The Mary Rose – 25 Years of Visits

The story of the Mary Rose goes back over 500 years, from when the plans were made for the building to commence in 1510 right to the visitors that walked through the gates of Portsmouth dockyard today to go and see her. She was Henry VIII’s flagship and for almost thirty-five years this vessel had been at the forefront of the King’s navy, right up to the sighting of a French fleet off the Isle of Wight that led to the Mary Rose to head out of Portsmouth harbour and capsize in front of Henry himself. Nobody knows the actual death toll, some say it is up to 700 people, all we know is that only around 35 survived, mostly due to the fact that anti-boarding nets were covering the ship to repel the French boarding teams, instead trapping anybody on board from escaping from the sinking ship. 

The Deane Brothers worked on the wreck in the early 1800s, salvaging a few cannons before once again the remains were lost to history, that is until the early 1970s when Alexander McKee made it his mission to locate the Mary Rose and finally tell the story of this forgotten shipwreck. He was successful and within a few years had salvaged some of the most amazing artefacts that told us more about Tudor history than any other archaeological site. But he was planning something bigger – to raise the entire ship itself. On 11 October 1982 his dream became a reality when he stood by The Prince of Wales (now King Charles III) to watch Henry VIII’s ship finally see the light of day after 437 years.

It was May 1999 when I first came to Portsmouth dockyard to see the museum, I had read about the wreck as a child and was fascinated to learn more about the story, particularly the salvage effort to get an entire shipwreck up and into a museum, a mammoth task that had very rarely been achieved (save for the Vasa in Sweden nearly thirty years before that). But this bank holiday weekend allowed me to finally see the wreck for myself.

Paying for my ticket at the dockyard gate, I made my way over to a more modern and flat roofed building that was out of context compared to the surrounding structures that dated anywhere between the mid-1700s and Victorian times, inside was a wealth of cabinets full of Tudor treasures, the pewter jug that I had seen in a school textbook years earlier, the shiny metal plates that the sailors would eat their meals from, cannon rigged up against the backdrop of a reconstruction of the Mary Rose’s gunports, the list was endless. Models showed how the wreck was raised and photograph displays catalogued the decade-long salvage of the most incredible relics ever salvaged from a shipwreck. Needless to say the gift shop cost me dearly…. I had to get as many souvenirs and books as possible to learn more about this ship and her crew.

But now it was on to the ship itself, kept separate from the artefacts in the dry dock that the wreck was placed in back in 1982. The wreck of the Mary Rose is only half there, as the ship laid on the seabed on her side, the exposed section of the ship was ravaged by time, tides, fishing nets, sea creatures and everything else that could possibly wear it away over four centuries. What remained had been covered in protective mud, the seabed of the Solent being a protector of this time capsule and so as the wreck was raised and later placed in an upright position, it gave a unique exposure to each deck like a cutaway diagram in real-life. As I went to what now resembled a huge white tent, the walkway leading to the Mary Rose was noisy, you could hear the spray systems still covering the timbers with a chemical substance that would replace the water within the timbers, eventually the treatment would stop but back in 1999 it was still very much a work in progress. The glass protecting the visitors from the chemical sprays were very misted up and dirty, it would be impossible to keep them clean, but you could make out the ship as you walked from one end to the other. The cutaway of an archer was placed at the top mid-ships section to signify where the archaeologists had found the remains of an archer with his leather pouch, I had made a note to look out of this after seeing it being highlighted on the TV show Blue Peter back when they did a special report in about 1993. Fascinated to see the Mary Rose at last, I knew that this would not be the last time I would visit the museum and indeed I made a number of further visits over the next few years until finally the museum closed for the last time.

Funding had been granted for the Mary Rose to be housed with all her artefacts in a new purpose-built museum covering the dry dock, all the artefacts were moved out of the current museum and placed in storage while the building work went ahead until finally in 2013 it was time to open the doors. As a member of the Mary Rose society I was gutted that my membership did not get me any kind of access to the ceremony, in fact they had disbanded it completely and renamed it to which I quickly joined and was then invited to be a current guest’s “plus one” to enjoy the opening. At the time I was dating a woman who I had to tell to hang on while I attended this last-minute event, incredibly she completely understood the importance of this and actually waited up the road for me to come back out. I genuinely wondered if she would be waiting there by the time I got out!

