing courage, endurance and resources in H.M. Trawlers, Drifters and Minesweepers in their hard and perilous task of sweeping the seas clear of enemy mines, and combating submarines.”

As 1940 marched on and activities got more and more intense, with an ever increasing German campaign to starve Britain into submission, more and more of the Elk’s peers were lost. In 1939 Allied shipping losses had totaled 47 (Source: “National Museums Liverpool, The Battle of the Atlantic, The cost of battle” https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/battle-of-atlantic/cost-of-battle Accessed: 04/12/2021), by the close of 1940 losses from all causes, bombings, torpedo, mines etc, in the “Battle for the Atlantic”, would stand at 349. Sometime in 1940 the Elk was assigned to experimental countermeasures testing, in response to the changing tactics of the Germans and the introduction of acoustic mines. It seems Elk was fitted with a type of steam powered apparatus, designed at the Royal Naval Engineering College, of Keyham in Plymouth

The photo above shows US Military personnel deploying an acoustic hammer box during acoustic mine sweeping operations off Wonsan, North Korea, in October 1950. The Korean War was fought from 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953, with US forces supporting South Korea. The “acoustic hammer” is a device used to trigger acoustic mines. Here, it is being deployed from the minesweeper USS Mockingbird (AMS-27). Photographed on 23 October 1950.

I can find no mention of which specific type of acoustic equipment was fitted to the Elk, however an educated guess would be an early version of the “Kango” pneumatic hammer arrangement, “The next step was to mount the hammers inside an external box that was lowered into the water when in use — after a few sweepers had been sunk by acoustic mines while using internally mounted Kango hammers. The external hammers were usually hung over the side of the ship with a winch, though sometimes they were used over the bow of the ship” (Moffatt. I: “Mines and Minesweeping Techniques of WW2, Protective Measures & Minesweeping Techniques, Acoustic Minesweeping” Online Resource: http:// edinburghmodelboatclub.org.uk/ resources/ minesweepinginfofinal.pdf Accessed: 04/12/2012). Some of the trawlers mentioned as lost in the quoted piece were the Trawler Lord Inchcape, the Free French Navy Vessel Poulmic, and the Kingston Alalite, the Poulmic is another wreck written up in this blog, and it is believed she fell to an acoustic mine on the 7^th November, just 20 days before HMT Elk would finally lose her gallant battle against the German Mines in Plymouth Sound…….

My first dive on the Elk came in October of 2000 and is the only wreck dive I know that fell between the pages of my log books, the Elk appears as the usual “starred” entry in my Green Navy Log, but is marked as “wreck book II” for the description……I never instigated a second, separate wreck book, I just began to include the descriptions in my Green Navy Log……ahh well, lessons learned! I recall the dive well as it was an FSAC trip and my buddy was Phill Sherratt, we had dived the Eddystone the day before and were back on the 7m RIB, out to the Elk, as first dive on the Saturday morning in decent conditions. The descent to Elk went well, she sits upright, her hull intact, the shot had landed and dragged, luckily Jason & Paul had been in first and secured the descent line after a bit of a line search for her. Phill and I dropped right on her stern and I was immediately struck by the abundance of fish on her, Elk was covered in Bib and Pouting, a shoal of what must have been close to a hundred fish hovered over her hull, quite the largest amount of fish I had ever seen in UK waters in what had been 10 years or more of UK dives to that date! I was also struck by the Stern on Elk, the exposed frame showing through remnants of her deck, mostly she was open at deck level, with her hull interior showing   

We carried on up her hull, taking in her steam boiler and engine on the way, although at the time I would not have known what type her engine was, coal or oil, I did know Elk was a steam trawler which fascinated me. I was also surprised to see the Bib hanging off the hull, when you look over the sides of the hull they are looking directly at you as if swimming vertically towards you, but they were almost motionless as if they had been stuck in place by some means, it was the first time I had seen fish hang in such a manner and it looked slightly surreal to me

We got up towards the bow, and the remnants of what had been the bridge area, I was a bit confused, nothing was really identifiable. I did not know that most of the superstructure had been destroyed by fire following the mine explosion in 1940, and the layout of a 1902 trawler was not something I was very familiar with. To me the Elk was similar in looks to the Stanegarth, and I was kind of expecting a forward deck bridge, it seemed there was a larger deck for’ard than I’d seen before and, following the dive on Poulmic (another valiant WWII minesweeper/observer lost earlier in November of 1940), I was a little more confused than I would have admitted at the time…..Anyhow, we swam around her again following the hull in pretty respectable viz, somewhere around 10m or so, and then ascended to our deco stops, after what had been not only a great dive but also an intriguing one! It would be 6 years before I got another chance to dive the Elk and things had moved on a little for me, I had a new job which involved a lot of travel and had closed Deep Blue Diving, and, sadly, Fenton SAC, but the selling of the dive kits, and various equipment associated with both, had allowed me to take my own diving somewhere I had not expected it to go

I bought an AP Valves “Inspiration” re-breather and had signed up for training with Richie Stevens, of Deep Blue Diving in Plymouth, now there is plenty of time to discuss the co-incidence (or such) of the naming of both businesses, let’s just move on for the moment shall we….. On the course I was delighted to find we would get another shot at the Elk, and my Navy log records: “21/06/2006 HMS ELK- Plymouth Sound – 30m Rebreather dive, descent was OK, wreck was fine with the usual Bib & Pollack & one Cuckoo Wrasse, Viz OK at 3m or so & silty but OK. Dive was simple getting used to the Inspiration ascent was OK but last 6m was a nightmare fighting the solenoid – the loop & the suit…Buddy Mike” I recall the Elk sitting just as I had left her, in almost exactly the same condition, although the remains of the for’ard deck had rotted more, unsurprisingly. There were not as many fish on her either, but the viz, as described, was not anywhere near as good as we had back in 2000, but that’s UK diving for you, the Elk was still a lovely dive, even if the distractions of a new toy got the better of me in the narrative!

If you want to see and hear those who undertook both the laying of mines, and the clearance of mines then I would recommend you have a look here:

As for the Elk, luckily no one died as a result of the mine explosion that took down the courageous little steam trawler, veteran of World War 1 and willing protector of her country, yet again, 21 years later, as World War 2 ravaged Europe and threatened to do the same to Great Britain. I think the following description (Editorial “The Ships Project, HMT Elk” Online Resource: http://www.shipsproject.org/Wrecks/Wk_Elk.html Accessed: 05/12/2021) serves the Grimsby & Milford Trawler, Gallipoli Minesweeper and World War II Stalwart adequately:

“On the 27th November, just a month after the first acoustic mine had been taken apart, the Elk was off Plymouth trying out a new acoustic mine clearing device.  That day she was sweeping in the approaches to the main entrance to Plymouth Sound, on the west side just off Penlee Point, moving at a steady 5 knots with the armed trawler HMT Sasebo nearby. Over the port side of the ship she had an experimental steam powered apparatus that was designed to set off acoustic mines, this new device had been designed by the Royal Naval Engineering College in Keyham, Plymouth.  While busy sweeping there was a big explosion right underneath the ship which lifted the Elk out of the water and fractured her hull from the engine room to the stern, the vessel caught fire but stayed afloat for 45 minutes allowing all of her crew to escape unharmed”

If it wasn’t for such vessels, and those who gallantly crewed and commanded them (never the stars of Hollywood block-busters or Netflix box sets, often just receiving a couple of lines in old newspapers of the time), there wouldn’t be an England, nor a Europe free to choose, however foolishly, its own destiny……….Even in death the brave little ship managed to hang on long enough for those aboard to get to safety…….

