tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81150709079707355132024-03-25T12:16:23.025+00:00Disasters and ShipwrecksDisasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.comBlogger133125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-25993568030701477472023-12-28T16:59:00.003+00:002023-12-29T13:49:31.896+00:00Steve Rigby - The Original Mr. Titanic<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJJeDh7eYFP3JY0E5rd0gzKw4LfNO3lK5MnUB9HpLLvxyinHGaQnvS9V9DS-FNL74jJFsOCgv0dlStT7MH53l6yg_iQln3LMnfZtJIEur6hcCmslDsdLxSu8W3e2GdiiwpSF-WOdq6_rsrIbdDGuiXDRPXgZAlFc5X9_5NeFCBwsLVwNxmJrx2MFFET-0/s1920/Steve%20Rigby%20collection%20(from%20Sue%20Miller)%20(2).jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1080" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJJeDh7eYFP3JY0E5rd0gzKw4LfNO3lK5MnUB9HpLLvxyinHGaQnvS9V9DS-FNL74jJFsOCgv0dlStT7MH53l6yg_iQln3LMnfZtJIEur6hcCmslDsdLxSu8W3e2GdiiwpSF-WOdq6_rsrIbdDGuiXDRPXgZAlFc5X9_5NeFCBwsLVwNxmJrx2MFFET-0/w139-h248/Steve%20Rigby%20collection%20(from%20Sue%20Miller)%20(2).jpg" width="139" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span><div><br /></div><div>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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> first
meeting I asked him – “So, what have you got on Titanic then?” His reply?
“Everything!”</span><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I was very
much inclined to believe him!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxQ8Xl1oA-NwocoiZqCnA1kgc32LhN0uov2pT8wtnEAytKoixzJzZF_8zZ8Im4BZfOh20YfEGZyqQ0i66bclLc5hxS-t-B_TnCiQrb7YgWB3dR-H6SyLYVqM7nzOS4aSvjzc1vO1yZmPJm4KoY41VsvzZCddQnYYgC632eERMhb40mEa_UkhRXeLTxNSg/s1920/Steve%20Rigby%20collection%20(from%20Sue%20Miller)%20(3).jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1080" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxQ8Xl1oA-NwocoiZqCnA1kgc32LhN0uov2pT8wtnEAytKoixzJzZF_8zZ8Im4BZfOh20YfEGZyqQ0i66bclLc5hxS-t-B_TnCiQrb7YgWB3dR-H6SyLYVqM7nzOS4aSvjzc1vO1yZmPJm4KoY41VsvzZCddQnYYgC632eERMhb40mEa_UkhRXeLTxNSg/w134-h238/Steve%20Rigby%20collection%20(from%20Sue%20Miller)%20(3).jpg" width="134" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Stephen
William Rigby was born on 12<sup>th</sup> 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.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">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. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc1tzJtPj70Nme936sRwW4o6QYtNYcVDwGulencyvl8C8qhdHJ8ZKgPleJj0qnvQPX521BCOHaCH_HIj5mAStXgE5Nyhn60QIoU631CnLeJRnq_d40noYj3yQr5atc_ReT9blCQT-u6FiofDxwtsXPerTlc2mfDI8giuycBA-FyY46_l1IcVyR4mbZapY/s1920/Steve%20Rigby%20collection%20(from%20Sue%20Miller)%20(1).jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc1tzJtPj70Nme936sRwW4o6QYtNYcVDwGulencyvl8C8qhdHJ8ZKgPleJj0qnvQPX521BCOHaCH_HIj5mAStXgE5Nyhn60QIoU631CnLeJRnq_d40noYj3yQr5atc_ReT9blCQT-u6FiofDxwtsXPerTlc2mfDI8giuycBA-FyY46_l1IcVyR4mbZapY/s320/Steve%20Rigby%20collection%20(from%20Sue%20Miller)%20(1).jpg" width="320" /></a>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. <o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFJ__36Cg6YYFl7h8Q2s1F1yP8cMxGRPxGINO1TpWOh6uTZ-_8a3gK-jL3yjIt_jrFAn5jJXTIID8hrH6vAxdAMfwPf7_lHVhkXyZE0UZheeL8uXRQLbb-gBA6nlk2g5aY9WgXpi_lA4eB-SP22CnIq4Ervf9AV6KMR6gVDUSRMZMnKHozAUvypfWUCKU/s414/Steve%20Rigby%201.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="252" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFJ__36Cg6YYFl7h8Q2s1F1yP8cMxGRPxGINO1TpWOh6uTZ-_8a3gK-jL3yjIt_jrFAn5jJXTIID8hrH6vAxdAMfwPf7_lHVhkXyZE0UZheeL8uXRQLbb-gBA6nlk2g5aY9WgXpi_lA4eB-SP22CnIq4Ervf9AV6KMR6gVDUSRMZMnKHozAUvypfWUCKU/w152-h250/Steve%20Rigby%201.jpg" width="152" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">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. </span><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> On </span>29<sup>th</sup> 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. <span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: inherit;">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!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVvovsdEK23SGHCvzTEO0pBe34JI79KbrRaxlaDDvk1O55dd89BZIT7KD0DUqWqKJ6gaCqSYj6ejqf0TVjsrWk7aAkylPuUVEMCVr_Y1xz337U8boWdBYakuGYWLT3yIJufAxWDNBpp5oOhtozUNx0hUup0GJrdX2nmOkRzIB9wn4jeYeBa_qrq-dhkpA/s1712/Me%20with%20Steve%20Rigby(2).jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1184" data-original-width="1712" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVvovsdEK23SGHCvzTEO0pBe34JI79KbrRaxlaDDvk1O55dd89BZIT7KD0DUqWqKJ6gaCqSYj6ejqf0TVjsrWk7aAkylPuUVEMCVr_Y1xz337U8boWdBYakuGYWLT3yIJufAxWDNBpp5oOhtozUNx0hUup0GJrdX2nmOkRzIB9wn4jeYeBa_qrq-dhkpA/w221-h152/Me%20with%20Steve%20Rigby(2).jpg" width="221" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">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<sup>nd</sup> 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.”</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfjpqUqysZHYe0au1iKE35JCoyYGm8l5HTTKzlK3M9xJFMP1zG9JcBhuOJV6zYBws7z9YepUt9H15ANRf78F1CIRV6h11YwP6aHbZztTGn8Ptp4JL5V7FeD5-sXsSBzER1RlHBKbCdaPvGpAFo3-G1RbhHyDdNrBC1wtRmC7sEjhU-TVXscWXlUcVuoDw/s1712/Me%20with%20Steve%20Rigby(1).jpg" style="clear: right; display: inline; float: right; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1184" data-original-width="1712" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfjpqUqysZHYe0au1iKE35JCoyYGm8l5HTTKzlK3M9xJFMP1zG9JcBhuOJV6zYBws7z9YepUt9H15ANRf78F1CIRV6h11YwP6aHbZztTGn8Ptp4JL5V7FeD5-sXsSBzER1RlHBKbCdaPvGpAFo3-G1RbhHyDdNrBC1wtRmC7sEjhU-TVXscWXlUcVuoDw/w229-h158/Me%20with%20Steve%20Rigby(1).jpg" width="229" /></a></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Steve
continued being ac</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">tive 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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Steve always wanted to organise something for the 100<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the Titanic disaster but sadly he never got the chance. He died on 8<sup>th</sup>
May 2011, at Wigan Infirmary, at the age of 52. his funeral was held on 20<sup>th</sup>
May at Howe Bridge Crematorium in Atherton, Lancashire.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(Thanks to his sister Sue for some of the information and photos)</span></p></div>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-86419122416256222442023-10-27T13:45:00.001+00:002023-10-27T13:45:16.586+00:00Submarine Disasters Through History<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDlcW4F8BWhSDRExTU5VwDHjyujAJzt1_9F5oT_Ju37U94naspPAkwjyqVXX1EF43UT6D8W1G8Ma2SrtAcE_UyQSyu4Y2ezDYxYD1Ncr6eh1fHk3Hk9Z58QWL4_IJrrmLhyphenhyphenpA9j0wfHMHVDUjo0pkySLHyFV1AOU-6XjZ_kqXAO8OKBQSaQJep1fHYrfk/s3664/100_0552.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3664" data-original-width="2748" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDlcW4F8BWhSDRExTU5VwDHjyujAJzt1_9F5oT_Ju37U94naspPAkwjyqVXX1EF43UT6D8W1G8Ma2SrtAcE_UyQSyu4Y2ezDYxYD1Ncr6eh1fHk3Hk9Z58QWL4_IJrrmLhyphenhyphenpA9j0wfHMHVDUjo0pkySLHyFV1AOU-6XjZ_kqXAO8OKBQSaQJep1fHYrfk/w150-h201/100_0552.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>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. <br /><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikS1bq_q-JKJjsogh_5l7sWt0WXe9r7w03xtuJSWeKB3YnBmnJwox3wg41_u48nPtMIgMT5gmVvTdJHMobQuVrCv17VkCrBO0dhyphenhyphenmBpqavh0q5ZhVdYHAHG-y2JtVH1J1nK-IajoIqZgYVDlEY7UsZr06Z7jXwJJicTPF2zJ0df2zZrS92Um38l7A1ORY/s2501/hunley%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1563" data-original-width="2501" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikS1bq_q-JKJjsogh_5l7sWt0WXe9r7w03xtuJSWeKB3YnBmnJwox3wg41_u48nPtMIgMT5gmVvTdJHMobQuVrCv17VkCrBO0dhyphenhyphenmBpqavh0q5ZhVdYHAHG-y2JtVH1J1nK-IajoIqZgYVDlEY7UsZr06Z7jXwJJicTPF2zJ0df2zZrS92Um38l7A1ORY/w279-h174/hunley%202.jpg" width="279" /></a></div><i>HL Hunley</i> - 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 <i>Housatonic </i>was laying at anchor off South Carolina on the night of 17 February 1864 when a the <i>Hunley </i>rammed her torpedo into the side of the ship and immediately reversed. As the sub retreated the explosives detonated and the <i>Housatonic </i>went down. <i>Hunley </i>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 <i>Hunley </i>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 <i>Hunley </i>had gone down, twice during previous trials saw her fail to surface leading to the deaths of 13 people. <br /><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigwWQGnhAnatKkHNPQiodBxUKUIpdyJdakOTFeIOJhzhp46qR2oZw-nh4KzoD0Z-a32Y8wzikbioO3-ux506RswVWdFYG6rmJfJVfuIHNo88lxblqKWUcYXBMzNRIavdI17u4EiPRWwIYnEVNrSc0IGDu4cPOF_-VRDkTzOFJ931msJgz2gGb5lAmbMy4/s3664/Affray%20memorial,%20Gosport%20-%2026%20May%202013(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2748" data-original-width="3664" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigwWQGnhAnatKkHNPQiodBxUKUIpdyJdakOTFeIOJhzhp46qR2oZw-nh4KzoD0Z-a32Y8wzikbioO3-ux506RswVWdFYG6rmJfJVfuIHNo88lxblqKWUcYXBMzNRIavdI17u4EiPRWwIYnEVNrSc0IGDu4cPOF_-VRDkTzOFJ931msJgz2gGb5lAmbMy4/s320/Affray%20memorial,%20Gosport%20-%2026%20May%202013(1).JPG" width="320" /></a></div><i>Affray </i>- The Amphion-class submarine HMS <i>Affray </i>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 <i>Affray </i>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 <i>Affray </i>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. <br /><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqyQhbbbi2-W0KrGERMR9q3blWsrWjpDq1k9nydRUTdRT16E4yJ2E-coxDGHQHTsuEtr0lzgz5P-22sgeqm7g7rbF_Kv9r1jJ143rZ6TYSEUU9EJNd5aASeuzz9PDFZbgFVXezJXy07xSC0V27a8YT6ONjmwSYS_QWNgwe6zw6BtCQAOj98TPJ7Ik6yH4/s765/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="765" data-original-width="595" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqyQhbbbi2-W0KrGERMR9q3blWsrWjpDq1k9nydRUTdRT16E4yJ2E-coxDGHQHTsuEtr0lzgz5P-22sgeqm7g7rbF_Kv9r1jJ143rZ6TYSEUU9EJNd5aASeuzz9PDFZbgFVXezJXy07xSC0V27a8YT6ONjmwSYS_QWNgwe6zw6BtCQAOj98TPJ7Ik6yH4/w176-h226/2.jpg" width="176" /></a></div><i>Thresher (</i>right<i>) </i>- One of the first American nuclear submarines and with the latest designs in weaponry and propulsion, the USS <i>Thresher </i>was taking part in trials with the submarine rescue ship USS <i>Skylark </i>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 <i>Thresher </i>must have exceeded her critical depth limit and imploded.