The build up was excellent, I met Margaret Rule who was part of the original excavation team back in the 1970s and this then turned into an amazing ceremonial unveiling of the museum with the bell from the Mary Rose making an entrance surrounding by members of the crew of HMS Duncan, the doors opened for guests and I quickly headed inside to see a remarkable exhibition of artefacts and treasures. If I had thought that the previous museum was good, this one just blew me away. To actually see through clear glass windows at the Mary Rose wreck now that the sprays had been stopped was amazing to finally see. But today it was a passing visit as I quickly checked all the exhibits, thanked my host and ran to make sure my date was still waiting for me at the dockyard gates.

Since that day I have visited the Mary Rose Museum so many times I have stopped counting. You can stand on a balcony overlooking the wreck and actually be in the same room as the lost ship, the most surreal experience is being able to smell the wood as you walk in, something that you don’t think about until you are there. More artefacts and exhibitions have been introduced over the last decade including a dog that has been named Hatch (because it was found next to one of the hatches) and a 4D experience of the salvage dives. The museum hosts a café and a well-stocked gift shop that always has something new that then appears on my Christmas list.

Due to my passion about the Mary Rose, it was right that at some point I should include it in my books and I have not only done a chapter in both The 50 Greatest Shipwrecks and Shipwrecks of the Solent, but in tribute to the discoverer I have dedicated the latter to Alexander McKee who in my opinion is a hero of archaeology and this entire project would be nothing without him. Two things at this point made me feel great about this museum, first of all Shipwrecks of the Solent is on sale in the gift shop and secondly my girlfriend did wait for me that day in 2013 and wanted to know all about what I had seen. That girl is now my wife and we have been married since 2016, needless to say we have spent many hours in the Mary Rose Museum ever since.

So in 25 years I have seen a number of amazing changes to the Mary Rose, from the cramped museum with limited artefacts and a ship-hall that you could barely see through the glass, to a custom-built marvel that shows the Mary Rose in all her glory and continues to tell the story of a tragic day in 1545 that ended with a piece of Tudor history being frozen in time.

Here’s to the next 25 years of visits!

Modern Day Submarine Disasters

When you think of a submarine disaster, perhaps your mind goes back to the Kursk or even the Second World War. But In the last 24 years since the sinking of the Kursk there have been a number of accidents and disasters that have cost lives at sea and called into question the safety of some of those that are allowed to dive to depths that perhaps they are not meant to go. Here is a catalogue of some of those accidents (Image left shows a decommissioned Russian submarine).

9 February 2001 – Off the coast of Hawaii, the USS Greeneville surfaced underneath high school training vessel Ehime Maru causing the vessel to sink killing nine of the 35 people on board. The submarine was damaged and the captain took full responsibility. Just months later on 27 August the Greeneville ran aground in Saipan causing minor damage. 

27 January 2002 – In the third incident in a year, USS Greeneville collided with the amphibious transport dock USS Ogden off the coast of Oman causing damage to the Ogden.

May 2003 – Chinese submarine numbered 361 had an incident on board that ended up having the entire crew of 70 killed by suffocation. The submarine was towed to port and a number of senior officers were dismissed from the navy as a result of the inquiry.  

5 October 2004 – During her first voyage since being purchased from the Royal Navy, the Canadian submarine HMCS Chicoutimi (below) was running on the surface in bad weather when water came in through open hatches causing an electrical fire. Several of her crew were airlifted off for medical attention, one of whom died on the way to hospital.

8 January 2005 – Los Angeles Class nuclear submarine USS San Francisco collides with an undersea mountain off Guam with the impact so severe the submarine was almost lost. One sailor was killed and a further 98 others were injured, the bow of the submarine completely wrecked, evident by photos released to the media upon her arrival in Guam two days later which showed the extent of the disaster and an embarrassment to the US Navy.

5 August 2005 – The rescue submersible Priz AS-28 was carrying out operations off the Kamchatka Peninsula when the craft became entangled in netting on the seabed. A huge rescue operation was mounted and Russia accepted the help to rescue the seven crew in response to the disastrous refusal five years earlier during the Kursk disaster. The submarine was freed with very little time to spare and the crew rescued successfully by the Royal Navy (image below shows the Priz surfacing).

6 September 2006 – Russian submarine Daniil Mosokovsky was anchored near the Norwegian border when a fire broke out on board killing two of the crew.