“…unfailing courage, endurance and resources in H.M. Trawlers, Drifters and Minesweepers in their hard and perilous task of sweeping the seas clear of enemy mines, and combating submarines.”

I am, as always, deeply indebted to those who have helped me cover the story of my dives on the Elk and to go some way to recount the heroism of those involved in Mine Warfare!

The excellent photos of HMT Elk by Peter Rowlands, the archive photos & research prompts provided in the late Peter Mitchell’s (RIP) dive recollections and Simon Balderson of Lincs Inspire for the one really good photo of the Elk in her Grimsby Trawling days lastly to the Ships Project & Vernonlink for a great deal of background information on the Elk, Mine warfare and Minefield Clearance

Le Poulmic

The (Le) Poulmic started her life in the Forges & Chantiers de la Mediterranee shipyard in Graville, on the river Seine at Le Havre, specifically by the village of Le Trait “……In 1917, the rural village of Le Trait became a major industrial centre with the establishment of shipbuilding activity under the aegis of the Ateliers et Chantiers de la Seine-Maritime (Maheut, 1982). A small village of three hundred inhabitants at its origins, Le Trait experienced an unprecedented expansion with the arrival of the shipyard. It then became the main source of economic development in the city of Trait. The first ship was launched in 1921” (“A work of mourning around the Ateliers et Chantiers du Havre?” Queval, S. P111 Para 1 Online Resource: https:// books.openedition.org/purh/5155? lang=en Accessed 12/11/2021). She was built as a service and passenger tender to ship parts and labour across the bay at Brest, between the town and arsenal at Brest, and the aero-marine base at Lanvéoc-Poulmic. Her name, and that of her sister ship Lanvéoc (built and engaged in the same service), coming from the name of the airfield, the ships built as Le Poulmic and Le Lanvéoc, but this piece is specific to Le Poulmic. For those of you who love the technical details: 

In what I found to be an unusual twist (if, in hindsight, perhaps predictable, given the Victorian zeal for expansion and industrialization), the shipyard at Le Havre was an entirely British concept and execution. So, a French shipyard and engineering concern, initiated and seed funded by the British, eventually builds a ship that escapes France, to come to the Aid of Britain in its time of greatest need……there’s an epic movie in there if ever I saw one! Philip Taylor with his sons Robert & Philip founded the company “Société des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée” in 1853, which went on to be incorporated into a joint stock company founded by the Frenchman Armand Behic in 1856. Behic (15 January 1809 – 2 March 1891) was a French lawyer, businessman and politician who eventually served as minister of Agriculture, Commerce and Public Works in the government of Napoleon III

Despite some early challenges the shipyard, and the additional acquisitions of Philip and his sons, were successful and increased its foothold in French shipbuilding sector. Philip was another of the Victorian era business innovators and, like those in the Cosulich brothers yards in Monfalcone, Italy (The Shipyard of another wreck on this site, the Brioni), were perhaps the first manifestation of the term “Brain Drain”, as Philip brought many of his engineers and foremen to Le Havre from Britain: “…….In 1846 he went into partnership with the Marseille ironmaster Amédée Armand, thus putting together an industrial empire with all the components for the manufacture of steam vessels. Taylor’s recruitment of British engineers and foremen proved to be significant in the transfer of new technology to the Mediterranean countries. Among his employees were William Adams, Fleeming Jenkin and Robert Whitehead.”  (Wikipedia “Philip Taylor (Civil Engineer)” Online Resource: https:// en. wikipedia .org /wiki/Philip Taylor (civil_engineer) #cite_note-30 Accessed: 12/11/2021)

We know what the early layout of the Forges & Chantiers de la Mediterranee shipyard in Graville looked like, in some detail, thanks to illustrations found in the Chantier Navires, and, as the illustration is specific to 1912, we can safely assume the Poulmic and her sistership the Lanvéoc were drawn up in building 2, her boilers made in building 3, their carpentry completed in Building 11, machining done in building 15 and her engine in Building 17….. And on it goes, everything necessary was on one sprawling site, with sufficient cranage to effect the fit out of a range of ships way beyond the size of our diminutive Poulmic, but Poulmic would eventually be far larger in stature than any other ship from that yard 

Le Poulmic was delivered in the summer of 1937 to her customer, the French Navy, along with her sistership the Lanvéoc. Both Poulmic & Lanvéoc had identical characteristics, displacing 350 Tons, both were powered by a 540 hp diesel engine that achieved a speed of 12 knots, and both were 37.03 m long by 8.08 m wide with a 3.10m draught. As both were destined for the ferrying of equipment between Brest and the airfield and aero-marine yard and slips at Lanveoc-Poulmic, (following their successful launch in the idyllic summer months of 1937), they had a journey of some 500Km to travel to be commissioned into service

Poulmic took up her role with the French Navy and, between 1937 and 1939, seems to have had no dramas, Lanveoc-Poulmic Airfield was one of 37 French aviation centres that had been allocated sea-planes in 1920 and the following years had seen the slipways at Brest developed to protect the French coast and the local port: “…..This choice meets the following criteria: the bay of Brest is a body of water capable of accommodating, in all weathers, the seaplanes of the time, an airfield can be developed for the benefit of squadron aviation based in Brest, the strategic interest: close to Brest (8 km in direct line), Lanvéoc is far enough away however not to be subject to possible blockades of military and commercial ports”  (“Base D’Aeronautique Naval Lanveoc-Poulmic, Historical” Online Resource: http://www.ffaa.net /naval_stations/ lanveoc-poulmic/lanveoc-poulmic_fr.htm Accessed: 12/11/2021)

Looking closely at the photo of the sea planes lined up on the slip at Lanveoc-Poulmic, the keen eyed amongst you will likely pick out the familiar lines of either Poulmic or her sistership Lanveoc at the dock. As already noted, before the outbreak of the Second World War both Poulmic and her sister were carriers between the Maritime Airport at Lanveoc and Brest, seen beyond the dock, in the distance. The Sea-Planes aligned on the slip look like Construction Aeromarines De La Seine  (CAMS) 55-10 variants fitted with 4 blade front prop and 2 bladed rear Props, and Gnôme & Rhône Radial engines of 1928 or so vintage

The CAMS 55 series were anecdotally noted as being the best product ever made at Construction Aeromarines De La Seine and had several engine options, the CAMS type 55-10 had Gnôme & Rhône motors, the CAMS 55 variants were more numerous than those fitted with Hispano-Suiza engines fitted with 2 bladed props forward & rearward. (“Naissance des Chantiers Aéro Maritimes de la Seine (CAMS)” Online Resource: http://www.hydroretro.net/etudegh/cams.pdf P17. Accessed 11/11/2021)