<br /><p></p><p><i>Dakar (</i>below<i>) </i>- Launched as the Royal Navy's HMS <i>Totem</i>, she was sold to the Israeli navy in 1965 and renamed INS <i>Dakar</i>. 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.</p><p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP9g01JHDdmlUFEoYlu-E9IgPENMp8t8LeR02nx4gaRV1PQkzY1CGNxVzL1kbBOZB5ODrZo7gpdR80DBuEFHH9k90KkGgrlnpDMisoyjOZJjC3ttgvhGY7i6FMQ3uuTDCeVSpmciiuK_INLZkCoa3ZIguq-9X5Rj41jOf_5jSLg0EHvb2Pm-4g0tlTMoE/s500/1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="500" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP9g01JHDdmlUFEoYlu-E9IgPENMp8t8LeR02nx4gaRV1PQkzY1CGNxVzL1kbBOZB5ODrZo7gpdR80DBuEFHH9k90KkGgrlnpDMisoyjOZJjC3ttgvhGY7i6FMQ3uuTDCeVSpmciiuK_INLZkCoa3ZIguq-9X5Rj41jOf_5jSLg0EHvb2Pm-4g0tlTMoE/s320/1.JPG" width="320" /></a></i></div><i>Minerve </i>- The French diesel-electric submarine <i>Minerve</i> 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. <p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4GQ5y4v5EwHH6-XaTSunPHRACE_U1Km3XkQn9JMydUSCdJ1FtyylGVC-fKK7z_8ICnbwY9bVHcDoPunegpKfT4lkbMcZGvpQTI_c_qswqtgZ8MbQpozG56feRS_svwHE9yUWY6hrp7ixlcRUOo3hxLxD54zSmL944K20avV1YTlRTsG6KIN8B0BB67Rc/s354/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="209" data-original-width="354" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4GQ5y4v5EwHH6-XaTSunPHRACE_U1Km3XkQn9JMydUSCdJ1FtyylGVC-fKK7z_8ICnbwY9bVHcDoPunegpKfT4lkbMcZGvpQTI_c_qswqtgZ8MbQpozG56feRS_svwHE9yUWY6hrp7ixlcRUOo3hxLxD54zSmL944K20avV1YTlRTsG6KIN8B0BB67Rc/s320/1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><i>Scorpion </i>- The American nuclear submarine USS <i>Scorpion </i>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 <i>Thresher</i>, many pieces of the boat scattered over a wide area. Both <i>Thresher </i>and <i>Scorpion </i>were visited by ocean explorer Robert Ballard in the weeks before his successful search for the wreck of the <i>Titanic </i>in 1985. <br /><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI2v-v1_7r_uzTRHpZGKWXV9FjeD_pOsIpk1_Fgd_E-HRdzURWb5nSSYudNXRIfRdODh5Rv1jW8i9sFA2IdBiJdB_aqF_CEhr_5kwNJ0mJckBWXIYCapkeZitdftnn89suBqmeJzrd5V7uJiTZHlmfwmOxvHdQS-H7W2l2iArzYGzCZxK-O_T1Ic_mW3g/s1000/kursk%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="1000" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI2v-v1_7r_uzTRHpZGKWXV9FjeD_pOsIpk1_Fgd_E-HRdzURWb5nSSYudNXRIfRdODh5Rv1jW8i9sFA2IdBiJdB_aqF_CEhr_5kwNJ0mJckBWXIYCapkeZitdftnn89suBqmeJzrd5V7uJiTZHlmfwmOxvHdQS-H7W2l2iArzYGzCZxK-O_T1Ic_mW3g/s320/kursk%201.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><i>Kursk </i>- One of the world's largest submarines, the Russian Oscar II class <i>Kursk </i>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 <i>Kursk</i> was raised a year later and scrapped, the Russian military being blamed for using out-of-date and dangerous torpedoes.<br /><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgblG3mYZWN0ro83jc9jV_goOiZnE2d9rtCiGbe79JMIgZJ90WmaZ3avE6z5KFhnlYmHZpafKroneAudG2E5p_ptdmKjPvhyF-YqEXMCT3laxntrcAk6XSAwBL0QM1Z4pUhQPshJtPXZf7I0U-TYXnd7m_23LAQRGNmBOyFVftTT74_Exj6OHskJxLHkOw/s1267/2023-06-23%20Daily%20Express.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1267" data-original-width="976" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgblG3mYZWN0ro83jc9jV_goOiZnE2d9rtCiGbe79JMIgZJ90WmaZ3avE6z5KFhnlYmHZpafKroneAudG2E5p_ptdmKjPvhyF-YqEXMCT3laxntrcAk6XSAwBL0QM1Z4pUhQPshJtPXZf7I0U-TYXnd7m_23LAQRGNmBOyFVftTT74_Exj6OHskJxLHkOw/w180-h233/2023-06-23%20Daily%20Express.jpg" width="180" /></a></div><i>Titan </i>- In one of the most headline-hitting sub-surface incidents in recent years, the commercial submersible <i>Titan </i>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 <i>Titanic </i>where a "mission specialist" would pay $250,000 to join the expedition. On 18 June 2023 the <i>Titan </i>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 <i>Titan </i>had imploded and there were no survivors. <br /><p></p><p>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 <i>Titan</i>. All we can do is send our thoughts to those who have lost loved ones and hope that lessons will be learned. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMNCrnvdc33Rr5jCpiKlgM2zTJGmIIczAVElf18srO1Q0Bh0j1m-R23Vbd-iiGHH4-DoaxOOj5ZFvLTdOsBBarcr1Sag7p2v-8DfHwKd5m7QlN3WyqjS7YffblD8idyrk6Ftg2HR5ucj-v067u1KUI7bAfh0AFZHqGSCiyNzP5maBxOYZAjNogHl1C4vs/s3664/Submarine%20memorial,%20Thames%20Path%20north%20side%20-%2022%20July%202017(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2748" data-original-width="3664" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMNCrnvdc33Rr5jCpiKlgM2zTJGmIIczAVElf18srO1Q0Bh0j1m-R23Vbd-iiGHH4-DoaxOOj5ZFvLTdOsBBarcr1Sag7p2v-8DfHwKd5m7QlN3WyqjS7YffblD8idyrk6Ftg2HR5ucj-v067u1KUI7bAfh0AFZHqGSCiyNzP5maBxOYZAjNogHl1C4vs/w400-h300/Submarine%20memorial,%20Thames%20Path%20north%20side%20-%2022%20July%202017(1).JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-56199325450066164202023-07-28T09:50:00.000+00:002023-07-28T09:50:07.022+00:00Mark Terrell – Royal Navy Diver and a Man of Many Talents<p><span face="Arial, sans-serif"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEBIrHbeg0F6MMKHJxH5i7-0A_pLKIi3cco5FTICa1xeZI3bcpO6bTVBvwkbKUkiGboJZnJ2r1hZTVjOYVbr06h0SG7bwxb20mKHrG1cy8kvqm5cCGn3p6rJZ4gN3b0fPgP0CfTq0Ua4KUvsivP7lZscuiZ8Q9q5IfNbXLNJkH9_7PquBPO3JexBDQXGM/s258/image002.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="258" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEBIrHbeg0F6MMKHJxH5i7-0A_pLKIi3cco5FTICa1xeZI3bcpO6bTVBvwkbKUkiGboJZnJ2r1hZTVjOYVbr06h0SG7bwxb20mKHrG1cy8kvqm5cCGn3p6rJZ4gN3b0fPgP0CfTq0Ua4KUvsivP7lZscuiZ8Q9q5IfNbXLNJkH9_7PquBPO3JexBDQXGM/s1600/image002.jpg" width="258" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;">In 1997 I
was front page of my local newspaper, the Bridlington Free Press, talking about
the wreck of the <i>Bonhomme Richard</i> 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.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-family: arial;">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.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiojzflxJXFDb4woV6PYVsIG1V8tzB8Q7LUeWj-WQd0plmm7xmH9KtDhte8Vv7CrRau6KeBKvAG_oDHM2ZJrcazonFlbuH5ZGYS3DSrhL9LWjrU7vbDGSQkKtQYLfmc0YJ3GV6nMzuuyGCSgOcxGuEqtDmLjBL37XelfY_sYYMVDEr2RXHNUkC-Lzbs1g/s600/Vert%20Prairial%20wreck.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="600" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiojzflxJXFDb4woV6PYVsIG1V8tzB8Q7LUeWj-WQd0plmm7xmH9KtDhte8Vv7CrRau6KeBKvAG_oDHM2ZJrcazonFlbuH5ZGYS3DSrhL9LWjrU7vbDGSQkKtQYLfmc0YJ3GV6nMzuuyGCSgOcxGuEqtDmLjBL37XelfY_sYYMVDEr2RXHNUkC-Lzbs1g/s320/Vert%20Prairial%20wreck.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif">Born on 15</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Arial, sans-serif">
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. </span><span>One of his jobs that made the papers was that of the French trawler <i>Vert Prairial</i> which had grounded on 14th March 1952 off the Cornish coast, a team of Royal Navy divers being sent</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> 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.</span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn8qqjVrB8D5gCVEELF_LbsujHyPAWCSQqij4aM_8jevnhzk8-R-CnsqZObgGrdiIcaiRnLztXAJQE8LojhHxId5-BR_KZQ1K3BMXTGO3RNVcBcnVAzvATatlsuTx3ybwKk_fxmiVrwQImHmJf3dZbQhu1YdNMs917ugJyDc7L3LGtM7YfDHfr7rdm7N0/s2000/IMG_20230717_154933.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1496" data-original-width="2000" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn8qqjVrB8D5gCVEELF_LbsujHyPAWCSQqij4aM_8jevnhzk8-R-CnsqZObgGrdiIcaiRnLztXAJQE8LojhHxId5-BR_KZQ1K3BMXTGO3RNVcBcnVAzvATatlsuTx3ybwKk_fxmiVrwQImHmJf3dZbQhu1YdNMs917ugJyDc7L3LGtM7YfDHfr7rdm7N0/w280-h207/IMG_20230717_154933.jpg" width="280" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif">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</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Arial, sans-serif">
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.</span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJiX7j60LFxHvXclc3JvQxMYjYh7VsmzAOjjvibGZx6-7t9tr8X6qOOOWU97tVJETyxFwTkFqmulNcGlPBdJ9zkeudD_79iApIJuX6yiFrWCYNrG0tR9RLN06K7MmI81m73VXMSno33CB2-xspHMJkbq_i08sBNbjxXoqLgVP00OGNyZzpTrvdjBoWN5Y/s400/image001.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="245" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJiX7j60LFxHvXclc3JvQxMYjYh7VsmzAOjjvibGZx6-7t9tr8X6qOOOWU97tVJETyxFwTkFqmulNcGlPBdJ9zkeudD_79iApIJuX6yiFrWCYNrG0tR9RLN06K7MmI81m73VXMSno33CB2-xspHMJkbq_i08sBNbjxXoqLgVP00OGNyZzpTrvdjBoWN5Y/w151-h246/image001.jpg" width="151" /></span></a></div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-family: arial;">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.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7slWQF4KfV0Tupmhl7SdyhCG4qGF5BbG-4Wbo64ZbxyJC6B3eKH7JGK_vu5MR-2-Tz5bZ9Q7QB0coo8pyMZKK6ZVAtEE_YCuZeYgtWLrJDOb_FI0xTbGuR0DObRaoZ70tH7c5jiMGjbwFlgvdbE35SSYmOqEYwl1W9ZD64lWoe-WamGELStJS5slI0qE/s2000/IMG_20230717_154118%20(2).jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1496" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7slWQF4KfV0Tupmhl7SdyhCG4qGF5BbG-4Wbo64ZbxyJC6B3eKH7JGK_vu5MR-2-Tz5bZ9Q7QB0coo8pyMZKK6ZVAtEE_YCuZeYgtWLrJDOb_FI0xTbGuR0DObRaoZ70tH7c5jiMGjbwFlgvdbE35SSYmOqEYwl1W9ZD64lWoe-WamGELStJS5slI0qE/w121-h162/IMG_20230717_154118%20(2).jpg" width="121" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;">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.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif">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</span><sup>th</sup><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> January 2011 at the age of 85. His body was
