The Shipwrecks of Cornwall

After the success of a number of books on lost ships, most recently Shipwrecks of the Solent, I was tasked with writing a similar one for the Cornish coast, a place that is steeped in history, mystery and drama. I already knew a lot of the wrecks by name - the Darlwyne, RMS Mulheim, Pescado - but this gave me a chance to hunt down and study shipwrecks that were sat in my files untouched for many years. So this is a brief rundown of some of the wrecks that I have taken the time to write about during my visit to Cornwall in the August of 2026. 

RMS Mulheim - The story of this ship grounding on rocks is almost put down for comedy value if it wasn't for the fact that it caused an environmental threat, and the fact a guy probably thinks about this every day of his life now! It was 22 March 2003 and the ship was taking a cargo of plastic waste past the Cornish coast, it was the middle of the night and the one person who was on watch on the bridge got up from his chair. Unfortunately his trousers hooked on to the chair lever and sent him flying, knocking him unconscious and leaving the ship sailing with nobody at the helm. When he came around to his horror he found the ship heading for the rocks. With no way ot turn her around, the RMS Mulheim grounded and has been there ever since near Maen Castle, the salvage of the cargo being mostly successful and today the wreckage of the stern and much of the structure is scattered on the cove. Climbing down to the wreck - very carefully - I managed to get up close to the wreck that after 23 years still has blue paint on her and the name visible. She has become quite a tourist attraction over the last two decades! 

Hera - The tragic sinking of the Hera in 1914 led to the deaths of nineteen of the crew, but only 16 bodies were recovered. The captain was sent back to his family but the other fifteen bodies were laid end to end in what is now Britain's longest grave at the church in the village of Veryan (left). 

Darlwyne - A modern day tragedy of the motor cruiser Darlwyne that didn't even have a licence to carry the people that she set off with on 31 July 1966. The two crew were hosting 29 passengers for a day trip when the return leg had her vanish without trace. A rescue operation found twelve bodies floating in the coming days but no sign of the missing vessel until 2018 when diver Nick Lyon located the remains of the boat on the seabed, scattered into small pieces over the years. In the church at St Mylor near Falmouth are a number of graves of the victims and inside is a memorial panel listing all those who died on that tragic day. 

Solomon Browne/Union Star - In what is still one of the most awful stories of the Cornish coast, the wreck of the Union Star with eight crew and the loss of the rescue lifeboat Solomon Browne , also with eight crew, still brings a tear to the eyes of the locals today. On 19 December 1981 the Union Star got into difficulties and as they drifted closer to the rocks following engine failure, the Penlee lifeboat was launched to rescue the crew. In dreadful weather and stormy seas the lifeboat radioed that they had managed to get four crew on board, but then that was the last anybody ever heard of the Solomon Browne. The following day the Union Star was seen to be upside down on the rocks, the lifeboat smashed to pieces nearby. There were no survivors from each. Today there are memorials (above) at the old lifeboat station (which is a listed building) and the medals posthumously given to the eight crew and displayed in the new lifeboat station around a mile down the road in their visitors centre. 

Milly - A cargo ship torpedoed by a submarine in the First World War, the Milly had on board a gun that was latere salvaged and placed outside the pub The Golden Lion in the village of Port Isaac (left). 

Mohegan - A liner with over 100 people on board, she went down after a navigational error in 1898 saw her ground onto rocks and sink with 106 people killed. At the church of St Keverne a mass grave stands testament to the number of people killed in this disaster, a memorial window inside the church honours those who died and the Museum of Cornish Life has a number of artefacts recovered from the wreck on display. 

This is just a snapshot of the shipwrecks that I have been writing about recently and each of these was a visit to a memorial, wreck or artefact that tells the story of the maritime history of Cornwall, a treacherous but fascinating coast that continues to teach us as more discoveries are made. The book I have written will most likely be out in 2027, published by Amberley who have been amazing at allowing me to run projects that have so far included wrecks of the Solent, Yorkshire Coast and highlighting the ships involved in the Titanic disaster. Cornwall was a fascinating place to visit and I would happily go there again to further my research into shipwrecks and history. 