29 December 2006 – The nuclear submarine USS Minneapolis-St Paul was leaving Plymouth, UK, in rough seas after a port visit over the Christmas period. Three crew were helping the pilot to disembark to his boat and were swept overboard as the submarine passed the breakwater, two of them later pronounced dead.

21 March 2007 – The Royal Navy submarine HMS Tireless (below) was carrying out duties near the North Pole when an oxygen explosion in the forward section of the submarine killed two members of the crew.

8 November 2008 – 20 crew of the Russian submarine Nerpa are killed in a gas leak in the Sea of Japan.

11 April 2010 - A shooting on board HMS Astute while on a visit to Southampton leaves one crew member dead and several others injured. The gunman was a crew member and is tackled and later jailed for life. 

14 August 2013 – The Indian submarine Sindhurakshak suffered a fire alongside her berth at Mumbai and explosions caused the loss of the submarine and caused the deaths of 18 of the crew. The submarine was salvaged from her position and later towed out to sea and sunk in deep water (the image below shows the submarine just a few months before the disaster).

11 March 2016 – North Korean submarine is reportedly lost in the Sea of Japan with no further information released other than what US military observations found.

11 August 2017 – In a bizarre case, the home-made submarine UC3 Nautilus sank off Denmark with two people on board, the single survivor, owner Peter Madsen (below) later being found to have murdered the journalist Kim Wall and dismembered her body before deliberately sinking the Nautilus to cover his tracks. He was later jailed for life.

15 November 2017 – The Argentine Navy submarine ARA San Juan vanishes in the South Atlantic with 44 crew on board. A huge search and rescue operation was carried out but the wreck of the submarine was not found until a year and a day later when it was announced that the submarine had imploded and was now laying broken up on the seabed.

1 July 2019 – Russian submarine Losharik suffers a fire on board which kills 14 crew.

21 April 2021 – The forty-year-old Indonesian diesel-electric submarine KRI Nanggala 402 was on a general exercise with 52 people on board when she went missing in the Bali Sea. A search of the area found that she had been found on the seabed in three pieces just 12 miles from where she had reported her last position.

2 October 2021 – US Navy nuclear submarine USS Connecticut collides with an undersea mountain mid-Pacific leaving eleven crew with minor injuries.

18 June 2023 – The commercial submersible Titan (right), owned by exploration company Oceangate was on an expedition to the wreck of the liner Titanic when all contact was lost with the craft. Carrying five crew on board, the international search carried out mid-Atlantic captured the world’s attention as questions were asked about the suitability of the submarine for not only carrying passengers but diving full stop. The wreckage of the submersible was located four days later around 1,600 feet from the Titanic wreck.

20 September 2023 – The South African navy submarine SAS Manthatisi was carrying out a vertical transfer of supplies off Cape Town when seven personnel were swept overboard in rough seas. All the crew were recovered but three of them had died in the accident.

These are submarine disasters are are rarely on any memorial, but the losses of crew and passengers are felt just as much long after the headlines have forgotten them and their memories held by the families of those who are on eternal patrol. 

Wartime Bridlington

Recently I have been researching how the town of Bridlington in East Yorkshire fared during the Second World War in order to write a book on this period of history and document the forgotten stories that link here with some of the news stories that took hold during these six years of hardship and horror. So far I have given two talks on this in Bridlington and managed to interview many people to slowly gather the information together and I am impressed with just how much I am able to find. So this blog entry is an appeal for anybody else out there who can add to this story and provide evidence of  just what went on between 1939 and 1945 that made Bridlington stand out. Here are a few of the stories that I have uncovered and which put this small town on the map. 

SS Lulworth Hill - On 19 March 1943 the cargo ship Lulworth Hill was sailing off the coast of western Africa when, in the early hours of the morning, she was torpedoed and sunk by the Italian submarine Leonardo da Vinci. 15 people survived, one was taken prisoner on the submarine, the other 14 ended up in a fight for survival on a raft with nobody knowing that they were alive. On board this raft were two lads from Bridlington - Kenneth Cooke and Norman Fowler. After an incredible fifty days on the raft, only Kenneth and another man, Hull sailor Colin Armitage, were still alive. They were rescued by HMS Rapid and both were awarded the George Medal and the Lloyds Medal for Bravery upon their return. Kenneth wrote a book about his experience and on the 80th anniversary of his rescue a blue plaque was unveiled on Bridlington Harbour to commemorate his rescue and awards. 