donated to London Medical School as per his last wishes.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifdHD5KpAziVlgXAHgK7TV7Nnmq21M-q2EvSa4mdHG9yvNRjq2J3ifHTYO_dFOozsAcIRthPpqJAO1R1sO6M1IOaL8Mkf4c459uKtvI_Fz75x3fXIpOWn6FJAXy4jIcbQPFk-3iYMSqKNCFY2FU5sT5XQgdr88WEaFrEYrJWRgvrRQecr5EZJQeGIPVCk/s1936/Tribute%20to%20Mark%20Terrell%20-%203%20Febraury%202011.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1936" data-original-width="1574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifdHD5KpAziVlgXAHgK7TV7Nnmq21M-q2EvSa4mdHG9yvNRjq2J3ifHTYO_dFOozsAcIRthPpqJAO1R1sO6M1IOaL8Mkf4c459uKtvI_Fz75x3fXIpOWn6FJAXy4jIcbQPFk-3iYMSqKNCFY2FU5sT5XQgdr88WEaFrEYrJWRgvrRQecr5EZJQeGIPVCk/s320/Tribute%20to%20Mark%20Terrell%20-%203%20Febraury%202011.JPG" width="260" /></span></a></div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-family: arial;"><p class="MsoNoSpacing">(Many thanks
to his daughter Katherine for helping me with the information on his early life
and naval career).</p></span><p></p>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-74479505800796854012023-05-26T07:47:00.009+00:002023-05-26T21:48:37.972+00:00Southampton Airport Crash - Miracle on the M27<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX7Ise2q8q7wzqMZL-g8oKqu8oTcYDwHJdzflVwZ2WgNubcMjXHdrkDxyFmQc_0JqoIAeiHddOU-PpN7eSfD-8qfdPCLNiNlrNfvFV8VQ6daqotFsirQFT3ggus0tJiu2U-S6Jh6tDAev9iU93PjVFhBKObOPCRSYkZniQew-NSHhoty245OdTcayh/s750/1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="750" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX7Ise2q8q7wzqMZL-g8oKqu8oTcYDwHJdzflVwZ2WgNubcMjXHdrkDxyFmQc_0JqoIAeiHddOU-PpN7eSfD-8qfdPCLNiNlrNfvFV8VQ6daqotFsirQFT3ggus0tJiu2U-S6Jh6tDAev9iU93PjVFhBKObOPCRSYkZniQew-NSHhoty245OdTcayh/s320/1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>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. <o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span face="Arial, sans-serif">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. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCxnJQDDpSGRVE9pkavUN76Q6tpXgqVEaxzJk_1QTChrNwjvsl7rsuh4GMAvSyt4Lg4tAXJKM9KOa4smqE0INqCFIRUiLIxDgYNbg5K-8DQKS2agdk5ZmZiMoT2ixVDE9GF7NuzpvceMCUWFIY31QQEdftIqa9mPcOYPzrHFU2fx3PTmItWFC4E_7D/s960/1993-05-26%20Portsmouth%20News(1).jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="540" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCxnJQDDpSGRVE9pkavUN76Q6tpXgqVEaxzJk_1QTChrNwjvsl7rsuh4GMAvSyt4Lg4tAXJKM9KOa4smqE0INqCFIRUiLIxDgYNbg5K-8DQKS2agdk5ZmZiMoT2ixVDE9GF7NuzpvceMCUWFIY31QQEdftIqa9mPcOYPzrHFU2fx3PTmItWFC4E_7D/s320/1993-05-26%20Portsmouth%20News(1).jpg" width="180" /></a></div><span face="Arial, sans-serif">Chris Rundle</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> 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.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span face="Arial, sans-serif">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</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif">15
knot tailwind, the pilot acknowledged and made his approach.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span face="Arial, sans-serif">The</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> heavy
thunderstorm was making visibility difficult, but </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif">t</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif">he wheels touched down on the runway</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif">, </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif">the aircraft was</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> now</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"> 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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBaR18UpkJt2Z8RDpeGZqlx4dnDHQE2XKxkbBCtYmsIZ18Zd5OsW9TfUZ3ogDsByLbNP6UPDgrbAPrg1SnqE4qU8zzRJlOsNm4Y3MuWaT4bS-VskcIPRwk2pVaD-suHUpY2E7i1VsRWLH6NlwtRPc2orv7yP9fisFVj1dFs3opaUzsuyt8fMqRlNO2/s960/22.%20Martin%20Cole%20(eyewitness)%20photo%202.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBaR18UpkJt2Z8RDpeGZqlx4dnDHQE2XKxkbBCtYmsIZ18Zd5OsW9TfUZ3ogDsByLbNP6UPDgrbAPrg1SnqE4qU8zzRJlOsNm4Y3MuWaT4bS-VskcIPRwk2pVaD-suHUpY2E7i1VsRWLH6NlwtRPc2orv7yP9fisFVj1dFs3opaUzsuyt8fMqRlNO2/s320/22.%20Martin%20Cole%20(eyewitness)%20photo%202.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>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.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span face="Arial, sans-serif">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.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPT0wtKPFUlPVis5oB-aAhwbfwrpWx1YajxsYuTPM7D_BJc4fhnwknTLFM1mFFRXPlsRbjLq5UYylERpeOlz1vvD4f9ButOKizSoe_Sn7QXw0wEB7wnnhsEi2g1iSxRv6tbbQazAJOlRgfnyMW8XD1Gff-LPYZHHL5C3-3ahbCe5jAI31Hx9w32DKU/s500/Front%20Cover%20-%20Britains%20Lost%20Tragedies%20Uncovered.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="325" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPT0wtKPFUlPVis5oB-aAhwbfwrpWx1YajxsYuTPM7D_BJc4fhnwknTLFM1mFFRXPlsRbjLq5UYylERpeOlz1vvD4f9ButOKizSoe_Sn7QXw0wEB7wnnhsEi2g1iSxRv6tbbQazAJOlRgfnyMW8XD1Gff-LPYZHHL5C3-3ahbCe5jAI31Hx9w32DKU/w130-h200/Front%20Cover%20-%20Britains%20Lost%20Tragedies%20Uncovered.jpg" width="130" /></a></div><span face="Arial, sans-serif">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.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span face="Arial, sans-serif">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 </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif">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. </span></p><div><div><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-font-kerning: 11.0pt;"></span></div></div>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-86703397223736916282023-03-21T19:40:00.000+00:002023-03-21T19:40:38.257+00:00The Fires of Bridlington<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzvIqXSYozdw0jkvfD5l21E5xNVC1LpM-tkN7p8IZ5uwUqu6UA8Glqn6vMW-TtPC0Bd4XHjZod_rNNqb_JcSPhyHQ8dorzz8EoPWqyleYOa3zuoS1gcO5HTOPIknqSNW7XRRLVBIc_pMv6tfnKoVYyJAv-H-c7dj1BV8V7O_gaUvDGLM2oSQMWzoLx/s1353/11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="854" data-original-width="1353" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzvIqXSYozdw0jkvfD5l21E5xNVC1LpM-tkN7p8IZ5uwUqu6UA8Glqn6vMW-TtPC0Bd4XHjZod_rNNqb_JcSPhyHQ8dorzz8EoPWqyleYOa3zuoS1gcO5HTOPIknqSNW7XRRLVBIc_pMv6tfnKoVYyJAv-H-c7dj1BV8V7O_gaUvDGLM2oSQMWzoLx/w305-h192/11.jpg" title="Bridlington Fire Station today" width="305" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bridlington Fire Station today</td></tr></tbody></table>Fires devastate communities, destroy buildings and cost countless lives all year round. Even a small town like Bridlington has been no exception and over the years has had a number of major incidents that have led to several buildings being destroyed forever, with a modern day tragedy that left the town in shock. <br /></p><p>1660 - Reports of a fire at a Bakers in High Street. The first fire engine would not be introduced into the town for another hundred years. </p><p>20 October 1906 - Bridlington Spa had only opened in 1896 before fire consumed the building. The elegant glass dome was one of only a small amount of the building that survived, but with the dedication of the builders the New Spa Theatre was opened less than a year later. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg28iDxiEkOqEJBefm0da7jdX8yewapreZExj5h4hBQKhM57iAwej6y-VKr5dmPoNv_KE_ZEV95rVAhU6bXuxX8svzAsq4pArryOV95-umuOsh3CBBVxcPgXKvwmrjaCvWY7x5T_TUItrk4I5KIhuLlZALmwZNEXfCdYl-4mOpTpBtVujuG51aL-2SD/s900/Bridlington_Spa_&_Theatre_1911_(archive_ref_PO-1-20-121)_(34854491891).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="900" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg28iDxiEkOqEJBefm0da7jdX8yewapreZExj5h4hBQKhM57iAwej6y-VKr5dmPoNv_KE_ZEV95rVAhU6bXuxX8svzAsq4pArryOV95-umuOsh3CBBVxcPgXKvwmrjaCvWY7x5T_TUItrk4I5KIhuLlZALmwZNEXfCdYl-4mOpTpBtVujuG51aL-2SD/s320/Bridlington_Spa_&_Theatre_1911_(archive_ref_PO-1-20-121)_(34854491891).jpg" width="320" /></a></div>25 August 1923 - The popular venue for drinking, dancing and music caught fire one Saturday when hundreds of tourists were in the area, many of whom descended in the vicinity for a closer look. Situated at the top of The Promenade, Floral Hall was gutted and had to be demolished, never to be rebuilt. <p></p><p>29 January 1932 - Bridlington Spa once again became the focus of a fire fight as another blaze threatened to destroy the theatre, but luckily the damage was not as bad and it was re-opened just months later (pictured above in 1911 postcard).</p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieJl-kOC1CzsalHbGWiyUbqhBstLpvzHj5u2UsUbwoEgQ5Tl88zEWAd5snGpJ4vJSHU3nGhNiugNg5rvY8MG4t2KLTRzu64VpJ5oxaD-6XfCmJ43gygLhmu3bnC_qqXfL7oXXEcaERiUnolfovkkEdpNA13sn3wAIUDJchquAFkR8sPmF1kR1_4TdP/s1768/60.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1276" data-original-width="1768" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieJl-kOC1CzsalHbGWiyUbqhBstLpvzHj5u2UsUbwoEgQ5Tl88zEWAd5snGpJ4vJSHU3nGhNiugNg5rvY8MG4t2KLTRzu64VpJ5oxaD-6XfCmJ43gygLhmu3bnC_qqXfL7oXXEcaERiUnolfovkkEdpNA13sn3wAIUDJchquAFkR8sPmF1kR1_4TdP/s320/60.