The Firefighters of the Portsmouth Blitz

As a regular visitor to the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth I always find something new to take a photograph of and one of the things that caught my eye in early 2025 as I was in the café at Boat House 7 was a plaque dedicated to the 21 firefighters who had lost their lives during the air raids on the city in the Second World War. Now I was no stranger to reading about the blitz and the horrors of the mass bombing campaign that devastated Portsmouth, Plymouth, Coventry, Liverpool, Hull and of course London (to name just a few!), but when I posted the image online I was surprised to get somebody contact me telling me all about their relative who was listed on the plaque and was one of those twenty-one brave firefighters who had died and it was unveiled on 27 September 2019. 

John Charles Mullane, also known as Jack, was born in Portsmouth in 1916 and at the time of the war breaking out he was living in the Milton area of Portsmouth and had been married since 1938, him and his wife having two young boys together. A member of Portsmouth Auxiliary Fire Service, he was finding that he was one of the most active people in the city as the bombs rained down on the dockyards and caused devastation that would demolish homes and leave residents running for the air raid shelters.

By 1941 the country had been at war for two years and Portsmouth had suffered not only with the air attacks but the fact that it was very much a naval city and as each warship was sunk by enemy action the families got that dreaded telegram saying that their loved one was lost at sea. But it was people like Jack Mullane that keep the city going, putting out the fires and helping rescue those trapped in the rubble and wreckage of what was left of the streets and homes.

On 9 March 1941 he based at HMS Vernon, a shore base at the entrance to Portsmouth harbour which trained the bomb disposal and mine clearance personnel of the Royal Navy. A bombing raid on 9 March 1941 had him on scene doing what he did best, but alas like twenty other fire fighters in the city during the war years, he was killed doing his job. He was just twenty-five years old.

Portsmouth was hit heavily the following night and once again Vernon as well as the dockyard and surrounding area was hit hard, by the end of the war 930 people had been killed in these raids, with over 1200 injured and a fifth of all homes destroyed across the city. But like the other cities, the people were resilient and they came through fighting, but the price to pay was immense.

Today there are a number of reminders of the blitz in Portsmouth, the red plaque in the dockyard commemorates the twenty-one firefighters, a monument by Portsmouth Cathedral marks the site of the 10 January 1941 bombing and the victims trapped in a cellar while sheltering, and the clock that was destroyed overlooking the dockyard was replaced in 1993 and once again chimes over the buildings that stood up to Nazi bombardment.

With so many people involved in the survival of the blitz it is hard to pinpoint specific stories, but having the ability to highlight just one of these firefighters and put a face to a name makes it all worthwhile. Now heroes like Jack Mullane will never be forgotten for their sacrifice.

The Atomic Bomb at Nagasaki - 9 August 1945 (by Graham Lovegrove)

Three Days Previous

On this day, as I write, 80 yrs ago the Boeing B29 Enola Gay released the ‘Little Boy’ bomb over Hiroshima, thus entering the world into the atomic age.

The effect was devastating and even after so many years passing, the memory stands large.  Even though nearly all living people weren’t born on that day the mention of Hiroshima immediately recalls ‘The Atom Bomb’.

And then there was the event at Nagasaki.

The Second Bomb

I have recently been aware that while there are many documentaries featuring Hiroshima, there is far less shown (and known) about the second bombing.

When it is mentioned, it seems to be given lip service, almost a forgotten event.

The Development

While the atomic particles for ’Little Boy’ were produced at Oakridge, Tennessee, those for ‘Fat Man’ were processed in Hanford B Reactor in Washington State.

This creation was the same as that used for the first atomic test at the Trinity site and used what was called a Plutonium-fuelled implosion device.

 

Tinian Island

On Tinian Island the bomb was loaded and the crew of Boeing B29 ‘Bockscar’ were fuelled and prepared for a more than 12 hour flight to the primary target at Kokura, Japan.

The crew were:

Pilot – Capt. Charles Sweeney

Bombardier – Capt. Kermit Beaham

Weaponeer – Manhattan Project veteran Commander Frederick Ashworth

After take-off the crew were given a weather update saying the site was clear. When arriving over Kokura more than 12 hrs later, all they had was thick cloud cover. After 45 minutes and three attempts of not being able to track their target, and concern over fuel levels, the course was changed and it was set for the alternate target site: Nagasaki.

Alternate Target

When arriving over Nagasaki there was thick cloud which had since developed there too. To the north of the city was a break in the cloud which gave the crew an opportunity to perform one fly over; after dropping the bomb, from 1,650 ft, at 11.05pm the bomb detonated over the Urakami Valley, northwest of the City centre.