It seemed the Poulmic had found her niche, she and her sistership carried out their duties faithfully, delivering the workforce to their place of work twice daily, and ferrying equipment and materials between the railheads at Brest and the slips at the quayside without incident. But fate held more in store for the Poulmic, in the East of Europe that fate was being cast as Germany invaded Poland, Sept 01^st 1939, plunging Europe into a second mass conflict that seemingly none could escape, indeed, the fate of the Poulmic was sealed only two days later when Germany turned her wrath on France on September the 3^rd of 1939

The French were mostly siding with the allies, and the Brest airfield and aero-marine yards shared information to assist the war effort for as long as they could hold out against Nazi Germany, reports such as the one above, from Lanveoc Poulmic radio station (https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/-/media/royal-navy-responsive/ documents /units/rnssc/ admiralty-war-diary-november-1939.pdf) evidence the French fight, and the valuable information passed to the allies during that time, as much as the fighting in the countryside around Paris did. The German forces were superior to those of the ill-prepared allies, Germany had provided military support to the Spanish civil war helping Franco seize Spain from the Republicans, their Condor Legion gave their pilots valuable experience and helped Hitler develop “Blitzkrieg” (Lightening War) tactics, faced paced, asymmetric attacks quickly overwhelming huge areas past outdated “battle lines” supposed to defend France, static, old fashioned methodologies, easily by-passed by modern mobile and agile German forces. By the 25^th of June 1940 the fate of France had been sealed, the battle for Paris was over and the Germans, under Adolf Hitler, were in control of Paris, effectively giving them control of all of France……but not all of the French

The Poulmic had taken her chance and, under the command of Chief Boatswain’s Mate Le Guen, had sailed for England, arriving in Plymouth 18^th June 1940 where she, her Captain, and her crew were taken over by the British Admiralty for war service. Under the banner of the Free French Navy, (Les Forces Navales Francaises Libres, abbreviated, in timeless tradition, to “FNFL”) Poulmic was tasked as a patrol boat and provided a harbour service between French ships Until 3 July of 1940

30^th August 1940 the British Admiralty returned Poulmic to the command of the Free French, under Admiral Emile Muselier of the FNFL (Emile Muselier one of only 5 French Generals to align with the Allies under De Gaulle & was responsible for distinguishing his fleet from that of Vichy France by adopting the Cross of Lorraine, which would become the emblem of all of the Free French Forces during WWII), and command of Poulmic was transferred to Captain Paul Vibert, formerly second in command of the French Submarine Minerve (“The Poulmic Patroller, Historical Context” Online Resource: http:// museedelaresistanceenligne. org/media2880-Le-patrouilleur-iPoulmic-i#fiche-tab Accessed:  13/11/2021). Paul Vibert and his crew of 17 would operate Le Poulmic, from that point on, as a mine patrol ship. On 7^th November 1940, the Poulmic left the safety of the harbour to take up a position off Plymouth  

Captain Paul Vibert details his mission on taking command of Le Poulmic: (“The end of the Poulmic patrol boat” In “Testimonials” Cornil, S.  7 may 2019 Online Resource: https://www.france-libre.net/la-fin-du-patrouilleur-poulmic/ Accessed: 14/11/2021) “On November 7, 1940, I was ordered to set sail at 5 p.m. and take up position for the night at a point about three miles south of the Plymouth breakwater. My instructions were as follows: as soon as the enemy planes were flagged from land two converging searchlights would illuminate the sea. We had to try to spot each parachuted mine by the light of these projectors, take a bearing and appreciate the distance in order to immediately signal their position on land”

 

Preparations began immediately the instructions were received, Captain Vibert ordering the Poulmic prepared for the worst, and the crew to take all precautions possible in the circumstances: “…We knew the positions of some mines, set the previous days, which forced us to sail carefully to get out of the port. I had taken all the usual precautions, the life rafts were divested and every man, including the mechanics in the machine, wore his life belt. On this subject, I had a small discussion with the liaison officer, a young and friendly second lieutenant R.N.V.R. Indeed, I thought it was better to give more confidence to the crew, that I did not wear the belt myself and he felt that being also an officer he should imitate me. I made him understand that my order was also addressed to him, alas, his belt was useless to him because a little more than an hour later, he disappeared with the ship and I believe that his body was never found.”

The mission would be the last the Poulmic would ever take, on arrival at the search area, as Poulmic was maneuvering into position there was a massive explosion, identified by many at the time as likely that from a German acoustic parachute mine, Poulmic had been taken down by the very mines she was sent to identify, Captain Vibert describes the incident: “…..The first maneuver master, second in command, followed a ferry lift with a compass.”Another 10 degrees, Commander” – “The two engines front half” – “Another 5 degrees” – “Stop” – “Another 3 degrees” – “The two engines behind half” – “Ready to anchor” I leaned to starboard from the navigation bridge to see the eddies of the propellers, a few seconds of waiting… a foamy stir and suddenly a terrible explosion, an extraordinary breath tore me from the footbridge like a straw fetu. I kept from this short air trip an impression of colors, black and white, then gray, probably the color of the boat, before landing head first on the deck where I lost consciousness. We had just jumped on an acoustic mine submerged exactly at our anchorage. The ship, open under the bridge, sank in 15 seconds, leaving no chance for the mechanics at their engine maneuvering station”

Le Poulmic had struck a mine, tearing her apart and believed to have set off two more mines in the vicinity, Poulmic was said to have been torn to the level of her engine room, literally blasted to shreds by the explosion: “…..I regained consciousness, the water entering the interior of the vessel was placing me against the hull. At the cost of violent efforts, I returned to the surface. Only the top of the mast emerged, I vaguely distinguished in the darkness a few men clinging to a raft. Another was near me. The English helmsman was hanging on the mast and was quick to sing us the last successes of his country, probably to encourage those who did not have such a solid point of support. A torpedo boat about two miles away illuminated the scene with its projector” The Poulmic sank quickly, south of Plymouth Breakwater, in the explosion and its aftermath, 11 crew were lost, luckily 7 were rescued by the MTB Captain Vibert mentions in his recalling of the incident, Paul Vibert himself was severely wounded and unwittingly Le Poulmic had become the first ship loss of World War II for the FNFL

Honouring Le Poulmic and her Lost Crew Members:

March of 1947, (“Le Patroller Poulmic” In: “Revue de la France Libre” No 33, December 1950) General de Gaulle, Commander-in-Chief of the Free French Forces, from the medal citation of Le Poulmic:

“This small vessel participated during the months of September and October 1940, in often difficult conditions, in numerous patrol missions along the coast of Great Britain. Commanded by crew officer Vibert, and fell to an enemy mine on the night of November 7, 1940.”