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Royal Victoria Rooms on fire</td></tr></tbody></table>22 September 1933 - The Royal Victoria Rooms was the former Town Hall but also had multiple uses as an entertainment venue (cinema), several bars, meeting halls and a number of homes attached. On the night of the fire 19 year old Kathleen Hackett woke up to find the building ablaze and ran across the roof top to awaken her neighbour, her actions eventually saw all 10 people leave the building and no lives lost. The local police helped the businesses by dragging jewellery and bar items into the street away from the fire, thus saving livelihoods in the process. In 2017 Kathleen's grand-daughter and the Town Mayor unveiled a plaque dedicated to her bravery at the site of the Rooms. <br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsy3JzYW0nfi5M5ti150yQuh1K0p5DVo6DG55H3ztxwG-fL8aAqqsz_gzvCbpIBTVvS5E3zMQFtb5PYSlnHvHk4aEOvJsGKQFkJY0CwnF7QAttnfMb5vMW1a-wPjf1-HsMu1feFTaiDVWgptzF_EGzhQ_T5_rCd8qq3fYbJzcgA5Uayx7icCe-DvYm/s1419/foleys.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="898" data-original-width="1419" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsy3JzYW0nfi5M5ti150yQuh1K0p5DVo6DG55H3ztxwG-fL8aAqqsz_gzvCbpIBTVvS5E3zMQFtb5PYSlnHvHk4aEOvJsGKQFkJY0CwnF7QAttnfMb5vMW1a-wPjf1-HsMu1feFTaiDVWgptzF_EGzhQ_T5_rCd8qq3fYbJzcgA5Uayx7icCe-DvYm/w249-h158/foleys.jpg" width="249" /></a></div>World War II - A number of air raids led to fires and collapsed buildings across the town, 27 people were killed and dozens more injured. The rescue and recovery efforts led to the first ever George Cross (Thomas Alderson) and a George Medal (Ernest Barker) being awarded. <p></p><p>Pictured here is Prince Street in August 1940 after Woolworths and Foley's Cafe was hit by bombs leaving over a dozen trapped the the cellars. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIyrdzJExEmI6hNQHm-kWbmXT0bW-R4OJT9oEO-DZmXAXUniS1nhF_O8zI78UqbPVQqQ3TQntiTF9LSSMhZF7nPABSytCVUeXHF5KjoIY-ztX-XGP0r_UEUSRNg-hPFcdSViL-BPliunP43otmiFk137awFNUB5gMwoMuqc4iItzXjTk5TOvFbMtPu/s2592/Hudson%20children%20grave%20after%202nd%20anniversary%20-%2017%20November%202012(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2592" data-original-width="1936" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIyrdzJExEmI6hNQHm-kWbmXT0bW-R4OJT9oEO-DZmXAXUniS1nhF_O8zI78UqbPVQqQ3TQntiTF9LSSMhZF7nPABSytCVUeXHF5KjoIY-ztX-XGP0r_UEUSRNg-hPFcdSViL-BPliunP43otmiFk137awFNUB5gMwoMuqc4iItzXjTk5TOvFbMtPu/w140-h188/Hudson%20children%20grave%20after%202nd%20anniversary%20-%2017%20November%202012(1).JPG" width="140" /></a></div>22 August 1995 - Fire takes hold of Emmanuel Church on Cardigan Road, over 70 fire fighters tackled the overnight blaze but the church was too far gone to save. The remains were cleared away and a new more modern building rose in its place, opening in December 1998.<p></p><p>11 November 2010 - In what is probably the most tragic incident to hit Bridlington in modern times, a cigarette started a blaze at a family home in Clarence Avenue. By the time emergency services had got to the house, three children were dead and their mother Samantha Hudson was in a critical condition. Two years later she became the fourth victim of the fire. Today they are buried together in Bridlington Cemetery. </p>Fire can take hold any time, it gives no warning and takes no prisoners. It takes seconds to check your smoke alarm and could save your life and the life of your family. History has shown us that no buildings is immune, some of the most iconic places have been hit by fire - The Cutty Sark, Notre Dame Cathedral, Windsor Castle, Kings Cross Underground station and the Bradford City Football ground. <div><br /></div><div>Contact me at shipwreckdata@yahoo.co.uk for more information on historic fires or to purchase copies of my book on the Royal Victoria Rooms. </div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtijtq2KH2FMM4pxEn5i4DF8PhURMGOU4v4ezz0Gz6x0SODJ63GmZOLfhI_ogB-ZsRNKyeJwQ-wneAj0TqutqVlchWJrrAOfimUr_kieJU5HHiWtcc4Yu7ohlnXJ1bj13qcRysHKk41x9nnch6EH8Auv23YhlC5B9OolmGUPxF962jl376lYqP_zxp/s500/Royal%20Victoria%20Rooms.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="352" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtijtq2KH2FMM4pxEn5i4DF8PhURMGOU4v4ezz0Gz6x0SODJ63GmZOLfhI_ogB-ZsRNKyeJwQ-wneAj0TqutqVlchWJrrAOfimUr_kieJU5HHiWtcc4Yu7ohlnXJ1bj13qcRysHKk41x9nnch6EH8Auv23YhlC5B9OolmGUPxF962jl376lYqP_zxp/s320/Royal%20Victoria%20Rooms.jpg" width="225" /></a></div><br /></div><div><p><br /></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p></div>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-86899778094532340002023-01-04T12:23:00.004+00:002023-01-04T12:27:19.984+00:00Oil Tanker Disasters <div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWnaqBa2UzvHZZwb8rbtSeCI5DZdDICisVrs9dLoyeuccT333NuZMcBNRN-WuBzAznO_k5NKR0VpLnz5J-YwrqdW6AxlJCbiRm4W5dakcwbemiAR3mMIfE4MbC4ggpERoqsr7d8Xo-3rGoHd4Oec4GWv12Y4mLub1xULKX9TJNQ-rllkiOafJ2zq4-/s397/Braer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="257" data-original-width="397" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWnaqBa2UzvHZZwb8rbtSeCI5DZdDICisVrs9dLoyeuccT333NuZMcBNRN-WuBzAznO_k5NKR0VpLnz5J-YwrqdW6AxlJCbiRm4W5dakcwbemiAR3mMIfE4MbC4ggpERoqsr7d8Xo-3rGoHd4Oec4GWv12Y4mLub1xULKX9TJNQ-rllkiOafJ2zq4-/s320/Braer.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Since oil was first shipped across the seas there have been disasters that befell the ships that transported it, taking a thick, black liquid across a stormy patch of water would be bad enough, especially during the two World Wars when torpedoes would cause devastation to these ships, but it was the modern day that saw the worst environmental disasters as these ships were being built bigger, and the threat of losing one of these to the rocks became more frequent. </div><div>Today there are fewer tanker disasters, regulations now say that any tanker must have a double bottom in order to at least give the cargo a chance to be recovered if a ship comes to grief. But it hasn't always been that way. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU9LXtMby5qAMmfd8bQFuBiRnpGW4KRD-rc1PkYI5DpzriVcfjYSBqUQ-rH3mEJ5oIv9Wr9VnFhHOEGbohwc3eJHiwITobY00z5mga6-ENpJnjRAGjV-tBBxAqarUEDfww1kT94hXFR5EG5wgq65OXp9XzVDEDCW1JTv0FI73EpnZq5nHNOYUek-2k/s200/1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="151" data-original-width="200" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU9LXtMby5qAMmfd8bQFuBiRnpGW4KRD-rc1PkYI5DpzriVcfjYSBqUQ-rH3mEJ5oIv9Wr9VnFhHOEGbohwc3eJHiwITobY00z5mga6-ENpJnjRAGjV-tBBxAqarUEDfww1kT94hXFR5EG5wgq65OXp9XzVDEDCW1JTv0FI73EpnZq5nHNOYUek-2k/s1600/1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>1967, 18 March - The supertanker Torrey Canyon grounds on Seven Stones Reef off the Scilly Isles after the captain decides to take a short cut in a journey starting the month before in Kuwait. The ship soon breaks up but all 119,000 tons of oil was released into the sea creating Britain's worst oil spill. The government realised that the slick was heading for the southern coastline and so decisions were made to bomb the wreck and burn off as much oil as possible. The bombings were a success and the images of the flaming wreck of the Torrey Canyon made headlines around the world. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRnj_lej0FpPgt6k3soAeE2N5UKBGlEYFZ4yb_A_HS0HF4y2laHsYj4eqEXndL7QV8--W--is70NJnocv2ioK1oa530tlfPxoBjlVfMXHGTvoxgwtkQdJ2NcJ-qCeGY7MFJMW2DKDDt4zuExaKhxsPADs2dhZ3-xP-givxCKxYGcymo04g145eh2gl/s339/4.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="339" data-original-width="285" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRnj_lej0FpPgt6k3soAeE2N5UKBGlEYFZ4yb_A_HS0HF4y2laHsYj4eqEXndL7QV8--W--is70NJnocv2ioK1oa530tlfPxoBjlVfMXHGTvoxgwtkQdJ2NcJ-qCeGY7MFJMW2DKDDt4zuExaKhxsPADs2dhZ3-xP-givxCKxYGcymo04g145eh2gl/s320/4.jpg" width="269" /></a></div>1978, 16 March - After her rudder jammed off the coast of France, the crew of the VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier) Amoco Cadiz now found themselves needing to shut the engines down in order to quickly get repairs underway. But the strong winds and heavy seas grounded the ship on the coast of Brittany. Attempts to save the ship were beaten back and the ship was smashed on the rocks, being pulled off and thrown back on again, in just over a week the wrecked ship had released her entire cargo of 220,000 metric tonnes onto the beaches. Dig deep enough today and the black sand still bears the scar of the disaster. </div><div><br /></div><div>1989, 24 March - The VLCC Exxon Valdez was making her way through Prince William Sound in Alaska when she grounded on rocks following her departure just moments before. 37,000 tonnes of her cargo of crude was spilled but thankfully the ship was saved, as was most of her cargo still remaining on board. This was the worst oil spill in US history until 2010 when it was overtaken by the explosion that destroyed the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico. </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_e-1tBBhU_T9FpXmBRQ0myXir_tgfUHlLGMu3mv_BeBgmJRCdKgYMeA2QfZBHUtL9n-qvHS7FG_xb6bMgoBXE44fQL4JtnHQrTEm6r2JL4jwOJPrwNI-s0AFKj1T3uwcWv5_sI3jNSRB3zcMoHQlhJJJr57Rhe28FWxorr-ufjzDvChABPkwlyDwy/s400/1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="400" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_e-1tBBhU_T9FpXmBRQ0myXir_tgfUHlLGMu3mv_BeBgmJRCdKgYMeA2QfZBHUtL9n-qvHS7FG_xb6bMgoBXE44fQL4JtnHQrTEm6r2JL4jwOJPrwNI-s0AFKj1T3uwcWv5_sI3jNSRB3zcMoHQlhJJJr57Rhe28FWxorr-ufjzDvChABPkwlyDwy/w200-h190/1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /></div><div>1992, 3rd December - The double-bottomed tanker Aegean Sea ran aground off the Spanish coast of<br /> Galicia in bad weather. Normally the disaster would be bad enough with the spilling of the cargo, but before the day was over the ship had caught fire and a huge blaze lit up the coast for several days. 67,000 tons of oil was spilled but before the fire the salvage teams did manage to save 12,000 tons by pumping it out in time. The ship later broke up and her anchors are now a nearby monument. </div><div><br /></div><div>1993, 5th January - The Liberian registered Braer loses power in a storm and runs aground at Garths Ness in the Shetland Islands. For the next few days the ship slowly loses oil into the raging sea as salvage teams try to get the ship off the rocks. But in less than a week the ship breaks her back and spills the entire cargo of crude oil into the sea, devastating the coastline and causing the deaths of thousands of birds. Incredibly the stormy weather actually helps disperse the oil, but that which came ashore was bad enough. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWh_NkbhuG4XfeNITCH3OHBsMpTkPl_w_nwlqpJNOZ4zqeXTiZuhJr4n_SpHOJeYDTRNS4xg5x0QlPqsZ0wWRKl---QECOmW6wDbIUS7Ad_-91jERVj0yy9Fk4K2rJAeA6n7xG1LULoCvgndobHd4tOQd37mg0EaZE9QB4pGlNyUuZnTv1uw6sGiwN/s300/1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="300" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWh_NkbhuG4XfeNITCH3OHBsMpTkPl_w_nwlqpJNOZ4zqeXTiZuhJr4n_SpHOJeYDTRNS4xg5x0QlPqsZ0wWRKl---QECOmW6wDbIUS7Ad_-91jERVj0yy9Fk4K2rJAeA6n7xG1LULoCvgndobHd4tOQd37mg0EaZE9QB4pGlNyUuZnTv1uw6sGiwN/s1600/1.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>1996, 15th February - While heading to the Texaco berth in Milford Haven, the Sea Empress grounded after developing a steering issue. Although tugs managed to pull her off the rocks and steady the ship, thousands of tons of the 128,000 ton cargo of crude were already spilling into the sea. The next few days saw even more disaster as the ship was grounded again as bad weather prevented the ship from being moved, eventually the Sea Empress was towed into Milford Haven and the ship repaired. The pilot in charge of the ship was demoted after a two day inquiry found him guilty of incompetence. 73,000 tons of oil was leaked into the sea, becoming the third larges spill in Britain, the 12th largest in the world. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Y9GrinPiXqDCPlXoQnadLNtDpdOa11cH_48TvBmT1cUncSQ7vP5cb6ylTprNyK53wDqneJLhV9frQMHi_ca918_iAuOpaSLiItghdHFVmpo8M-w3X-FOReJFQFZc4L0SwKOnotBr_sAaCjunvwb8Trq1kWqS6NKkZ4RZM8h9jEpokrHvgZCK2UEj/s300/erika3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="300" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Y9GrinPiXqDCPlXoQnadLNtDpdOa11cH_48TvBmT1cUncSQ7vP5cb6ylTprNyK53wDqneJLhV9frQMHi_ca918_iAuOpaSLiItghdHFVmpo8M-w3X-FOReJFQFZc4L0SwKOnotBr_sAaCjunvwb8Trq1kWqS6NKkZ4RZM8h9jEpokrHvgZCK2UEj/s1600/erika3.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>1999, 12th December - The Erika was making her way through the Bay of Biscay when heavy weather caused the ship to break in two. The tanker sank and caused an oil spill over hundreds of miles of French coast. </div><div><br /></div><div>2000, 13 November - During a storm a tank on board the tanker Prestige burst off the Spanish coast releasing heavy fuel oil into the sea off Galicia. Despite efforts to contain the spill and save the ship, she sank on 19th November the little fuel oil remaining on board had to be pumped out of the wreck using deep sea ROV's at 4000 meters down. </div><div><br /></div>Thankfully today tanker disasters and major oil spills are not as common, new regulations, ship safety and clean-up operations have all been implemented to limit the damage should anything like this happen again. But accidents do happen and, as is clear with these few mentioned here, the weather plays a big part in causing these vessels to come to grief. Hopefully disasters on this scale are now a thing of the past. <br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br />Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-85152364170642179942022-11-22T12:35:00.005+00:002022-11-22T12:35:52.425+00:00Mass Murder on the ferry Prins Carl<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUTuuqS6OfrguWjtQAdTGu9Wv4bwOIyPXegBVV24dWwwMELobiEOTVqIyJw8WnhFBH9AQcwp-7AE9nLn44cR7lvPHaL3FfwO6-oEhYHJlk6-YteNGy-qyJW5J2U1FSvkzoX0-Vy0CrgyBP4E622_cAxBV833vG9UP7ZfBepdqPgDDl5iORmNDVhGdl/s1061/Prins%20Carl%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="899" data-original-width="1061" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUTuuqS6OfrguWjtQAdTGu9Wv4bwOIyPXegBVV24dWwwMELobiEOTVqIyJw8WnhFBH9AQcwp-7AE9nLn44cR7lvPHaL3FfwO6-oEhYHJlk6-YteNGy-qyJW5J2U1FSvkzoX0-Vy0CrgyBP4E622_cAxBV833vG9UP7ZfBepdqPgDDl5iORmNDVhGdl/s320/Prins%20Carl%202.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Many people will have heard of the terrorist attack on the liner <i>City of Poros</i> in 1988 which left nine people dead, but who has heard of the murders that took place on 16th May 1900 on board the Swedish ferry <i>Prins Carl</i>? This was a case that shocked Sweden at the time and led to a brutal execution. <p></p><p>25 year old criminal Johan Filip Nordlund had just been released from prison following his conviction for theft, something he did not stop at even after multiple sentences for the same type of crimes over and over again. But this time he was going to do something off the scale - so he boarded the<i> Prins Carl</i> in the port of Arboga, bound for the capital Stockholm. </p><p>The steam driven <i>Prins Carl</i> was small vessel; built in 1874 she was 114 feet long and was able to carry out short trips across the inland rivers and lakes for overnight passages between ports. On this night however, the crossing would not be a calm one, as the ship sailed around 2000 hours and headed down river on its journey east. </p><p>At around midnight Nordlund began shutting doors around the vessel, armed with a revolver in each hand, a knife and a dagger in his belt, he began shooting at anybody he came across. Pulling out the knife he then proceeded to attack the captain, Olof Ronngren and one of the female passengers and a young boy, one of the crew being shot in the shoulder in the meantime. In the smoking room a group of men playing cards heard the commotion and tried to get out, finding the door locked from the outside they tried breaking out, eventually being successful - but Nordlund simply gunned them all down as they fled for their lives. The killer ran down to the engine room after he shouted down for full speed ahead, this aroused suspicion as the ferry was already doing that, the engineer barricaded himself in the engine room and thankfully escaped being shot. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjOllLwe4oLXhxiZ8W5z3tTiqt9G9dy9cDkoMKZtuw4IJFNlRtDXtgnsfbWgHZJnsc475EumetcISRMBwBtDs6MlMlgzrQaMqHNzxRbr8HNv65NIM2MH8aHigVY7GxvHH2yrKEB4OZGXalRfN4Lgz_-7W5g9ijgRPtNSrPlvrb-pZxoMW0_eTi501/s596/Killer%20-%20John%20Filip%20Nordlund%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="596" data-original-width="427" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjOllLwe4oLXhxiZ8W5z3tTiqt9G9dy9cDkoMKZtuw4IJFNlRtDXtgnsfbWgHZJnsc475EumetcISRMBwBtDs6MlMlgzrQaMqHNzxRbr8HNv65NIM2MH8aHigVY7GxvHH2yrKEB4OZGXalRfN4Lgz_-7W5g9ijgRPtNSrPlvrb-pZxoMW0_eTi501/s320/Killer%20-%20John%20Filip%20Nordlund%201.jpg" width="229" /></a></div>In just a few minutes the <i>Prins Carl </i>was a scene of carnage. Dead and injured lay around the decks, chaos as he smashed the place up as he went around looking for more victims. His aim was to rob the passengers and make away with the ships cash - something that he actually failed to do. By now another steamer was getting close and looked like it was going to investigate, so rather than carry out his robbery instead he single handedly launched one of the ships lifeboats and rowed away from the scene. He had left a total of five dead and eight injured and had only managed to steal a total of SEK 845<p></p><p>Escaping from the <i>Prins Carl</i>, Nordlund got a change of clothes from somewhere and that morning made plans to flee the area. As he waiting on the platform of a train station he was arrested by police following a tip off from a member of the public after news went out with a description of the wanted man. He confessed that he was about to commit further carnage on the train. </p><p>Johan Nordlund did not even try to justify his crimes, nor did he plead insanity or try and avoid the inevitable sentence. On 10th December 1900 he was executed with an axe and later buried. For the Prins Carl, she went to several different owners and photographs of her in 1934 show a burned out hulk of a vessel on t<br /><br />he stocks under repair. She was sold in 1936 and renamed Lars Simson, before being scrapped in 1939. </p>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-7103849476907956172022-11-02T14:25:00.004+00:002022-11-02T14:25:58.293+00:00Fire in Shirley Towers<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimOMAlM1TQU8wrmXGMVUYCX0fLcX-9wP60EG9Pl3OgsV6oemTyjZ6dPKq0FiuRpZ_IKSSIw_Sw7vQcxo4PN9-QlnaDNCCykJ_Da1zvsOuurvkSNq6XiC33zTL6OFfFyVyRXMzgIOyzEr6KlMtCnN8h0qJi9Di5Fq1FBhnzpITpjJTeLeavjGRW6H_A/s3264/Shirley%20Towers,%20Southampton%20-%203%20July%202017(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimOMAlM1TQU8wrmXGMVUYCX0fLcX-9wP60EG9Pl3OgsV6oemTyjZ6dPKq0FiuRpZ_IKSSIw_Sw7vQcxo4PN9-QlnaDNCCykJ_Da1zvsOuurvkSNq6XiC33zTL6OFfFyVyRXMzgIOyzEr6KlMtCnN8h0qJi9Di5Fq1FBhnzpITpjJTeLeavjGRW6H_A/s320/Shirley%20Towers,%20Southampton%20-%203%20July%202017(1).JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;">In 2017 Britain was shocked by the images of the burning
Grenfell Tower in London in which 72 people were killed, but the fires that
have been taking over high rise apartments have been a problem for many years.