‘Fat Man’s 21,000 tons of TNT instantly vaporised an estimated 40.000 people, followed by 30,000 more lost to injury and radiation poisoning. The south-eastern area of the city, with its industrial and governmental buildings, were largely undamaged but still about 40% of buildings were destroyed.

Divided into two coastal valleys, and the city separated by a range of hills, the uneven landscape weakened the effect of the detonation, causing less damage to the city than the Hiroshima bomb even though ‘Fat Man’ was far more powerful than the ‘Little Boy’ bomb.

The crew felt the shockwave from the explosion while heading away. They were even lower on fuel at this point and had no chance of flying the 2,553 kilometres to Tinian Island. The crew made their way to the Isle of Okinawa where an emergency landing was performed.

 

 

The Dalton Gang Bank Raid In Coffeyville Kansas - 5th October 1892 (by Graham Lovegrove)

In 1879 a Colonel James A. Coffey formed a settlement in Indian territory, creating an Indian trading post. Two years later a railway stop was added there on the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston railroad. This depot gave the area access to other markets and business opportunities. Soon after this the railway company posted a surveyor, Napoleon B. Blanton, to the trading post in order to set out the layout for the town. A name was needed for this new town, and a toss of a coin between Colonel Coffey and U.S. ARMY Captain Blanton agreed it should be named Coffeyville. The town was officially founded in 1862 and incorporated in 1873 as Coffeyville. 

Who were the Daltons?

By the time the Daltons had arrived onto the scene most of the big names of the wild west, Billy the Kid, Jesse James (James Gang), Cole Younger etc. were either dead or imprisoned. Adeline Lee Younger, of the notorious Younger family, married James Lewis Dalton, though her husband would continually disappear leaving her to bring up her children, all fifteen, as by then he had left for good. Her young family grew up on land left to her by her father in Cass County, Missouri. Elder son Frank became a Marshall who was shot and killed when battling horse rustlers. Bob, Grat and young Emmett joined the law enforcement but abused the position by rustling horses and sold them and whiskey, which was illegal, to the Indians. After giving the law a bad name, they were fired from the job and so began a life of crime; they were set on rustling horse herds then moving on to robbing trains and banks. At the same time their previous boss Judge Parker’s possies, and Marshalls, were hot on their trail. Meanwhile, the Dalton Gang were becoming well known throughout the west, often leaving a trail of blood behind them. At this time the gang had several outlaws to call on for their raids; Bill Power, Bill Doolin, Bitter Creek, Dick Broadwell to name just a few

I’ve got a plan.

Bob Dalton had an itch to outdo Jesse James, and all previous outlaw raids, by attempting a feat never even considered possible by his peers. His plan was to take a selected group of five men, including himself, and rob two banks at the same time, making him rich and famous. On the night of the 4^th  of October Bob and his chosen band, brothers Grat and Emmett along with Bill Power and Dick Broadwell, camped overnight at Onion Creek, west of Coffeyville.  

5th October 1892                        

The following morning they made their way into town on horseback. The street between the two banks had been dug up along with the hitching posts for repairs, meaning there was nowhere to tie up the horses, so Bob chose the alley across the road from the Condon bank to use as a corral by the old jail. As youngsters the Daltons grew up in this town so to avoid being recognised tried to hide beneath a beard and moustache. There were more people around the plaza than they expected and were caught out for not carrying out a reconnaissance of the place that hadn’t been visited since childhood. Exiting the alley, the two groups crossed the plaza with Grat, Dick Broadwell and Bill Power entering the front door of the C.M. Condon bank, but they were recognised by a local citizen who saw through the fake facial coverings, and watching the gang through the big front windows saw a cashier was suddenly being fronted by a Winchester rifle they called out across the plaza “THE BANK IS BEING ROBBED”.

At this time the other band of Bob and Emmett had rushed over to the First National Bank and were seen with their weapons entering. On the warning call the town’s citizens sprang into action, collecting weapons and ammunition from Isham Hardware, then taking positions outside the Condon bank while others watched the side doors of the banks. Both sets of robbers were having the staff fill their grain sacks with monies or silver and gold coins. At the Conlon Grat Dalton ordered the safe to be emptied but the cashier said that it cannot be opened as the timer lock will not release until 9.30am, and that it was at that time only 9.20am. Grat is quoted as saying “We will wait”. It was a bluff that helped give extra time for the gathering citizens outside to build up their numbers. The bluff was that there was no timer and that the safe could have been opened anyway.