Gibraltar Air Disaster - On 4 July 1943 a plane carrying Polish leader General Wladyslaw Sikorski took off from the airport in Gibraltar in the middle of a tour of the troops around the battlefields of North Africa and Europe, on board was Bridlington resident Warrant Telegraphist Harry Pinder from Hilderthorpe Road and over a dozen others. But seconds after take-off the plane plunged into the sea and killed 16 of the 17 people on board, the body of Harry Pinder was never found. There have been many conspiracy theories surrounding this disaster but the cause of the crash was thought to be the controls jamming. 

George Cross - When the George Medal and the George Cross was first announced by the King in 1940 one man became the first civilian to be awarded the GC for his bravery during the bombing raids over Bridlington - ARP warden Thomas Hopper Alderson. In August 1940 he pulled out a woman alive from a bombed house on St Alban Road, then days later a family under a collapsed shop on Manor Street and then for a third time when a café collapsed and trapped more people under rubble on Prince Street. Alderson was one of many people who dug with their bare hands to remove the remains of the buildings without any consideration for their own lives, but he was the figurehead of this bravery and so he was put forward to be awarded the GC which he accepted but on behalf of those who were with him on all occasions. He was very humble about his award and would even go on to be awarded another from the RSPCA for assisting in the rescue of horses from a burning stable. His medals are currently on display at the Imperial War Museum. 

George Medals - As well as Kenneth Cooke, three George Medals were awarded to men at Bridlington railway station for an action that took place in July 1940 when a bombing raid saw five people killed on Hilderthorpe Road and a train loaded with ammunition be set on fire in the process. Again without any consideration for their own lives, Ernest Barker from Bridlington, Arthur Harrison and George Whitehurst from Hull, battled the blazes and were successful in saving the station from certain devastation. All three were awarded the GM and plaques were unveiled in 2023 and 2024 for all three heroes in the station hall.

VIP Visits - Prior to the D-Day landings there was a lot of military movement in and around the town, with tanks going down the street and checkpoints set up all over the roadside. But on one occasion it was host to a very special visit when a parade of cars were saluted as they travelled down Cardigan Road - King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth (later our Queen), Montgomery, Eisenhower and even Churchill. To have this many people as high in the British establishment as this in one place was extraordinary! But it was certainly memorable. 

RAF - While there were airfields nearby at Carnaby, Driffield and Lisset, RAF Bridlington was a collection of places dotted around the town consisting of barracks, training areas and guest houses all utilised to contain airmen who were taking part in training in and around the town. Tragedy hit several of the guest houses as the bombing raids led to a number of deaths and injuries, but all in all the town was a huge success to the servicemen who trained here including the fast patrol boats used by Lawrence of Arabia previously in the training of attack aircraft just off the coast. 

HMS Bridlington - The Bangor class minesweeper Bridlington was adopted by the town after her completion and had a friendly affiliation with it's namesake for many years. During the war years she took part in the disastrous Dieppe raid as well as the 1944 D-Day landings before being handed over to the RAF in 1947. After several more years of work including a trip to the Indian Ocean area, she was decommissioned in 1955 and scrapped at Plymouth. The items from the Bridlington such as the name plate and bell are now on display at the Harbour Heritage Museum. 

No 5 Commando - In 1940 Winston Churchill ordered the formation of an elite unit of Army commando's set up to "wreak havoc" on the coasts of the enemy, and so No 5 Commando was born. Set up at Bute House guest house on The Crescent in Bridlington, this became the HQ of the unit from 18 July 1940 until mid-November that same year when it moved on. The training carried out and the later missions of the men involved would later go down in history as being some of the most terrifying missions carried out such as Operation Chariot when the old warship HMS Campbeltown was rigged with explosives and rammed a dry-dock in St Nazaire in 1942, preventing the German battleship Tirpitz from using it later. On 3 April 2024 a plaque will be unveiled at the HQ at No 6 The Crescent, now known as the Carlton Apartments. 