Le Poulmic was honoured in the FNFL by decree of General de Gaulle and awarded the newly created, Médaille de la Résistance, by decree dated March 31, 1947. The medal had been decided on by General de Gaulle, as “leader of Fighting France” (“Aux Marins, Marins morts pour la France, Le Poulmic” Online Resource: https://memorial-national-des-marins.fr/12-aux-marins/batiments/3424-poulmic Accessed: 14/11/2021) The medal’s purpose was to “recognise the remarkable acts of faith and bravery which, in France, throughout the Empire and abroad, have been contributing to the resistance of the French people against the enemy and their accomplices since 18 June 1940.” On 20 August 1942, the medal commission settled on the name “Médaille de la Résistance Française” The French Resistance Medal was instituted in London on 9 February 1943 and was the second and only other decoration created during the war by General de Gaulle, after the Order of Liberation

I dived Le Poulmic in March of 1999 off the local Hardboat “UK National” with Jason McNamara dive-master from Deep Blue Diving and a couple of the FSAC divers, including Jason Underwood. The remains of Le Poulmic lie outside the Plymouth Breakwater at around 20m, my little Red Wreck Log records: “03/04/99 Plymouth (NW of Breakwater) POULMIC (Free French Navy) There’s little left of Poulmic but old pieces of twisted metal & bits she hit a mine and went Bang “Big Time” We found U Bolts & some winch gear with a large toothed wheel or gear but the rest is just bits of the reef now, hunting was fun but surge was heavy.” I recall a little more than that as the visibility was 5 or 6m which isn’t bad considering the Atlantic swells that run up Plymouth Sound on a regular basis. The area Le Poulmic was destroyed over is largely rock gullies with occasional patches of shale and kelp. There is the usual marine life present too, shoals of Pouting, plenty of crabs, the occasional Juvenile, and sometimes larger Wrasse. I’ve often seen Cuckoo Wrasse in the Sound too, but don’t recall seeing any on Poulmic.  On the day we didn’t see much more than twisted bits of metal which would have taken a far better marine archaeologist or engineer to determine than I have ever been, but there is more to be found on the site I believe at least one boiler has been found and some of the wreckage sits 1.5m off the bottom, needless to say that was not the area we found ourselves on in 1999, but it shows there is more to the site if you can dig around the area

The Fate of the Crew of Le Poulmic

“At The Going Down Of The Sun…..And In The Morning”

Valentia Southern Ireland

Thomas Royden, a master carpenter, opened a shipyard on Baffin Street on the west side of Queens Dock, Liverpool in 1818. Thomas Royden  was an English ship-owner and Conservative Party politician. After a brief partnership with James Ward as Royden & Ward in 1819-20, he eventually took his two sons, Thomas Bland Royden and Joseph Royden, into partnership and the company was renamed Thomas Royden & Sons in 1859 (Royden. M “The Roydens of Frankby a Brief History of a famous Wirral family” Royden Family History Pages – The Roydens of Frankby (roydenhistory.co.uk) On Line resource: Accessed 26/10/21): “In 1808 Thomas moved to Liverpool and secured employment as a master carpenter with Charles Grayson, a prominent shipbuilding firm. There was a brief lull in trade and shipbuilding during the period of his employment, mainly due to trade restrictions resulting from the wars with France and America, but by 1818 Thomas was confident enough to set up his own yard to capitalise on the consequent resurgence. The site was Baffin Street on the west side of Queens Dock, and Thomas lived nearby in Harrington Street. The business grew steadily and despite a devastating fire in 1825, success continued while several other shipyards folded around him. 1825 also saw his marriage to Ann Dean, step-daughter of Thomas Bland of Bland, Chaloner Co, another established Liverpool shipbuilder” Thomas Royden & Sons expanded by acquiring a neighboring Queens Dock shipyard from Peter Chaloner & Son in 1863, shipbuilding was changing rapidly at the time and Royden & Sons made the transition from building wooden to iron-hulled ships, Thomas Royden, perhaps unwilling to embrace the transition from wooden to steel ships himself, retired, leaving the company in the hands of his son Thomas Bland Royden. The increased size of the combined yards facilitated a gradual increase in output, from six ships in 1866 to twelve in 1869, in 1890 The Royden Yard Built The SV Crompton for their client MacVicar Marshall & Company

Thomas Bland Royden became a member of Liverpool City Council in 1873, and was elected Mayor of Liverpool in 1878–1879. Thomas & his family, two sons (Thomas & Ernest) and six daughters, lived at Frankby Hall on the Wirral. Thomas became a Justice of the Peace for Liverpool and was elected Member of Parliament for Liverpool West, Toxteth, eventually standing down in 1892. Thomas was appointed High Sheriff of Cheshire in 1903, and then a deputy lieutenant of Cheshire at the end of that year,two years later being made Baronet Royden on 29 July 1905.  He died 29^th August 1917 at the age of 86

The company also began operating its own ships, founding the Indra Line in 1888. This came to dominate the company’s activities, and in 1893 Royden’s sold their shipyard to concentrate on shipping operations and management. In another of those 5 degrees of separation, given my Father’s maritime history, Royden’s sold the Indra Line to Alfred Holt’s Blue Funnel Line in 1915, and from 1916 operated the Santa Clara Steam Ship Company on the South American route. The Santa Clara Company was eventually sold to the Bristol City Line in 1930 finally bringing Royden’s independent shipping operations to a close

From the volume ‘British Owned Iron and Steel Ships (IV) Masted Barques and Ships’.

The Crompton’s Owners were MacVicar, Marshall and Co. registered in Liverpool: (Graces Guide to British Industrial History: “1914 Who’s Who in Business: Company M” On Line resource https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/ 1914_Who%27s_Who_in_Business:_Company_M Accessed: 26/10/2021) “Macvicar Marshall & Co: Shipowners, 13, Castle Street, Liverpool. Hours of Business: 9.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Established in 1882 by A. R. Marshall and Neil Macvicar (d). Present Principals: A. R. Marshall, P. Hugh Marshall and William Pritchard. Claim to have been owners at one time of some of the largest sailing-ships in England. Premises: Consist of the front second floor at Queen Insurance Buildings, Castle Street, Liverpool. Staff: Seven, and Consulting Engineer and Marine Superintendent. Business: Steamship Owners and Insurance Agents. Connection: United Kingdom, Foreign and Colonial. Telephone: No. 844 Central, Liverpool. Telegraphic Address: “Martial, Liverpool.” Codes: Scott’s, ABC and Watkin’s. Bankers: London City and Midland Bank Ltd., and Parr’s Bank, Ltd. Clubs: Exchange and Conservative, &c.,” Liverpool, MacVicar Marshall & Co survived as shipowners up until a couple of months prior to the grounding of the Crompton in 1907