One such fire occurred on 6<sup>th</sup> April 2010 in the 15 storey Shirley
Towers in Southampton.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;">That evening a lamp set the nearby curtains on fire
within Flat No 72 on the 9<sup>th</sup> floor and very soon a call was made to
Hampshire Fire and Rescue at 2010 hours. In less than two minutes burning debris
was falling from the window onto the ground below. Firefighters soon arrived on
scene just four minutes after the call and rigged themselves up for an entry
into the apartments to tackle the blaze, although there was instant confusion
as to the layout of not only the flat but the entire building. Entering the
flat it soon became apparent that the smoke was reducing visibility to almost
zero.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKF2968GjQdxt_9DjFMCwwe52CdZ0pAop7qfez065LVVuhLQr0UsjpOi9XfbSQZ57gLHFOvLcQVxMTGLDsbrlAzV93fuQQSakXeFWpnzoEDZ3-uPDNnQlhWBV4vJYf8yW48jjVlIE4Xp71W0dyTPKuFQf_CZaXo23K57Poad73VqL2AnvG2n0VRE38/s620/10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="413" data-original-width="620" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKF2968GjQdxt_9DjFMCwwe52CdZ0pAop7qfez065LVVuhLQr0UsjpOi9XfbSQZ57gLHFOvLcQVxMTGLDsbrlAzV93fuQQSakXeFWpnzoEDZ3-uPDNnQlhWBV4vJYf8yW48jjVlIE4Xp71W0dyTPKuFQf_CZaXo23K57Poad73VqL2AnvG2n0VRE38/s320/10.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the meantime the temperatures inside where the
firefighters were exceeded 1000 degrees Centigrade and at this point it was
figured that the teams would have to withdraw. Four attempted to escape – two
required hospital treatment for burns when they got back down, but two others
were nowhere to be seen. James Shears and Alan Bannon had been overcome by
intense heat and tangled up in a bunch of cables that had suddenly appeared
from the ceiling when the fire had caused the trunking to melt.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;">Trapped in the burning flat, the two firefighters died at
their post less than half an hour after the first call. The other teams work
hard into the night to extinguish the raging inferno, with success by 2230
hours and now the casualties can be removed from the site.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;">The tragic deaths of two firefighters hit the service
hard, they were popular and hardworking guys who were professional and
experienced. To lose their life in a tower block fire was shocking especially
when it was revealed that the block did not have sprinklers.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9z-nwfhZoisQG0xJoxnNwK2GDsfnL9GKKWtiDzjvQVELpT6_9cpc698S4sfL1ts_otV4uOxZ4BPYzJXIZWesTX5mN1IlkD0IUHUgvM78repqsUjUkkidCbY-hgYPDoJVtqay60r8lZfDlF7-nmRENy6VqdRW43MgMYT1Wc7Pg7dx0GvERnNGvipqn/s3664/Hampshire%20Fire%20HQ%20%20memorial%20-%201%20February%202019(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2748" data-original-width="3664" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9z-nwfhZoisQG0xJoxnNwK2GDsfnL9GKKWtiDzjvQVELpT6_9cpc698S4sfL1ts_otV4uOxZ4BPYzJXIZWesTX5mN1IlkD0IUHUgvM78repqsUjUkkidCbY-hgYPDoJVtqay60r8lZfDlF7-nmRENy6VqdRW43MgMYT1Wc7Pg7dx0GvERnNGvipqn/s320/Hampshire%20Fire%20HQ%20%20memorial%20-%201%20February%202019(2).JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;">The legacy of the deaths of Shears and Bannon are that
sprinklers were ordered to be fitted to several tower blocks and the wiring
within these flats will now be encased in metal rather than plastic that can
melt. For firefighting equipment, the anti-snagging strap allows things to fall
onto the air bottle without hooking on and holding down the wearer.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But for Shirley Towers, the flat was later
refurbished and today it looks like nothing had ever taken place. For the two
firefighters who perished that night, their names are on the memorial outside Hampshire Fire and Rescue HQ, but the true legacy of these two people is that the memory of their bravery lives on. </span></span></p>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-8754884992011103962022-10-03T20:54:00.002+00:002022-10-04T18:02:25.122+00:00Yorkshire coast fishing boat losses<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpcViC49jriVxxJ3KI6gwIYdd0fQTP-hbD9L7oCJn418KSKiDM5tFoc2kSNoX7cACTqW_NAHAPvC7MyGroseIgmrnz2uJu5p2FyH-1XgX5jJSDFu9gD52pYdsDPJr20shWd1-Z_WEo3lB5m0O3bi59RR-1zOUmdF9ZDUsjv9CqoGsAdg0nrYTvfZTL/s3648/Magdelene%20Ann,%20Bridlington%20-%2029%20August%202008(3).JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2736" data-original-width="3648" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpcViC49jriVxxJ3KI6gwIYdd0fQTP-hbD9L7oCJn418KSKiDM5tFoc2kSNoX7cACTqW_NAHAPvC7MyGroseIgmrnz2uJu5p2FyH-1XgX5jJSDFu9gD52pYdsDPJr20shWd1-Z_WEo3lB5m0O3bi59RR-1zOUmdF9ZDUsjv9CqoGsAdg0nrYTvfZTL/s320/Magdelene%20Ann,%20Bridlington%20-%2029%20August%202008(3).JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Bridlington is the lobster capital of Europe and has
been home to a harbour of fishing vessels for as long as the town has existed,
being this close to the North Sea it would be impossible for fish not to be
involved in the town’s infrastructure. But with any industry, there are always
accidents and fatalities, this town having had more than its fair share over
the years. Here are several fishing vessel wrecks that have been from the town
or involved Bridlington in some way, but bear in mind that with so many wrecks it would be impossible to document them all in such a short blog, for the victims of the North Sea run into the thousands. The Magdalene Ann for example (above) went down on 12th August 2013 following a collision. <p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO08aihqFoDauii2Bk7-4-chd08APxcuuxHwIuoMibtOgxXq57s2LaT_eXQCEgOxqFPUrJRxaVGIMFUs1NOpMSXpu9j16R6RqczarWNXRcrP_6pMhPQlv4eUA5ch8_ki_gf4tDGEmMxH7bs-uxtmcenIntxoyYJ7AW29HiDjXpRP3CzIvTNnAAT6TX/s3648/Flamborough%20memorial%20-%2017%20Aug%202008(2).JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2736" data-original-width="3648" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO08aihqFoDauii2Bk7-4-chd08APxcuuxHwIuoMibtOgxXq57s2LaT_eXQCEgOxqFPUrJRxaVGIMFUs1NOpMSXpu9j16R6RqczarWNXRcrP_6pMhPQlv4eUA5ch8_ki_gf4tDGEmMxH7bs-uxtmcenIntxoyYJ7AW29HiDjXpRP3CzIvTNnAAT6TX/s320/Flamborough%20memorial%20-%2017%20Aug%202008(2).JPG" width="320" /></a></div>The coast is already littered with wrecks from years ago,
the cliffs alone at Bempton, Flamborough and Speeton are the scene of many a
tragedy. There are two memorials in Flamborough village, the first was a double
tragedy in 1909 when the Two Brothers sank while trying to rescue the crew of
the Gleaner, a total of seven people killed. History repeated itself on 7</span><sup style="text-align: left;">th</sup><span style="text-align: left;">
May 1984 with the Carol Sandra and the North Wind, again both vessels lost,
seven crew killed. The memorials are testament to the bravery of the crews of
these boats when a fellow fisherman is in trouble.</span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqK0tV83O0IZa6guCinztSYjFeITszLzJACb2ktVqXtufZQtPQA2ZC0PDR5KKbuFZ-rEBlAbS_k8gXWzkfcPNdeYzelZhTvpNQtSieD9Jr_7w50RbZL2ueVazontgSO3J8Xt_pZ7873_DScR3koyPoXkPcRQB42CZzm_n4u2ADCDFO7lrTOaz7_WHG/s3664/Grave%20-%20Peter%20Ward,%20Bridlington%20Cemetery%20-%2017%20May%202022%20(2).JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3664" data-original-width="2748" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqK0tV83O0IZa6guCinztSYjFeITszLzJACb2ktVqXtufZQtPQA2ZC0PDR5KKbuFZ-rEBlAbS_k8gXWzkfcPNdeYzelZhTvpNQtSieD9Jr_7w50RbZL2ueVazontgSO3J8Xt_pZ7873_DScR3koyPoXkPcRQB42CZzm_n4u2ADCDFO7lrTOaz7_WHG/s320/Grave%20-%20Peter%20Ward,%20Bridlington%20Cemetery%20-%2017%20May%202022%20(2).JPG" width="240" /></a></div>On the evening of 21<sup>st</sup> May 1987 the stern
trawler Anmara with a crew of three was reported as overdue from its home port
of Scarborough. Bridlington lifeboat was launched to conduct a search along
with Scarborough and Filey boat as well as the RAF and fishery protection
vessel HMS Lindisfarne, but the boat was long gone. The following day a body
and wreckage was found in Cayton Bay. There were no survivors, the victims now being mourned in the towns up the coast, a grave of one of them in Bridlington cemetery sporting an image of the lost trawler. <p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">On 25<sup>th</sup> March 1993 the Heritage set sail with
her two crew members, skipper Tony
Maplebeck and his 21 year old crewman Shaun Rowley, and fished with another
boat named Katie Jane 12 miles off the coast of Scarborough. The Heritage had
snagged her nets on the seabed and the crew decided to wait for the tides to turn
before freeing them. But the Katie Jane returned soon after and the Heritage
was gone. A search of the area by ships and helicopters found nothing but
wreckage. The Heritage was later raised and towed into harbour.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdG8uVXFUC9acBPX3sF6Ln2q5t8WB-aY9fHSgckSr7AumtJpvCtEmvAVbMgtPESOWtYCupm_bFrEgFajnUTIE6jUdW4m7s0OgQghIESsNmanYrbWnelp7PL5V2JcMUUiZlxkG6_9Hnwvt9RP8i_3LlftkhzQnnMoXOjmX7jO-Xu6jH-J7-oVHORcy4/s398/Screenshot%202022-10-03%20214331.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="361" data-original-width="398" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdG8uVXFUC9acBPX3sF6Ln2q5t8WB-aY9fHSgckSr7AumtJpvCtEmvAVbMgtPESOWtYCupm_bFrEgFajnUTIE6jUdW4m7s0OgQghIESsNmanYrbWnelp7PL5V2JcMUUiZlxkG6_9Hnwvt9RP8i_3LlftkhzQnnMoXOjmX7jO-Xu6jH-J7-oVHORcy4/s320/Screenshot%202022-10-03%20214331.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The trawler Diana was involved in a collision off the
coast on 6<sup>th</sup> June 2003 with the cargo ship Santa Vitoria. The boat
was damaged and taken in tow but later sank, the skipper John Collinson having
a lucky escape.<p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">But four years later Collinson was involved in a second
mid-sea crash when his vessel Flourish was in collision with the cargo ship
Nautica and the crew abandoned ship. Collinson was killed in the collision
which caused Flourish to sink, the other crew members were taken on board
Nautica where they were transferred to a lifeboat and taken back to
Bridlington.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs-42iIj4BCymb3x9WKEhxffQ7Lzci_1CVxSTMdnNoeAcJFXiV9KTQ3S00QbOpC8q0E9uptslbUA19wCF_13Ro8Hblzuh4xn9ID8Np-dFswI0WeJxz8U7Pgzm-ZLqQy80JxA3oXkEon7PJmuI4krJgCkm9YQcOLHMd9Olq83MCOD_fOgysR70HWbYt/s1280/Serene%20on%20South%20beach%20with%20tide%20in%20-%2012%20April%202013(3).JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs-42iIj4BCymb3x9WKEhxffQ7Lzci_1CVxSTMdnNoeAcJFXiV9KTQ3S00QbOpC8q0E9uptslbUA19wCF_13Ro8Hblzuh4xn9ID8Np-dFswI0WeJxz8U7Pgzm-ZLqQy80JxA3oXkEon7PJmuI4krJgCkm9YQcOLHMd9Olq83MCOD_fOgysR70HWbYt/s320/Serene%20on%20South%20beach%20with%20tide%20in%20-%2012%20April%202013(3).JPG" width="320" /></a></div>There was drama on Bridlington south beach on 9<sup>th</sup>