There are so many more aspects to Bridlington at war; the Home Front stories, evacuees, the beach being out of bounds, hidden guns on the harbour, U-boats off the coast, pillboxes on the cliffs, deaths in a foreign land, prisoners of war, rationing and the other bombing raids. So far my research has uncovered so many interesting stories, there is still time to add to this if anybody out there can help with stories, photographs, items of interest (ration books, ID cards, newspapers) that relate to Bridlington at war then please get in touch. My email address is shipwreckdata@yahoo.co.uk or I can be found on my Facebook page www.facebook.com/shipwreck.data if social media is easier. My mission is to get as much of this history preserved for the future generations. 

An air raid siren above Manor Street branch of TSB, still there after over 80 years.

Steve Rigby - The Original Mr. Titanic

In 1997 I had the privilege to attend the British Titanic Society’s annual convention in Southampton where, as a 16 year old lad, I met some like minded people, some really great Titanic experts and even the last survivor Millvina Dean. But one of the people who really made that weekend for me was Steve Rigby, a man obsessed with the Titanic and one that’s enthusiasm and morale was infectious.

The excitement at being in the presence of so many people with the same interest as me was brilliant, so seeing Steve for the first time and introducing myself was definitely memorable, not only because at this first meeting I asked him – “So, what have you got on Titanic then?” His reply? “Everything!”

I was very much inclined to believe him!

Stephen William Rigby was born on 12^th March 1959 to William and Hilda, brother to Sue and Denise. He graduated from  St Marys Astley school in 1975 and had been researching the sinking of the Titanic since the age of 8 when his cousin had shown him a copy of the bestselling book A Night to Remember which was written by Walter Lord. From that moment on he was hooked.

As the years went by he became more and more fascinated with the story and joined the British Titanic Society with a number of other like-minded people in 1987, taking on the role of secretary a few years later. The doors that opened up for him were phenomenal as people from all over the world joined the society and this attracted some very important Titanic-related people into the mix. Soon he would rub shoulders with the survivors and relatives of those who had been on board highlighting these friendships at the annual BTS Conventions where I met him all those years ago. 

But Titanic was more than just an interesting subject, he would take it to heart the commemorations and remembrances, he would become angry at the conspiracy theories that were being made up regarding the claim that Olympic was really Titanic and would voice his opinions that these claims were absolute rubbish. 

Then one day in 2001, while he was carrying out his day job as a postman in Lowton, he found out that he had won a competition to actually dive the Titanic wreck. This was an incredible dream come true, heading out to the site of his passion aboard the research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh and boarding the submersible Mir 1 for his life changing dive to the most famous shipwreck in history. 

 On 29^th July 2001 he finally made the descent to the wreck site. Things got a bit hairy on this dive when the sub collided with it’s sister Mir 2 which was close by at the time but they were recovered without an issue.  

This had not been the first bit of bad luck as his luggage containing two memorial plaques to lay on the wreck had not followed him across the Atlantic and was instead still at Heathrow Airport. Thankfully it was found and sent over to him just in time…..15 minutes before the ship sailed for the wreck!

His six hour dive on the wreck was breath-taking for him and he returned to shore with so many incredible memories, becoming only the 62^nd person ever to dive Titanic. But it did not end there. Four years later he got a second chance to visit the wreck. Together with Brigitte Saar, they published a book on their diving experience on the wreck in 2006 titled “The Ultimate Experience – Our Dive to the Titanic.”

Steve continued being active within the BTS and his organisation hosted conventions in every Titanic related city including Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the Titanic's victims were recovered and brought back by four ships that were sent out after the disaster and where many are now laid to rest.

Steve always wanted to organise something for the 100^th anniversary of the Titanic disaster but sadly he never got the chance. He died on 8^th May 2011, at Wigan Infirmary, at the age of 52. his funeral was held on 20^th May at Howe Bridge Crematorium in Atherton, Lancashire.

But this is where his legacy lived on, for his family continued his journey and in April 2012 his ashes were scatted over the wreck of the Titanic when the liner Balmoral made the centenary memorial voyage. It is where he would have wanted to be.

(Thanks to his sister Sue for some of the information and photos)

Submarine Disasters Through History

Since the first submarines were tested in the 1700's and 1800's there have been revolutions in design until we see the sleek and silent boats that patrol the world's oceans today. (Note - a submarine is always referred to as a boat, never a ship.) But while ever there have been these innovations, there have been accidents, mistakes and in many cases major disasters. So here are few notable submarine tragedies that have made headlines over the years, some are today household names, others are remembered only by a few historians. All are important to learn from and every one of them has sailors who will no longer go back to their families, on eternal patrol. 