On 23rd November 1910 the Crompton was en route from Tacoma to Limerick filled to the gunwales with grain, when she encountered a combination of bad weather and fog and ran aground on rocks at Dromgour Point near Port Magee, Ireland. Crompton was carrying 38,233 sacks of Wheat, weighing 2700 tons, from the Tacoma, Washington state in the USA. Why bring wheat in from the USA when the UK & Ireland produce wheat themselves, well this was the 1900’s and industrialization was concentrating the majority of the population into cities, specifically, the major employers were new industrial factories, people were no longer content eking out a hand to mouth existence on small-holdings, even larger scale farmers were under pressure and struggling to produce sufficient crop to meet the needs of the growing population, import was becoming more and more inevitable as the UK became less and less able to meet the requirements for food from her own lands and farming techniques, but the vast spaces of the USA were ideal for huge crops, more than sufficient for the needs of their population…..with plenty to spare for export and the revenue that would bring……huge ships like the Crompton were queuing up in Tacoma to fill their holds for the journey East across the Atlantic

The background to the Crompton’s transatlantic journeys, her embarkation from Tacoma, Washington State in Southern USA, her stop in Melbourne, Australia and her passages across the wild Atlantic ocean were a part of the wheat trade between the Great Britain and the USA, at that time just a hundred or so years on from having been a colony of the British Empire, but now well-established as an independent trading nation and just as happy to sell her produce, wherever there were buyers, as Great Britain was to feed her growing industrial cities………   

 

There is an interesting potted history of the US Southern States Wheat trade by Norman Reed, which details the Tacoma area wheat farming and export, I think it adds some context to both the development of the USA as a global trading nation and also to the background of the Crompton and its eventual loss off Valentia (Reed, N. “Flour Milling in Washington — A Brief History” On Line resource: https://www.historylink.org/File/9474 Accessed 27/10/2021): “……..Every farm community needed a mill within horse-and-wagon distance so that the annual crop could be milled into flour. As mentioned, it all started at Colville and eight mills were running in Stevens County in the years between 1816 and 1889. As the settlers arrived over the Oregon Trail and became acquainted with the soil they discovered that Eastern Washington was extraordinarily suited to growing wheat. Wheat grew everywhere — on the round tops of hills, on the benches, on the plateaus and foothills. No irrigation was necessary, and the rich soil required no fertilizing. The earliest railroads were established for the grain and flour trade. Eastern Washington’s wheat was already being exported out of Portland and to areas as far away as Liverpool, England. Between 1880 and 1893 the Pacific Northwest experienced a rate of growth seldom equaled in any section of the United States. Tacoma’s and Spokane’s growth were even more impressive. This growth was, in great part, the result of the development of the railroads and their aggressive advertising. The flour-milling industry reached its heyday at this time. Spokane was said to rank as the seventh largest milling center in the nation by 1900, ranking just behind such locations as Niagara Falls, Grand Rapids, and Minneapolis-St. Paul.”

Reed goes on to mention the rapid expansion of the wheat and flour trade in the Tacoma area and Portland: “The trade with the Orient and the growing Western Washington population encouraged larger and more modern flour mills to be established in the Puget Sound cities. First in Seattle was the Novelty Mills, out towards West Seattle. Centennial built its mill on the waterfront just south of the current sports domes, opening in 1898. By 1906 that stretch of waterfront was home to three mills: the Hammond Milling Company, Albers Cereal Mills, and Centennial. The Fisher Flouring Mills opened on Harbor Island in 1911. Seattle now had seven mills, as the Chas. Lilly Company produced flour as well as seeds, feeds, and fertilizer, and City Mills was just north of downtown. Tacoma had the Puget Sound Flouring Mills, the Tacoma Grain Company, Watson & Olds, Albers Milling Company, and the Cascade Cereal Mills. Everett had the Everett Flour Mill producing its “Best Everett” brand. Bellingham had a big mill on South Hill next to the water, where the three-masted schooners could easily load up. The grain trade was huge as well. Tacoma had a mile-long grain warehouse on the waterfront, handling wheat. Railroad trains stopped on the shore side and the great ocean-going schooners tied up at the water side for loading. Large quantities of Washington’s wheat also shipped out of Portland and Astoria. Combined, the grain and flour trade was our state’s major industry”

It is anomalous to say the least to find the Crompton described in the (Sydney, Australia) Examiner newspaper, wrecked in 1907 rather than her generally accepted & recorded loss of 23/11/1910 (“S V Compton (+1910)” www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspex?148392 On Line resource: Accessed 26/10/2021). Working back from the date of the Examiner report “…on Saturday last received a cable, been beached at Queenstown.…” given that the report is in the paper of Saturday 11^th May 1907, it then would indicate the report from London arriving in Sydney 04^th May of 1907 leaving the Crompton lost at best sometime in the month leading up to May 04^th of 1907 (“DISASTER TO A WHEAT VESSEL” (Editorial) in The Examiner, May 11 1907. Shipping, P6, Para 5. On Line resource: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/45812966 Accessed 26/10/2021) If nothing else, we are putting historical records streight by revealing the correct time of the loss of the Compton, even if the exact day has been lost. If the Compton left Melbourne, as described in the Examiner, January 27^th of 1907 we can search other sources to see if we can better identify the exact day and month of her loss. The New Zealand Mail of 1907 confirms the press association telegraph from London in its article “Marine Mishaps” of May 06^th (Editorial: “Marine Mishaps, Wheat ship ashore”. New Zealand Mail: Issue 1835, 08^th May 1907, P35. In “paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZMAIL19070508.2.101” On Line resource. Accessed 26/10/2021)     describing “…..the barque Crompton, bound from Melbourne to Queenstown, with 2700 tons of wheat, has been beached at Queenstown.”

A little further digging in local archives, with the assistance of Michael Lynch of the Kerry County Library, unearthed a copy of the Irish Examiner dates 03^rd May of 1907 which carries far more detailed descriptions of the Crompton’s fate at Queenstown (Editorial “Ship aground at Queenstown” Irish Examiner 03.05.1907 P5 C2 ) “The four –masted ship Crompton, of Liverpool which arrived yesterday with 20,310 quarters of wheat from Melbourne, for orders went aground on her anchor to-day, and had to be beached on the Spike Bank, where she now lies with tugs still holding her.”

The Irish Examiner piece goes on to describe a series of unfortunate events that our friend Lemony Snicket would have found fascinating….. The Crompton arrives at Queenstown, modern day Cork, on the 02^nd of May of 1907, she is assigned a pilot, a Mr Samuel Dean (difficult to ascertain as the print of the Examiner clip is less than perfect) and sails perfectly well to her mooring point noted as being west of No 7 Buoy at “Chapel Hole”. The Crompton is said to be “….drawing 23 feet of water on arrival and the depth of water at the point where she was moored is in or about from 23 to 26 ft. at places…” Now a ship of the size of the Crompton and drawing 23 feet of water (the amount of her hull in and under the water) is not going to last long in water the same depth or slightly deeper in places, she is a disaster waiting to happen at that point and it seems everyone knew about it as the Irish Examiner notes “….It seems quite clear that those in authority did not approve of the berth she was in. for the pilot remained on board all night with a view to getting her into another berth to-day, and accordingly about noon today she had her port anchor up.” So all preparations are in place and it seems the Crompton is about to be moved to a more appropriate depth of water and moored correctly, but the day was not going to be saved, the weather was in no way ideal to move such a big ship and a gale was blowing down the harbour from the West to North West. Now a gale blowing West alone might have saved the Crompton, that would have blown her towards the deeper channel into Cork, but all North West winds would have blown her closer to the Spike Island fort and shallower water and the Irish Examiner reports exactly that “….During today’s gale from W.N.W setting on her port side she got on the ground, and appears to have got her own anchor under her, with the result that she became badly holed Both anchors were down when she grounded, that which was previously lifted with a view to shifting her having been again let go.” It became a matter only of time, the Crompton being badly holed by her own anchor (perhaps even the anchor mounted in Queenstown, Valentia, outside Des Lavelle’s Dive Center?), and a gale pounding her sides, tons of water would be pouring in through such a hole, the Examiner piece notes that at 16:30 she had 2 feet of water in her and 18:30 she had 16 feet in her hull, later the author states “….as I write, at 8 p.m. the water appears to be within one foot of her main deck. In other words the ship is full of water and in a most precarious condition.”