April 2013 when the Serene grounded. The crew were rescued but as the tide came
in the vessel was completely submerged. I stood on the south beach myself as the vessel was slowly consumed by the incoming tide, wondering what was going through the mind of the people who owned her, sailed her and now had to salvage her. Would she be another one of the coast's many victims, or was there hope for her to once again be put to sea. Only time would tell. <p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">The East Yorkshire coast will continue to be the scene of
shipwrecks, but thanks to modern technology there will be quicker rescues, less
risk to life and the ability to navigate away from danger. For those who have
made the ultimate sacrifice over the years, they are remembered by those who go
out to sea today. The memorials are testament to that.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-27931357675664932912022-09-04T13:45:00.002+00:002022-09-04T13:45:47.854+00:00The Nimrod Disasters<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXUPn2uJLrlgvT7kcMZOTn9ZfB8Cu9t7C1jUWeZ-EKj90lE7HClvWs8Mu104Tzg3eFTv9B6i_wfe8y301eyi1fprtuCyGOEuxZ6dOaF-t8P3ts7NUKe36uGcfkJRnfaLBJfjrIiOcmyQBaGKjo2thPlxBctnwqEqUPQrW9XfDkhBy9vFJkqGOFYrcz/s800/800px-Hawker_Siddeley_Nimrod_MR2_(801),_UK_-_Air_Force_AN1914655.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXUPn2uJLrlgvT7kcMZOTn9ZfB8Cu9t7C1jUWeZ-EKj90lE7HClvWs8Mu104Tzg3eFTv9B6i_wfe8y301eyi1fprtuCyGOEuxZ6dOaF-t8P3ts7NUKe36uGcfkJRnfaLBJfjrIiOcmyQBaGKjo2thPlxBctnwqEqUPQrW9XfDkhBy9vFJkqGOFYrcz/s320/800px-Hawker_Siddeley_Nimrod_MR2_(801),_UK_-_Air_Force_AN1914655.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by Mike Freer - Touchdown-aviation</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table>The Hawker Siddeley Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft first
came on the scene during the Cold War in 1967 and would go on to have a
successful career spanning 44 years before being retired to be replaced by the
new Poseidon’s. But during that career a number of crashes blighted the
excellent safety record of this workhorse of the skies.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">A modified version of the De Havilland Comet, itself a
plane with a chequered history, the aircraft suffered its first disaster on 17<sup>th</sup>
November 1980 when a multiple bird strike upon take off from RAF Kinloss caused
the Nimrod XV256 to crash into a wooded area killing two pilots. The rest of
the crew survived.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Four years later a flare ignited on board Nimrod XV257
and the crew landed the aircraft and successfully evacuated. Although there were
no casualties the aircraft was written off.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGW9tg_mqGFRqXtKne70PUGg-1KvATPWjyH_oI4aPzvq1cOb17D7ZDZkmoO5oK5TvzE6DgAvslZIUIGslDtkm2FzA2ajPmELvo0bbYzxxibo-0xYTyzP4Tzqa07xUVjrZr3ZuKoZW6RoaZb0W0SFphHeZOqOb6W0jUnAZaRIJ5sIVOB6AHkSEpX3eK/s1000/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="706" data-original-width="1000" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGW9tg_mqGFRqXtKne70PUGg-1KvATPWjyH_oI4aPzvq1cOb17D7ZDZkmoO5oK5TvzE6DgAvslZIUIGslDtkm2FzA2ajPmELvo0bbYzxxibo-0xYTyzP4Tzqa07xUVjrZr3ZuKoZW6RoaZb0W0SFphHeZOqOb6W0jUnAZaRIJ5sIVOB6AHkSEpX3eK/s320/1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">It would be over a decade before the next crash and in
this case two happened within months of each other. XW666 had taken off from
RAF Kinloss on 16<sup>th</sup> May 1995 for a routine test flight, on board
were the crew of seven and everything seemed to be going well. But 35 minutes
after take off the engine warning light signified that engine number 4 was on
fire. While the crew were performing their normal operating procedures engine
number 3 light illuminated. The crew realised that this was a precarious
position and the decision was taken to attempt to land on the water. Incredibly
they ditched the aircraft in a controlled manner and the seven crew were all
rescued, the wreckage sinking into the Moray Firth. The aircraft was later
recovered.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBvbjbmj3aE940aefbdZ9UNOkVXpB-K2rb_PSEXB8IljAFYNK3QSRPAxBgd4F4K1-MONDBsgLGA6eyvBKIwCfZyIJj8MYHB51jV7cQ7sKdZtb6TD2X-bpAUQ1lA5tHSZO9OaL3tsd11JH5CeGL_mXwn6T4Pn33Ok5CRjZ-8q8-rMIy5cUWs2Qrp2R-/s500/Crash%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="500" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBvbjbmj3aE940aefbdZ9UNOkVXpB-K2rb_PSEXB8IljAFYNK3QSRPAxBgd4F4K1-MONDBsgLGA6eyvBKIwCfZyIJj8MYHB51jV7cQ7sKdZtb6TD2X-bpAUQ1lA5tHSZO9OaL3tsd11JH5CeGL_mXwn6T4Pn33Ok5CRjZ-8q8-rMIy5cUWs2Qrp2R-/s320/Crash%202.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>On 2 September 1995 the Nimrod XV239 was taking part in
the Canadian International Air Show much to the delight of the thousands who
had come to see the three-day event that is held in Toronto annually. The seven
crew members prepared the aircraft and it took off from Pearson Airport for its
allocated display slot, the weather being very good for the display and with
cameras rolling the entire time. As the aircraft made its mid-air turns it
suddenly dived into the waters of Lake Ontario to the horror of all those
watching. All seven crew were killed. The crash was blamed on the aircraft
stalling at low speed and gaps in training were identified for crews taking
part in air shows.<p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY2Vjo9AxCJssHtjjkyaONDeBfdmgbzK-iNYMUdUu_kHAMmQ3kK9jzGDgMtEZEHRqd3BcITk4_TLBVb-W0tV8pZgmwUyn7WgU9WQJO308eOqn7muP47j74HwGt2u0MT51KscPUx4xggs7f27GQtANX__I_qGTQHHOePRPf1SBRvbqxIWrlLmwxh_Cu/s2458/DMHAF0002-C00000-N20060904-00010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2458" data-original-width="1843" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY2Vjo9AxCJssHtjjkyaONDeBfdmgbzK-iNYMUdUu_kHAMmQ3kK9jzGDgMtEZEHRqd3BcITk4_TLBVb-W0tV8pZgmwUyn7WgU9WQJO308eOqn7muP47j74HwGt2u0MT51KscPUx4xggs7f27GQtANX__I_qGTQHHOePRPf1SBRvbqxIWrlLmwxh_Cu/s320/DMHAF0002-C00000-N20060904-00010.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>2<sup>nd</sup> September became a tragic anniversary for
another reason 11 years later when XV230 carrying 14 crew members was taking
part in a mid-air refuelling over Kandahar, Afghanistan. The aircraft was on a
routine reconnaissance mission on Taliban insurgents and all seemed well on
board until suddenly a fire erupted on board. The crew attempted to land the
Nimrod but witnesses then saw the entire aircraft explode and the burning
wreckage scatter over the land below. There were no survivors. An inquiry
established that there had been previous issues of fuel leaks and others began
to highlight the safety of such an old aircraft that by now had been serving
for almost four decades.<br /><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">So an aircraft with a career spanning so long had quite a
fan following and was always a welcome sight at air shows, but it was the right
thing to do to withdraw this aircraft from service. The loss of five aircraft
in its lifetime shows that the crews were highly trained and despite the loss
of life these crews were professional to the end. Today there are memorials to
the loss of the aircraft over Afghanistan and the cockpit salvaged from the
Moray Firth crash is today on display at the South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum in
Doncaster. A bench at the National Memorial Arboretum pays tribute to all
victims of the crashes.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJnbeA-zCh3Z4eY-PsAcf3_bNDy8ovhV3nFckPNLR7tKJdfixwB5CBYkGhnPVISfPZyjr4N-mpX-ytejGYyTinj6lbaPRa6ij-E_4-7lkoozA3chNM9q9_71YbsmqNJ2Zdr-IF6BGmHnKzG120hWF7uh4rJxsmjczRsLklT9CCuNWntl0mppl71hRU/s3664/100_3662.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2748" data-original-width="3664" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJnbeA-zCh3Z4eY-PsAcf3_bNDy8ovhV3nFckPNLR7tKJdfixwB5CBYkGhnPVISfPZyjr4N-mpX-ytejGYyTinj6lbaPRa6ij-E_4-7lkoozA3chNM9q9_71YbsmqNJ2Zdr-IF6BGmHnKzG120hWF7uh4rJxsmjczRsLklT9CCuNWntl0mppl71hRU/w400-h300/100_3662.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-42632644797967046052022-08-03T09:40:00.001+00:002022-08-03T09:40:19.310+00:00Migrant Disasters - Shipwrecks, Lorries and cocklepickers<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7-NkEFvd6cVOO_76P3HW805dI2PDZ5tvppxHwA5cUFEEBXegrk_vNdasVCH01Jkx7MFt8-ZbbnMH1UL0kemGjV07DI9_PzoGbz0WiAS2wjWSEakyrjWlW-HhXiyfx88V3tfrxGtsYmO98VcIU4g5GmxLvjSm-K3RnbmfUr1TmI71Xc6gi90cNWKQy/s1000/201506291113440667.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="1000" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7-NkEFvd6cVOO_76P3HW805dI2PDZ5tvppxHwA5cUFEEBXegrk_vNdasVCH01Jkx7MFt8-ZbbnMH1UL0kemGjV07DI9_PzoGbz0WiAS2wjWSEakyrjWlW-HhXiyfx88V3tfrxGtsYmO98VcIU4g5GmxLvjSm-K3RnbmfUr1TmI71Xc6gi90cNWKQy/s320/201506291113440667.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Over the last ten years or so there has been a noticeable
increase in the deaths of migrants in mass casualty disasters caused by those at
the head of the human trafficking treating people as if they were just
expendable cargo. Thousands of people from places like China, Vietnam and Mexico
have paid tens of thousands of pounds each to be smuggled into Britain and
America in the belief that they will suddenly have an amazing life and be able
to support their families back home.<p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">What they do not realise is that the journey will be a
huge risk to life and when they get to their destination they will be forced to
work as either poorly paid labourers or in many cases be subject to slavery.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoGrd9uAQefBFfuu2zpyVEnqSJ5b6QNjcxByMrwSTQJ_kPkKD2RISA7B_wiv2r_wkJggXIq0OexYpgNrYeZJ046OtZ6HaDcm0-hwqDT4-92Iep31rSgCHf1TmOxzamBFpCrj8JFdwguO47zcJbz9jODFY5qxT4JhPCsDfig52Tp2vIFmXPu5adxmmH/s1302/2021-11-25%20Daily%20Mirror.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1302" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoGrd9uAQefBFfuu2zpyVEnqSJ5b6QNjcxByMrwSTQJ_kPkKD2RISA7B_wiv2r_wkJggXIq0OexYpgNrYeZJ046OtZ6HaDcm0-hwqDT4-92Iep31rSgCHf1TmOxzamBFpCrj8JFdwguO47zcJbz9jODFY5qxT4JhPCsDfig52Tp2vIFmXPu5adxmmH/s320/2021-11-25%20Daily%20Mirror.jpg" width="252" /></a></div>Great Britain alone has seen a number of these events.