HL Hunley - Designed by Horace Hunley, this cigar-shaped submarine was the first underwater contraption to successfully sink a surface ship during the American Civil War. USS Housatonic was laying at anchor off South Carolina on the night of 17 February 1864 when a the Hunley rammed her torpedo into the side of the ship and immediately reversed. As the sub retreated the explosives detonated and the Housatonic went down. Hunley and her eight crew were never seen again until her wreck was discovered by E. Lee Spence in the 1970's (not by Clive Cussler, as is often claimed). The wreck of Hunley was raised in 2000 and is now in a nearby museum, her eight crew were given a proper burial. What is less well known is that this was the third time Hunley had gone down, twice during previous trials saw her fail to surface leading to the deaths of 13 people. 

Affray - The Amphion-class submarine HMS Affray was launched in 1944 but commissioned too late to serve in the Second World War. She was refitted with a snorkel mast in 1949 and proceeded to sea as normal with no issues. On 16 April 1951 she set out to take part in a standard exercise and submerged carrying a total of 75 crew including a number of people brought to conduct special operations and training. On the next day Affray missed her usual status report and so a search began for the submarine. Not a trace of her was found until two months later when the Affray was found on the seabed off the island of Alderney. A recovery of the snort mast suggested that this contributed to her loss. Today there are twin memorials to the disaster in both Gosport (above) and Alderney. 

Thresher (right) - One of the first American nuclear submarines and with the latest designs in weaponry and propulsion, the USS Thresher was taking part in trials with the submarine rescue ship USS Skylark in off the coast of Massachusetts on 10 April 1963 when suddenly all contact was lost with the submarine and her 129 crew. Despite a huge search operation, the wreck was eventually located on the seabed in thousands of small pieces. An investigation came to the conclusion that the Thresher must have exceeded her critical depth limit and imploded.

Dakar (below) - Launched as the Royal Navy's HMS Totem, she was sold to the Israeli navy in 1965 and renamed INS Dakar. On 25 January 1968 she was at sea with a crew of 68 when she vanished on her way to her new home port, having never actually made it to her new owners. The wreck was discovered in 1999 but the cause of her loss remains a mystery. She was the first submarine in a number of major losses that made 1968 a terrible twelve months for submariners.

Minerve - The French diesel-electric submarine Minerve was launched in 1961 and had a successful career at sea over the coming years. She had sailed from Toulon on her final voyage and on 27 January 1968 submerged just 25 miles away from her base when she suddenly lost contact with everybody. The submarine and her crew of 52 would not be found until 2019 when the wreck was finally located by a search team over fifty years later. 

K-129 - The Golf II class Russian submarine K-129 vanished in the Pacific on 8 March 1968 and a search by their support vessels found no trace of the submarine or her crew of 98. Eventually the search was called off, but in the meantime American listening stations had not only picked up what they believed to be the submarine sinking, but they knew roughly where it was. In the August of that year a survey ship located the wreck and confirmed it's identity. A top secret operation was now launched and the offshore drill ship Hughes Glomar Explorer was built especially to recover the submarine. The mission was a partial success and the ship recovered a large portion of the sunken K-129, the story eventually being public knowledge in 1975. 

Scorpion - The American nuclear submarine USS Scorpion was observing Soviet naval activity in mid-Atlantic on 22 May 1968 when all contact was lost. With 99 crew on board, there have been many theories as to what happened to the boat, one book claiming a Russian torpedo attack sank her, others say that a catastrophic failure of the hull led to implosion. The wreck is very much like that of the Thresher, many pieces of the boat scattered over a wide area. Both Thresher and Scorpion were visited by ocean explorer Robert Ballard in the weeks before his successful search for the wreck of the Titanic in 1985. 

Kursk - One of the world's largest submarines, the Russian Oscar II class Kursk was launched in 1994 in the shadow of the fall of the Soviet Union, at over 500 feet in length and with a beam of 60 feet, she had two nuclear reactors and was a formidable enemy for those who would ever choose to pick a fight with the Russian navy. But this submarine met disaster on 12 August 2000 when, in the middle of a huge exercise in the Barents Sea, a torpedo explosion ripped the submarine's bow open and she plunged to the seabed. It took two days to reveal the disaster to the world, by then all 118 crew were dead. The wreck of the Kursk was raised a year later and scrapped, the Russian military being blamed for using out-of-date and dangerous torpedoes.