At some time during the events unfolding signals were run up calling for assistance and the local tug company, which was, oddly the Clyde Company of Scotland, (owning the local steam tug boats for harbour duties, and using a local manager to do so) who’s manager a Mr J J Brennan set to, sending 3 tugs to assist the Crompton, the Flying Fish, the Flying Fox and the Flying Sportsman. It was decided by the Captain of the Crompton, who had come back aboard after seeing the distress signal flags from ashore (where he was dealing with the local shipping agent, a Mr J Kelleher of Scott and company, in relation perhaps, to the Crompton’s cargo or onward journey), and agreed with the Tugs agent to drive the Crompton onto the bar at Spike island which would see her grounded but safe from further sinking. The Examiner details the activities undertaken “…..it does not take long to put a ship aground, difficult though it is to take her off again, and the Flying Fox at her helm and the Sportsman and Fish at her port and starboard side respectively, took hold of her and all three vessels, finely handled, safely beached the ship and kept attendance on her during the night until further danger was averted, as it was possible she might have dropped off if let go.” 

The three tugs of the Clyde Company must have had a very difficult task during the dying hours of the night of the 02^nd May 1907, the Crompton was full to a foot of the main deck with water making her a huge almost dead weight, and the weather was horrible with a W.N.W gale blowing against them to make things even harder….it is no surprise the tugs come in for praise for their actions, little short of miraculous in the circumstances and recognised by the Examiner “…..Mr Henry T. Ensor and his salvage staff reached the ship very promptly after the appearance of the signals and rendered valuable assistance, and as I write Messrs. Ensor and staff with their powerful pumps are on board pumping the ship, aided by the crew but it is difficult to keep down the inrush of water to the ship” and goes on to note “The tugs Blazer, Columbia and the Government tug Stormcock proceeded to the ship’s assistance, but the Clyde Company’s tugs did all the work required of them” in effect praising Flying Fish, Fox and Sportsman for the saving of Crompton whilst noting others were there after the main of the dangerous and professionally challenging work had been completed. It would not be the last time the Flying Fish showed her mettle, a mere 7 years after the Crompton grounding she would take part in a far more tragic sinking, the Lusitania, off Kinsale Head on 07^th of May 1951 under her Captain  Thomas Brierley, the Cobh and Cork Harbour Centenaries Facebook site has a quotation which sadly is not referenced but details “……the Flying Fish made several such trips, gathering and ferrying survivors from the scene to Queenstown, and many of those survivors owed their lives to him and his vessel……….. Captain Thomas Brierley was born in 1859, and was 56 at the time of the disaster. He was awarded a medal for the outstanding gallantry he displayed during the endless trips he and his vessel made back and forth from Queenstown, to where the Lusitania had sunk. Bringing back the living, as well as the dead”

The Examiner notes the crew were taken off the Crompton at around midnight and taken to the “sailors Home” (presumably the local lost sailor’s mission), but that her captain and the ship’s officers stayed aboard. The Examiner also notes the exact location of the damage is still to be determined and that divers will probably have to remove most of the cargo to find and repair the damage from Crompton’s anchor, but that the salvage values could, if Mr Henry Thomas Ensor and his divers manage it, value £20,000 for the Crompton herself and £30,000 for the wheat with freight at around £7,000. If anyone could achieve this, in the circumstances, it would be Henry Thomas Ensor, who would be described in the Wonders of World Engineering (Editorial in: https://wondersofworldengineering.com/salvage_engineers.html On Line resource: Accessed 30/10/2021) following his salvage of the huge dredger Silurus, 81m Long, 14m wide and 6m deep weighing over 2,000 tons, sunk in a gale in October of 1915 after breaking her moorings in Gareloch, Scotland, as: “……..the late Henry Ensor, of Queenstown (Cobh), Ireland, who was one of the most brilliant exponents of marine salvage. A red-bearded man of average height and slight build, he had a quiet voice and bore little resemblance to the popular conception of a man who had spent his days grappling with intricate salvage problems”

It seems Crompton was both a lucky vessel of sorts, and doomed, as are we all, to a fatal end, a little more digging with the Kerry County Archivist, Michael Lynch, at the Kerry Library reveals the 1907 grounding to be only the first of the Crompton’s adventures with the Kerry coast. Indeed the 1907 grounding reported in Australia and New Zealand and in the Irish Examiner was followed a mere three years later with the Crompton’s sinking in her current resting place off Dromgour point, Valentia Island County Kerry. Michael has kindly supplied pieces from the local newspapers, the Cork Examiner, the Kerry Evening Post and the Kerry Weekly Reporter and carrying reports of the ultimate demise of the Crompton where previously the only mention found was Antipodean, nothing evident or easily accessible from the various internet sources. If nothing else it shows the value of Library copies of local newspapers and the archival benefits of local and county libraries, the internet is an amazing resource, but it will be decades before it has the full human archive available at your fingertips in any “complete” sense, and if I do not miss in guessing, that will come at a cost as more and more web based archives charge for access privileges……. It is only 3 years later and the Crompton is again aground on the coast of Kerry, this time against Drumgour and with little, if any, chance of survival as the report in the Kerry Evening Post of 26^th November 1910 details

There was no chance on this occasion that salvage could be made as the report clearly states “The Crompton has sunk, only the top of the masts being visible” for a barque of 17 years and veteran of many Atlantic crossings to be lost in this manner would mean the economics of salvage would not add up, effectively she and her cargo are lost and all that remains is the destructive effects of the sea and the Crompton’s position below the unforgiving cliffs at Drumgour on Valentia 

I dived the Crompton, or what remains of her, from Des Lavelle’s boat, Bael Bocht, (from the book An Béal Bocht (meaning “the poor mouth”) by Flann O’Brien (pen name of Brian O’Nolan) a classic satire in Irish, parodying the expression attributed to Irish farmers to “put on the poor mouth” or exaggerate their poor circumstances to invoke sympathy……… You see Des, I did eventually find out!) on a trip to Valentia & the Skelligs in 1998, this was the first trip I had taken to Ireland specifically to dive, (my last trip involved a great deal of walking, usually dropped off by Lynx or Puma, sometimes collected by them too, when not too close to the north-South border)…… I was struck by the warmth of the Irish, their welcoming nature and quick wit in any situation, the country is beautiful and Valentia and Kerry were like stepping back in time 40 years, charming people, beautiful countryside and a warm welcome, idyllic, truly idyllic…….