While researching this I came across this statement regarding the safe event, though I am not sure just how authentic and accurate it is, but I like the notion of it being real …

‘If the robbers had bothered to check the bank’s clock they would have seen that it was in fact already 9.40am’

It was during this period that the shooting began.

The gunfight

It began with a hail of bullets through the Condon Bank’s windows by the citizens assembled in the plaza, though nobody inside was injured. The outlaws fired back while still waiting for the safe to be opened, with some civilians being injured, then the gang retreated to the back looking for a way of escape. As Bob and Emmett flee from the First National Bank they are shot at from over by Isham Hardware, but not hit.

I cannot be sure just how exact this section is, though I think some probably is correct. The basic events are certainly true.

When Bob and Emmett walked out the front door of the First National, with their grain sack full of monies and gold, they were shot upon and made a swift retreat back into the bank. Taking cashier Thomas Ayres as a hostage, they went out through the back door into an alley. There, watching the back exit, was Lucius Baldwin holding up his pistol. Bob ordered him to drop this gun but with no response to his order Bob shot and killed Baldwin, being the first casualty of the event. Thomas Ayres had been left on the sidewalk now, with the gunslingers moving forward they entered the small alley onto 8^th and saw George Cubine, one time friend of the young Bob. George was waiting for the outlaws to leave through the front door and was holding up his Winchester. Bob shot him in the head. Cubin’s partner Charles Brown was standing next to him, unarmed; he reached down and when lifting up George’s rifle was shot dead by Bob. Meanwhile, Thomas Ayres had made his way to a hardware store and came out with a rifle; he saw Bob Dalton shoot Charles Brown and aimed the rifle at him. Bob aimed his Winchester from 200 ft and shot Ayres in the head.

Possibly the worst suffering victim of the day, Ayres survived but didn’t recover from his wound and was permanently disabled.

Bob and Emmett headed off to join the group. As the Condon raiders left the building through the side door they faced a hail of bullets and the three of them were hit when heading to the alley; their bad choice of location was now looking precarious with the posse all firing wildly down the alleyway at them. Bill Power was to die there. Town Marshall Connelly was already in the alley and was by the horses. He was the last civilian to die that day. Also in that cauldron with him was a local sharpshooter named John J Kloehr, who shot the already injured gang leader Bob Dalton in the chest before turning on the toughest of the gang, Grat Dalton, who had just shot down Marshall Connolly. Already probably mortally wounded, Grat was struggling with his rifle when Kloehr’s Winchester finished another Dalton with a bullet to the throat and a broken neck. Dick Broadwell mounted his horse and, though already injured with a back injury, rode off for an escape; unfortunately for him, a ball from Kloehr’s Winchester and a rifle full of shot had him bleeding and dying on his horse. He was found half a mile away with his horse. The gunfight would last for just 12 minutes from first till last shots fired, with four town citizens and four outlaws dead that day as well as a number of horses.

The last Dalton gang member

Emmett managed his way to the hell, where his brothers were dying, without being struck himself until then receiving shots while about to attempt an escape. He stopped on his horse and turned back, leaning over and trying to haul up his brother Bob; while still being fired upon the youngest gang member fell. Having suffered 23 bullet wounds Emmett quite remarkably survived and the slugs were removed from his body, after which he was sentenced and given a lifetime at Kansas Penitentiary. Having been given a pardon after 14 years in jail a new gang was formed as the Doolin-Dalton gang. Eventually he became a real estate agent in California, an author and an actor playing himself in one of the movies. He died at the age of 66.

True or not true?

THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE:

On February 6, 1891, after Bob Dalton had joined his brothers in California. A Southern Pacific passenger train was held up. The Daltons were accused of the robbery, based on little evidence. Bob escaped and Bill Dalton was acquitted, but Grat was arrested, convicted, and put on a train headed for a 20-year prison sentence. According to one account, Grat was handcuffed to one deputy and accompanied by another.

After the train had gone some distance according to one account, one deputy fell asleep and the other busied himself talking to other passengers. As it was a hot day, all the windows were open. Suddenly, Grat jumped up and dived headfirst out of the train window. He landed in the San Joaquin River, disappeared under water, and was carried downstream by the current. The deputies were astounded. Grat must have taken the keys to the handcuffs from the first deputy’s pockets as he slept and then timed his escape to take place when he knew the train would be on the bridge. If he had landed on the ground, he would have almost certainly been killed. Somehow, he found his brothers and made his way back to Oklahoma Territory.