Titan - In one of the most headline-hitting sub-surface incidents in recent years, the commercial submersible Titan was built by OceanGate, a company that carried out exploration of the deep ocean using home-made submersibles and unfortunately cutting corners with costs and safety. The company offered paid trips to the wreck of the Titanic where a "mission specialist" would pay $250,000 to join the expedition. On 18 June 2023 the Titan was launched with five people on board, one of them the CEO of OceanGate, for a dive to the wreck with the French pilot and three "Mission Specialists." The sub failed to return to the surface and a huge rescue operation was launched. Four days later wreckage on the seabed confirmed that Titan had imploded and there were no survivors. 

Today there are many memorials to the lost submarines of the world. During the two world wars around 1000 submarines went down, within the last few years alone a number of them have sunk belonging to Argentina, Russia and Indonesia, their crews forever entombed in their steel coffins. A memorial in London on the side of the River Thames commemorates the lost Royal Navy submariners (below), another in Kiel lists every member of crew lost on every U-boat. While submarine disasters these days are rare, they are still a possibility, as is shown with the recent loss of the Titan. All we can do is send our thoughts to those who have lost loved ones and hope that lessons will be learned. 

Mark Terrell – Royal Navy Diver and a Man of Many Talents

In 1997 I was front page of my local newspaper, the Bridlington Free Press, talking about the wreck of the Bonhomme Richard off the East Yorkshire coast, asking for anybody who could help to get in touch. Several people did, including a man named Mark Terrell, who invited me round to his flat in Park Avenue for a tea and a chat.

My friend and I greeted him and sat down in his living area while he talked about the seabed off the coast and the compilation of sediment, rocks and sand. It turned out that he was a diver years ago and quite an innovator, but first he would make us tea. “It’s Smokey Tea,” he said to us. “You might have to pick the bits out with your teeth.”

We did not have a clue what he was going on about until we saw what he gave us, no idea what it was to this day but indeed there were bits floating around like small planks of wood. Mark found our faces hilarious as we took a sip and politely put it down, him still laughing of course.

Mark became a friend over time and I went to see him a few times over the years and he told me how easy it was to make my own diving kit and regulator (as a 17/18 year old there was no way I could attempt that!) and then told me how he had written a paper on the brain. This guy was super-intelligent and, it turned out, ex Royal Navy, although he did not tell me just what he did in the Navy during his career.

Born on 15^th August 1925, Mark Terrell started his life in London during the inter-war years, joining the Royal Navy as an officer in 1939, taking up his training at Dartmouth that year and specialising in underwater aspects which included diving and submarines. One of his jobs that made the papers was that of the French trawler Vert Prairial which had grounded on 14th March 1952 off the Cornish coast, a team of Royal Navy divers being sent to the wreck to attempt to recover the missing eight bodies from the crew of 17 who had been all lost. After a thorough search in dangerous conditions, the wreck was empty.

Several years after this Mark and his diving buddies were in the papers again when, in the murky waters of West India Dock in London a live 1600lb Second World War German mine had been discovered. A team of divers was assembled on 26^th January 1957 consisting of Commander Gordon Gutteridge and Lieutenant-Commander Mark Terrell along with a number of others who were now being kitted up to deal with this unexploded ordnance problem. The mission to dispose of the mine went on for eight hours in the cold winter gloom, 26 feet down in the Thames, but at long last it was mission accomplished. For this Mark was awarded the MBE.

That year, at the age of 31, Mark left the Navy after 18 years’ service and started a company named Underseas Ltd with a few others, a career that he carried on with for seven years before he left to be an independent marine consultant where he was able to pursue his true love which was science and writing. During this time he went on to develop a number of devices that were tested and used in the diving industry, penning his book The Principles of Diving in 1965. Staying with the theme of underwater exploration, he appeared on a BBC documentary around the time of the mine incident talking about the Loch Ness Monster in “Legends of the Loch,” diving into the calm waters of the Scottish lake searching for Nessie (although he did not actually believe it existed), looking at whatever was down there although finding nothing of interest.

His work on researching the human brain went in a new direction in 1988 when he became involved in a group of students whereby new models were developed and innovative research opened new avenues of study, this eventually taking over 20 years of work where he wrote a privately published book The Resonant Triad.