Des Lavelle is a very well known and well respected senior of the Queenstown community having been one of those working for the Atlantic Telegraph Company based on Valentia, the first landfall of the Transatlantic sub-sea telegraph line between the USA & Ireland. It was Des’ boat the Bael Bocht that was the dive platform for the retrieval of the Crompton’s main anchor, now sat outside Des’s dive centre in Queenstown Valentia. On his retirement from the telegraph company Des used his little boat to take out tourists to Skellig Michael & Small Skellig, visible on the Drumgour Cliffs photo, to visit the ancient monks slate beehive huts, and spend time with the remote islands wildlife and sea life. The local seals, Gannets & Puffins are well loved and popular with divers and tourists alike, those of you of a certain age and possessed of perhaps even a small degree of “the force” will perhaps recognise the Skelligs, at least Skellig Michael

My little Red Log book records the dive: “13 04 98 Valentia Eire WRECK OF “CROMPTON” A four masted Barque that was wrecked in 1910 & not discovered again till 1970. The main anchor is on Des Lavelle’s forecourt. We dropped onto the second anchor – slightly smaller & quickly found the mass of rusting chains from the for’ard chain locker & then ferreted back amongst the spars & plating back to a great little rock “squeeze” & back up to find the 3^rd anchor & more chain – great ferret about & well worth another visit great viz”   The wreck was well broken up even then, hardly surprising as it is at the base of cliffs with nothing between the cliffs and the raging Atlantic from the USA across to Ireland! The sheer force of the sea can only truly be appreciated in a storm, I watched the Grey mountainous seas smash against the cliffs on a later trip to Valentia when we lost 2 days to harsh seas and storm and did some walking in the area, the conditions below us were extreme and those fleeing the sinking Crompton were incredibly lucky to escape with their lives, it’s little short of a miracle all the Crompton’s crew were saved

The Kerry Evening Star reports “Five of the men scrambled up the cliff at Filenagaragh…” which is a considerable feat in the circumstances and would also have come as a shock to the locals on Valentia, confronted by 5 bedraggled and likely scraped and bleeding negro sailors from the Southern states of the USA, a not so usual sight on a Southern Irish Island such as Valentia. The memorial in Valentia adds a little detail to those climbing the cliff and their circumstances “…..the crew scrambled up the rocks and made off the houses of Jeremiah O’Sullivan and Sean More Devane where they were fed and cleaned up. The next day they were met by Harbour Master Shanahan and brought to Caherciveen where they were put on a train to begin their long journey home.” Who knows, there may have been some present who assisted in the 1907 grounding, there may be more to write about in family archives locally or sleeping in long defunct local newspapers, there is nothing written I can find other than the pieces shared here, and I suppose it fitting in rounding up this piece, to mention the rather cryptic line in the Kerry Evening Post: “….Her Master, Captain Williams, is very well known in Cork and Queenstown…..”  Now I’m not exactly sure how to take that, being predisposed to a naturally suspicious nature myself, hopefully it is just a bit of the Irish Craic in reference to the 1907 grounding of the Crompton

I recall the dive very well, not so much for the wreckage of the Crompton, this is another very similar to the Barque Herzogin Cecille, where most of the wreckage is simply remnants of heavy plate steel, indeterminate from any other wreckage save for the knowledge of the loss of the Crompton and the area of her demise. The gullies we were diving in were mostly flat and shallow, but one in particular was a huge fissure running parallel to shore by the feel of it underwater, and descending from around 5m to about 20m, we swam its length and it became narrower and narrower until divers could not swim abreast but were forced to be one above the other, with all the buoyancy issues that can invoke…..The swim was a great experience and made only better by the chains and debris oddments from the Crompton as we returned up to safety stops and another root around the area in search of more of the Crompton

As ever, I have to thank those that have made this piece what it is, Mr Des Lavelle of Lavelle’s Valentia Diving Centre, for our trips to Crompton and, in this case, it would have been a far less interesting tale without the help of Michael Lynch, of the Kerry County Library, who provided the articles from the Kerry Evening Star, the Kerry Evening Post, the Cork and the Irish Examiner and to both of whom I am, and will remain, eternally grateful

SS Rondo 

SS Rondo was an American built steam cargo ship launched in 1917. She was built by Tampa Shipbuilding & Dry-dock Company of Florida, for the British government, under the name “War Wonder” but during construction her name was changed to Lithopolis, perhaps as the First World War ended before she could be completed. Lithopolis entered service for the US Shipping Board and was eventually sold to various Norwegian companies, in 1930 as the “Laurie”, finally becoming the Rondo in 1934

Tampa Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company operated from 1917 to 1948 in Tampa, Florida. It was also known as Tampa Shipbuilding and TASCO. The company took over an existing shipyard run by Tampa Foundry & Machine Co. which had been founded in 1892, and incorporated in 1905, and which had got into shipbuilding with the award of the contract for a passenger ship in 1916. It built two ships the initial passenger ship Poughkeepsie in 1916, and the War Wonder in 1917, before the end of World War I (WWI) in November of 1918

The vessel seen close to completion on the slip alongside the War Wonder at the Tampa Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in 1918 above is the SS Everglades, This is what the War Wonder would have ended up like when she was launched had WWI lasted but a few months longer. Dazzle Paint was the brainchild of Norman Wilkinson and likely taken or heavily influenced by the work of Abbot Thayer in his 1909 book “Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom” which described camouflage in the wild as a way to conceal or disrupt

Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in the USA holds an archive of ship designs and a multitude of the Dazzle Designs, in their slide-set presentation of the collection they note: (Covert. C & Petraits. E: “Dazzle Prints: Digitizing a Large Format Collection” Fleet Library @ RISD. On-line resource: scalabledigital.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/dazzle.pdf Accessed 29/09/21) “Dazzle is disruptive camouflage (think of a zebra). Military camouflage was developed in World War I by French artists. Ships were hard to camouflage against U-boats because the sea and sky were always changing and of the smoke they produced. Norman Wilkinson, a marine painter who was in the Royal Navy is credited with being the first to developed dazzle camouflage for ships. The Royal Navy allowed him to test his idea. When the test went well Wilkinson was told to proceed, however, he was given no office space. So he went to his alma mater the Royal Academy and was given a classroom. Wilkinson hired Vorticist Edward Wadsworth, to be a port officer in Liverpool, England and oversee the painting of dazzle ships. In 1918 Wilkinson came to United States to share his dazzle plans. 1,000 plans were developed through this partnership” The SS Everglades is noted as the first US vessel ever delivered pre-camouflaged, it makes it almost shame the Lithopolis was not in time to have the same livery……..