Personally, I think as Grat was known not to be the sharpest pencil in the box. Tough, brave and strong maybe, but I can’t see him putting all of that together.

Terror on the Red Sea Liveaboards

Within the last couple of years there have been a number of incidents in the Red Sea where diving vessels, known as liveaboards, have suffered some kind of mishap or disaster and in some of these cases a number of lives have been lost. Last November the Sea Story capsized and sank with a party of divers on board who were heading out from Port Ghaleb to a number of dive sites out in the middle of the Red Sea. Eleven people were killed, some of the bodies have not been located, with a further 35 others being rescued, some of them days later. This disaster highlighted what turned out to be a multitude of failings and slap-dash ways of running these vessels that has been going on for years. And Sea Story is not the only one.

In June 2023 the Hurricane had left the same port when fire broke out mid-voyage with 29 people on board, three of them were killed in the disaster. The image of the vessel blazing while rescue ships gathered was one that shocked the diving industry. But are these just isolated incidents? Are we putting our trust in these dive boat operators when they are not fit to head out to sea with people on board? Are the boats themselves perfectly fine but the people running them lacking skills and common sense? Well until an investigation is carried out and reports their findings we can only speculate.

But this took me back to the May of 2005 when I was out on a Red Sea liveaboard heading out to the wreck of the Thistlegorm for what was promised to be a fantastic diving experience on a wreck that I had heard so much about and had studied for years. I was over in Dahab learning to become a PADI Dive Master and on completion of the course I ended up with several days where I was doing nothing when the company decided to book my Instructors exam the same day that I flew home. With two weeks of course now cancelled I was offered the trip on board a boat going out from Sharm el Sheikh to dive what was classed as the best wreck dive in the world. 

I boarded the Embero and slept on board as it would be departing in the early hours of the morning. I was excited that this was actually happening and settled in for a long overnight voyage where the following morning we were almost at the site. The dive team leader gave us a run down of the wreck and spoke of pulling items out of the wreckage and “shining them up” for us to see, which annoyed me as if every dive team did that then there would be very little left of this wreck in a few years. Still, I was excited that soon I would be down there myself and ticking off this famous – and beautiful – shipwreck from my list. 

But this is where it all stopped, for the waves were too high for us to safely dive the wreck, I was gutted but completely understood their logic. They said not to worry as we would instead head over to a reef at Ras Mohammed. Several hours sailing later and we were at the dive site, after checking our kit we stepped off the back of the boat and our team went down together, consisting of a guide, myself and a Danish couple as well as a few others grouped in. When we reached the bottom I started having complications and began floating to the surface without realising, the guy who was partnered up with me just watched as I floated away without any sense of urgency. Thankfully I sorted myself out and we headed off on to the reef where the strong currents made us almost “fly” around the reef at some speed. There was the remains of the cargo of the wreck of the Yolanda, in this case a container full of toilet seats had spilled out, kind of summed up the dive as I wasn’t really having a relaxing dive it seemed very much hard work. 

But it was the surfacing that got me the most, for when we finally came to the top there must have been 15-20 liveaboards all gathered round, nobody had a clue which one was which as they were all looking exactly the same. Suddenly a horn went off and a number of them faced us and came straight towards us at speed from different directions. Eventually we found which one was ours but the waves were picking up and I was now struggling to cling on to the ladder as each wave threw me about. The dive boat crew stood and watched, they could see I was now really having difficulty climbing on and would have done anything for just one of them to grab hold of my BCD or even just held out their hand. The ladder offered no grip and my breathing was becoming faster as I was becoming more and more exhausted. Eventually I got a grip and only then did one of them assist me just to get me out of the way where I collapsed on the deck utterly drained of all energy. When I checked my air gauge it read zero….. I was probably just a few breaths away from sucking on the rubber. 

Both me and the Danish couple were furious that there was no safety involved and that everyone here was so lax it was unbelievable, I refused to go in again when the second dive was ready to go. Seeing all those vessels suddenly coming towards me at once was terrifying enough, but to then have our own boat be so close yet not be able to get onboard was enough to persuade me to stay out of the water and live to dive another day elsewhere. 

Today I have continued diving and I have been with some really professional (and safe!) diving clubs and the wrecks I have explored have been amazing, but I never did get to the Thistlegorm and that continues to be one wreck that I still want to do, just not with dive boats that risk your life and have no care for their passengers.

This must be why many of them ask you to sign a waiver that exonerates them of all blame even if it is their negligence.

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.