His travels with the Royal Navy did not end with his discharge, the 1980s saw him moving to a Greek island where he spent many days in the sun before heading to the East Yorkshire seaside town of Bridlington where he settled down in what became his favourite place. It is here where I spent many hours chatting to Mark and getting to know him, a kind and gentle figure who spoke with a low voice and was always welcoming. I helped him move to another apartment in the summer of 2006 where he accidentally fell over his own things, at first I was worried but he laughed it off as he had a soft landing on a mountain of paperwork. I said goodbye to him and that was the last time I saw him.

Mark later went on to have a bad fall which, combined with a progressive illness, led to him being in the Meadows Care Home in Northamptonshire. While he did continue to keep fit as much as he could and still keep an active mind, he eventually passed away on 18^th January 2011 at the age of 85. His body was donated to London Medical School as per his last wishes.

(Many thanks to his daughter Katherine for helping me with the information on his early life and naval career).

Southampton Airport Crash - Miracle on the M27

On 26th May 1993 an aircraft was inbound to Southampton (Eastleigh) Airport awaiting permission to land after a short flight from Oxford, so early that the airport had not even opened when the plane took off. The 12 year old Cessna 550 Citation II executive jet had seating for 9 people but today carried no passengers, just the pilot and co-pilot making the regular scheduled commute between the two airports. 

Following a rainy night, the runway was now wet and carried a large amount of water. Eight passengers were due to board the aircraft for a short flight to Eindhoven and on this morning the airport was actually unaware of their arrival otherwise they would have had to prepare for a very early arrival before the airport officially opened at 0700. 

Chris Rundle was the Air Traffic Controller at Southampton Airport that morning. Carrying out pre-opening checks while the second ATC was getting ready to carry out his airfield inspection in heavy rain, down below the Fire Crew were carrying out their early morning inspections ready for the airport opening. Three years previously he had been involved in an incident that had made headlines when a pilot of a British Airways jet had been sucked out of the cockpit window, Chris being the one to talk the aircraft to a safe landing where they found that miraculously the pilot, Captain Tim Lancaster, had survived the ordeal. But today was his last shift for a couple of weeks as he was getting married at the end of the week so he was looking forward to the wedding and some time off.

Suddenly a call came through from the private jet asking for permission to land early, claiming it had permission from the Operations Department to land before they opened, Chris advised him that the airport was closed and that the weather was terrible, but the pilot insisted on landing on Runway 22. At this point he could not give them permission because firstly the airport was not open which made them unlicenced an secondly it was not safe to do so. He said that he was attempting to land on a very wet runway with a  15 knot tailwind, the pilot acknowledged and made his approach.

The heavy thunderstorm was making visibility difficult, but the wheels touched down on the runway, the aircraft was now suddenly out of control and refusing to stop. The end of the runway was getting closer and the pilots frantically tried to reduce speed but nothing could be done.

The nose of the Cessna 500 smashed through the barriers and plunged down an embankment and onto the M27, spinning 180 degrees and finally coming to a stop in the central barrier, crashing into two vehicles along the way. The aircraft began leaking fuel onto the motorway and to the horror of those who could see it, the plane then burst into flames.

Chris Rundle looked on in horror from his position in the tower. “As the aircraft landed it was obvious that it was going too fast and was apparently aquaplaning so as it went off the end of the runway I sounded the crash alarm and luckily the Fire Crew responded immediately, one vehicle heading for the end of the runway, the other heading for the motorway slip road to get to the aircraft where they found that the crew had evacuated the aircraft and commenced firefighting long before the Eastleigh Crew arrived.”

Incredibly there were no deaths. The two pilots managed to get out and the emergency services were on scene to deal with the crash. Like a well-oiled machine, the motorway lanes were closed, traffic diverted and wreckage removed. The official Air Accidents Investigation Branch report a year later announced that the cause of the crash was blamed on the pilot landing with a tail wind that was outside the limits of what should be attempted.

In 2021 this incident appeared in my book Britain’s Lost Tragedies Uncovered where images of the plane crash taken by passing motorist Martin Cole and an interview with police officer Adrian Walder built up this story and showed that this was one disaster that could have been so much worse if it had been later on in the morning or if the motorway had been crowded with traffic.