The Tampa Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company ownership and function changed to that of a repair yard before U.S. involvement in World War II, 1942 (the shipyard had been mired in a major financial crisis), as one of the merchant shipbuilders selected for the USMC’s pre-war long-range shipbuilding program. It went back to shipbuilding during WWII, employing 16,000 workers, and at its height of operation, was the largest employer in Tampa.  Shortly after starting work on its initial USMC contract, however, it again got into financial difficulties and was sold to George B. Howell, who renamed it Tampa Shipbuilding Company, or TASCO  the site is now occupied by Gulf Marine Repair

The Rondo had been ordered through the Cunard Steamship Company to avoid contravening America’s “neutral” status in what was to become the last months of World War 1.  This ended up an unnecessary artifice as, even before she was complete, America entered the war and such disguise became pointless.  As Lithopolis she did not complete fitting out till September 1918, missing any closing actions of the war. It may seem somewhat ridiculous to have employed such subterfuge in order to procure ships from the US, it becomes far less so when “neutrality” can be seen objectively. Germany knew the USA, despite being neutral, had maintained favorable trade links with Great Britain and her allies throughout the War, in fact Germany also traded with the USA right up until her entry into the war on the side of Britain. It was not that either nation could or should challenge the USA’s neutrality as such, it was the diplomatic nature of the trading between each side which could have become an international incident should either of the combatants decided to carry the acts of aggression across the Atlantic to the US coastline

German U Boats had made the crossing several times by 1917, it was a very real possibility that hostilities could have occurred between Great Britain and Germany in sight of the shores of New York. In a paper to the US Congress in December of 1919, just a year after the war ended, Captain C.C. Marsh Officer in Charge of the US Navy Department Historical Section (Marsh. C.C. “German Submarine Activities on the Atlantic Coast of the United States and Canada” Dec 12^th 1919) wrote: “It is not believed necessary to go into the discussion based on opinions or surmises during the early years of the war in Europe as to whether or not an attack by the Germans would be made on the American coast. Therefore, the operations herein described are those which actually took place in the year 1918, with a description of the preliminary cruises made by the Deutschland and the U-53 in the year 1916”. The paper goes on to explore the very real journeys of German U Boats to and from US ports and to postulate on the likelihood of incidents between British and German navies accordingly

Captain Marsh’s piece occasionally shows a level of expectation arising from the nature of the German U Boat’s various nefarious visits: “…….Of course, it must remain a matter, more or less, of conjecture as to what was actually the object of the cruises made by the Deutschland in 1916. Apparently, they were both purely commercial voyages. The voyage of the U-53 assumes more a character of a path-finding expedition. This vessel was a strictly combative vessel. It is interesting to note that on the arrival of this vessel at Newport, the commanding officer stated to the American submarine that he did not need or want a pilot to enter Newport, and that he wanted no supplies or provisions or materials of any kind….” I think it fair to deduce that Captain Marsh had anticipated, if not expected, incidents of likely breach of the neutrality of US waters….but they never actually occurred

Although it was anticipated War Wonder would be launched into a global conflict the like of which the world had not seen before, she actually took no part in war as the Lithopolis, or later as the Laurie, and she continued to carry out whatever duties her Norwegian owners deemed expedient in the post war years right up until, as the Laurie, in 1934 her name was change to the Rondo. In January 1935 the Rondo, was in Glasgow and left for Dunstan, in ballast, due to pick up a cargo in Northumberland for delivery into Oslo. As she sailed into the Sound of Mull on the 25th of January the weather had gone from bad to appalling, Rondo’s master made the decision to anchor in Aros Bay, near Tobermory, for shelter and to sit out a blinding snowstorm.  Believing themselves secured and turning in for the evening, still in the midst of the storm conditions, things took a turn for the worse for Rondo and her crew. Straining against the storm their anchor chain parted and Rondo began drifting down the Sound at the mercy of winds and tide.  The Rondo was swept down the sound of Mull and came to rest hard against Dearg Sgeir (Red Skerry, or Red Rocks in Gaelic) near Eileanan Glas, adjacent to the lighthouse placed on the pinnacle to warn of the dangers of the exposed rock outcrop to passing ships

Attempts were made to float Rondo off Dearg Sgeir in the subsequent weeks but whatever was tried was to no avail. It became obvious she would not readily float free and the decision was made to strip out whatever could be readily removed to improve the chances of salvaging her. Whilst the attempt was made Rondo remained controversial, a fire breaking out amongst the wood paneling still aboard having been stripped for removal. It was during this phase of her attempted salvage that things went distinctly sideways. With the lightening of her hull on the rocks, and the movement of the tides against her hull, Rondo finally succumbed to her fate and sank down the submerged rock face of Dear Sgeir until all but her stern post was underwater, eventually she rested, fully submerged, just 10m or so from the surface her bow at 50m and her rudder at around 10 depending on the tide

My dive on the Rondo was as part of the first FSAC UK dive Exped, I had been in touch with David Ainsley and booked a party into his accommodation on Seil on the West Coast of Scotland not far from Oban, and places aboard his boat Porpoise, an Atlantic Offshore 105 of which he was rightly very proud, and which was a flawless dive platform during our bank holiday weekend trip to Ardmucknish, Corryveckan and the Sound of Mull. I had Darren & Jason with me as Divemaster’s and a party of recently trained Advanced Open Water Divers who had been co-opted into accompanying Aaron Durber, a local & colourful Stafford Landlord, through Open Water Diver and on into the ocean…….

Only Rondo’s shell remains now, you can swim down inside the hull, sheltered from most of a running tide for most of her length, stern to bow, more broken wreckage lies beyond 30 metres and down to the crushed bow at 50 metres. On the return journey there is a choice at various points to swim the outside or stay within the hull. I dived Rondo in 1998 on the first FSAC Scottish dive trip and my little Red Wreck book records: “31/01/98 Sound of Mull, Oban RONDO Rondo holed up in bad weather in Mull and in a real foul patch broke her anchor chain & drifted down the Sound of Mull till hitting rocks and going down. She lies stern up and nearly vertical with the rudder mount @ 6m for ideal deco. There’s not much growth on her (but this was winter) and the hull is bare & easily accessible she was a steam cargo vessel & would bare another dive. Best to go deep then slowly take the rest in Twin 7’s 300 bar independent 2 x Poseidon’s Buddy Colin Woodall”

 I recall the dive being in good viz throughout and the feeling our descent required more than my normal “dump n drop” technique, a sort of free-fall I’d got used to and enjoyed, this was not the time or place despite the viz and I had Colin with me, we both needed to avoid the exposed pieces of potentially dangerous wreckage, whilst giving each other enough space too. It was an enjoyable dive which we took down to around 25m before turning the dive and slowly ascending back through the sparse wreckage we had dropped past, I don’t recall much in the way of sea life either, there was plenty of kelp and weed, Plumrose Anemones etc, but Rondo was an interesting dive for the way she rested, one of few near vertical wrecks I have dived to this day but I had been warned most of the gear and machinery had been salvaged before she sank and the hull was fairly bare. One of the most interesting wrecks in the sound of Mull though, if only for her aspect and the chance for the adventurous to dive to 50m out of the flow of the sound……

Rondo & The Sound of Mull are another of those locations that I’d love another shot at….perhaps one day!