Only last year, on 24<sup>th</sup> November 2021, 30 migrants from all over the
world came together on a French beach to attempt the crossing of the English
Channel in a flimsy dinghy. They didn’t get far as the boat deflated out at sea
and only two survivors were found by the time rescuers arrived on scene.<p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">On 23<sup>rd</sup> October 2019 a lorry, which had just
left a cross-channel ferry in Essex, pulled up for the driver to check on his
human cargo. What he found was 39 dead bodies, all succumbed to hypoxia and overheating
during the voyage. The victims were all
from Vietnam and the police investigation later convicted a number of people who
were given long prison sentences.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">This wasn’t the first time a lorry had been found like
this. A Dutch lorry on 18<sup>th</sup> June 2000 was selected for examination
at Dover after it had made the trip from Zeebrugge. Customs officers found 60
people in the back of the lorry, but only two of those were alive. It was later
determined that they had died from asphyxiation after being trapped in the
container for over 18 hours in extreme heat. The gang involved in the disaster and the driver were all given long sentences. </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg-MFymb4RGMfyYQkldyZYae9r7NtajPvCmHkB54M3DM_5nPfywL7UHZKkAWNFptD_NvmNDn0QAZp6YSCvA7u_UiNcAWcMbiPGEkOijAsDquvmpGYDWlys95HL_MJVQt5qGaOOWaBCivPnXI5L9B01YoHV12N2p4D2Ak4os9Z1HD4_mk9POuAcDop4/s824/2019-10-24%20Daily%20Mirror.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="824" data-original-width="660" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg-MFymb4RGMfyYQkldyZYae9r7NtajPvCmHkB54M3DM_5nPfywL7UHZKkAWNFptD_NvmNDn0QAZp6YSCvA7u_UiNcAWcMbiPGEkOijAsDquvmpGYDWlys95HL_MJVQt5qGaOOWaBCivPnXI5L9B01YoHV12N2p4D2Ak4os9Z1HD4_mk9POuAcDop4/s320/2019-10-24%20Daily%20Mirror.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>For the Chinese illegal immigrants who found themselves
in Morecambe Bay on 5<sup>th</sup> February 2004 they were the lucky ones,
although they didn’t feel like it. After surviving the journey they were now
nothing more than cheap labour for criminals who took advantage of them and
their job now was to scour the beaches here picking cockles at low tide. But things
turned to disaster when in the evening they found that the tide had cut them
off and they were in danger of drowning. With broken English one call alerted
the emergency services but 23 people were killed.<div><br /></div><div>The 2006 film Ghosts was based on this disaster and is a powerful reminder that these people were not treated fairly, not paid a decent wage and were exploited and threatened by bullies, gangsters and killers. <p class="MsoNoSpacing">But this is just Great Britain, across the world there
have been many incidents that have led to mass deaths of migrants: </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>27 June 2022 – 53 migrants found dead in the back of a
truck in Texas after crossing border from Mexico. 16 others survived. The
driver was arrested and the case is ongoing.</li><li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNHNjToZ8Q7QxTse289Kjyupv3R4DPOCKgUu1BCd8EDnpJHMB2RiR39_wp3hE0Iw9H6r-25LARd-NJM88EJt_tA-SK6_6cIzzNERlYhBdQgwgeVwhoUe6SNtK-oJAi4giAWxHrLwkGqJlnd8KLobRRFfZ7RM9_d-4Vo3xlqeaQhfvfsyHsjC3v-TIW/s976/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="976" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNHNjToZ8Q7QxTse289Kjyupv3R4DPOCKgUu1BCd8EDnpJHMB2RiR39_wp3hE0Iw9H6r-25LARd-NJM88EJt_tA-SK6_6cIzzNERlYhBdQgwgeVwhoUe6SNtK-oJAi4giAWxHrLwkGqJlnd8KLobRRFfZ7RM9_d-4Vo3xlqeaQhfvfsyHsjC3v-TIW/s320/2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>24 March 2020 – A shipping container on a lorry in
Mozambique contained 78 migrants, 64 of them were dead. Deaths were caused by
asphyxiation.</li><li>27 August 2015 – Truck is found abandoned on an Austrian
motorway and investigation found the bodies of 71 illegal immigrants who were
from Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. Due to the high level of decomposition
several were not able to be identified. Several
people involved in the deaths were later convicted and jailed.</li><li>9 April 2008 – 54 suffocate to death in a seafood
container in Thailand after the driver fled. The container had a total of 121
people inside so this could have been so much worse if it had carried on the
journey.</li></ul><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">It is not just trucks that hold a large death toll
though, for the journey starting at the home countries and ending at their
destination is always mostly by truck, it is the part in between that holds the
most risk – a crossing of the seas. The boats used in these crossings are
sometimes flimsy dinghys, old fishing boats or whatever the smugglers can get
hold of. Poor quality lifejackets are provided with the clueless migrants being
told that it will be a short and simple journey. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">What they face is hundreds of miles of terrifying seas,
bad weather and the threat of capsize. But what they do not know is just how
many of these boats never make it. In the last decade there have been hundreds
of boats sink on the journey across from Africa to Europe across the
Mediterranean. In April 2015 one unnamed fishing boat approached a cargo vessel
and tried to cause a collision in the hope that the 700 people on board would
be rescued and taken to Italy. But the boat capsized and sank with just 28
survivors. The wreck was later raised and a total of 675 people were confirmed
to have died.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEievGMTWGEF-qhPJ-RvKsipWNwZJI7nIXURRuGFwCAHtAoY7GqN4Vqug260HWaSHgoDunf7LbjJ9zfrM7yOEyLWmyMtagNxFBUV-b4O7fNk3IaWt_n68ApDisv8q3tPZCBb-dLzhwJfvIceEYmnb2W3zb_AWPKui9EoA8DypG5475m_d2MkTDHz4ohL/s1024/On%20Display%202019%20in%20Venice(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="685" data-original-width="1024" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEievGMTWGEF-qhPJ-RvKsipWNwZJI7nIXURRuGFwCAHtAoY7GqN4Vqug260HWaSHgoDunf7LbjJ9zfrM7yOEyLWmyMtagNxFBUV-b4O7fNk3IaWt_n68ApDisv8q3tPZCBb-dLzhwJfvIceEYmnb2W3zb_AWPKui9EoA8DypG5475m_d2MkTDHz4ohL/s320/On%20Display%202019%20in%20Venice(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">This was the worst of them, there have been so many more,
thousands of innocent people, including new born babies, lost to the sea, their
lack of knowledge about what is actually going on meaning that they unwillingly
risk their lives in these ventures, not knowing that at the other end there is
slave labour or arrest and deportation. Although there are rescue teams on standby, charities to help the survivors and police doing their hardest to investigate the criminals, it is a huge operation with a lot of money involved, and while ever these gangs are allowed to
continue their evil trade these migrant disasters will keep happening all
across the world.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p></div>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-48985296269015729432022-07-07T14:33:00.001+00:002022-07-07T14:33:13.364+00:00Fire on the Sally Star<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcZbVQppPr6BnZmBNpPrcVE5Nd-vSLSisGvTTj1DrGXqs7wNx4g7lUyLNJ4SffAAmnYg9IXkeDi6D8AnAIa0cIg3E35_3gjB27KnWJNEtS9US2m4zbgrWQVUCHAl-2KyGFZocKD8P83L0FYf3jXW7cK-_RgyvqgQ0UKmOenIGyvezTDhsTmRpBT5Eb/s1500/Sally%20Star.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1500" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcZbVQppPr6BnZmBNpPrcVE5Nd-vSLSisGvTTj1DrGXqs7wNx4g7lUyLNJ4SffAAmnYg9IXkeDi6D8AnAIa0cIg3E35_3gjB27KnWJNEtS9US2m4zbgrWQVUCHAl-2KyGFZocKD8P83L0FYf3jXW7cK-_RgyvqgQ0UKmOenIGyvezTDhsTmRpBT5Eb/s320/Sally%20Star.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>It was the
early hours of 25<sup style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> August 1994 and the roll-on-roll-off car ferry
<i>Sally Star</i> was making her way from Dunkirk to Ramsgate with 104 crew and 17
passengers on board on a routine Channel crossing that normally took just a
matter of hours. The ferry was build in Helsinki, Finland, in 1981 and had
undergone a number of owner and name changes before being taken over by Sally
Line in 1988. At 450 feet long and 74 feet wide, she could carry over 1700
passengers and 105 crew along with a car deck full of vehicles – over 400! As
with all RORO ferries, vehicles could access both bow and stern doors making
this type of ferry easily accessible for a quick turnaround.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Not long
after the ship sailed, a fire detection panel on the bridge indicated a fire in
the main engine room. When engineers went to investigate, black smoke was seen
pouring out of the spaces. The engine was shut down, but then different systems
on board started to fail such as the navigation lighting and steering gear. At
0422 Hours the general alarm was sounded and a few minutes later Dover
Coastguard was called, all this while onboard fire teams prepared to attempt to
fight the fire with breathing apparatus. Within minutes the few passengers had
assembled and the emergency services were on their way to the stricken ferry.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_qrdygMRj-bsBLID4czCUMGE3-zQxrnkET6mWXICba9gu_b5E8kVnqKuvcYbVhLXCP5NsJ2Xy0Z4J0-DjVM5CIZ3sMHNoSyjQJ2pDe31fKeiJM5Q5Zphv8pE-3glExd09IsZNaT3_2iUi5qzFhGc-4ICbng_ync_LP6hVd3A8C88fpys3MxPZMvRL/s487/Sally%20Star%20rescue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="487" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_qrdygMRj-bsBLID4czCUMGE3-zQxrnkET6mWXICba9gu_b5E8kVnqKuvcYbVhLXCP5NsJ2Xy0Z4J0-DjVM5CIZ3sMHNoSyjQJ2pDe31fKeiJM5Q5Zphv8pE-3glExd09IsZNaT3_2iUi5qzFhGc-4ICbng_ync_LP6hVd3A8C88fpys3MxPZMvRL/s320/Sally%20Star%20rescue.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>As the fire
teams were beaten back, the ships halon system was discharged into the
compartment, the decks now starting to heat up significantly. In less than an
hour after the first call, Ramsgate lifeboat and the tug <i>Anglian River</i> had
arrived on scene. Now an incredible scene was played out as the lifeboat took on
102 people via the tug, crowded onto the upper decks to escape the burning
ship, the lifeboat slowly making its way back to dry land while helicopters
landed fire crews to help with the fire fight.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">With only 19
crew left on board, 20 fire fighters now assisted with the battle as the ship,
now at anchor in the middle of the Channel. One crewman was injured and was
evacuated off the ship while boundary cooling was taking place on the decks,
the tug spraying the side of the ship to ensure the fire didn’t spread further.
As the morning progressed, more fire teams and tugs arrived on scene. By 1112
Hours that morning, Dover Coastguard reported the fire as being extinguished.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEt0LTJd0mhsTmvypnRSI4gvSGv_MNkU8QNkCLxsNNGQ_erGmpLzuqKR1OS5FAn1Gw6xe-t6gRWmHMfz_BqAVQw4-CCzYJ4gmvMS2uEiCuB-n-RBCKE9dfJDcmg4kBdDdlJ4b-KUt3Gr9y5z_FtSxlkwY659suQ_2zCasq76X6y_CETQoROC2-fwtm/s671/Screenshot%202022-07-07%20152854.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="671" data-original-width="553" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEt0LTJd0mhsTmvypnRSI4gvSGv_MNkU8QNkCLxsNNGQ_erGmpLzuqKR1OS5FAn1Gw6xe-t6gRWmHMfz_BqAVQw4-CCzYJ4gmvMS2uEiCuB-n-RBCKE9dfJDcmg4kBdDdlJ4b-KUt3Gr9y5z_FtSxlkwY659suQ_2zCasq76X6y_CETQoROC2-fwtm/s320/Screenshot%202022-07-07%20152854.jpg" width="264" /></a></div>This could
well have turned into a major sea disaster if it wasn’t for the rescue operation
running like clockwork and the modern survival equipment on board the ship
preventing the fire spreading. The image of a crowded lifeboat entering port
with the survivors was one that made the papers the following day as everybody
cheered for those who took part in what was surely a miracle in the Channel.
The dangers of the RORO ferry and the open car decks were not just concerning
through its ability to spread a fire though, for just a month later Europe was
hit by its worst ever ferry disaster when the <i>Estonia </i>sank in the Baltic, once
again highlighting the problems these ships face when disaster strikes.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">An
investigation reported that the cause of the fire was leaking fuel vapour
igniting on the hot surfaces. Within less than two months the <i>Sally Star</i> was
back at sea fully repaired. Other than a small collision in 1997 and a slight
grounding in 2008, she has since had a good record of successful voyages. She
did, however, suffer a fire in the Channel in 1988 where she had to be towed to
Ramsgate.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In 1997 she was sold again to
a Scandinavian company, changed hands (and names) on numerous occasions and the
ship still operates today as the <i>Wasa Express</i> ploughing the waves of the
Mediterranean.</span></p>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-77153360945821845802022-05-15T15:07:00.000+00:002022-05-15T15:07:53.977+00:00Jonahs of the Titanic?<p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijorWqVD57QhDJk7-3X99P_8b9faVDUllHPCj0Q4l9D-k-Aqqh00NbKvtTqwGKmpEEk5BQJwx8hbbn3g5R7wq9cdylgAmaVpD4uxbp0C09vqKFvgllu9b_cDpdbeih4qMC0p1RiTbYWCYHEiuFk7f4BdAl-Xdkm5cr1BfrctnpFZiwzTptqax-UcaL/s300/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="300" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijorWqVD57QhDJk7-3X99P_8b9faVDUllHPCj0Q4l9D-k-Aqqh00NbKvtTqwGKmpEEk5BQJwx8hbbn3g5R7wq9cdylgAmaVpD4uxbp0C09vqKFvgllu9b_cDpdbeih4qMC0p1RiTbYWCYHEiuFk7f4BdAl-Xdkm5cr1BfrctnpFZiwzTptqax-UcaL/s1600/3.jpg" width="300" /></a><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">When the
<i>Titanic </i>sank on 15<sup>th</sup> April 1912 it sent shockwaves around the world,
so many people involved in this shipwreck, so many names thrown around at the
later inquiries. As the stories hit the newspaper stands and later became well
known within the countless books, films, documentaries and even sheet music,
many didn’t realise that some of these names were synonymous with shipwreck.
For some of the survivors, <i>Titanic </i>wasn’t the first time they had been lost at
sea, for others it wouldn’t be the last. Here are some people on board the most
famous shipwreck in the world and their links to other sea disasters. Some of
the survivors found themselves on the same ships as their former <i>Titanic
</i>crewmates.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZh0AOEkk5LgrobJeEzbM6yS9gB-BtVevYNnco-OVyAtADPalKpijEQiI-Rxpj3n0X43DwZ2mA87WCz6UQTsCfNxHa1BlElV7fdtttawBiWXHknHjOEsuNkYoZUQe4vYVM5g68ShMDCgCiAFLQe2GnTdmLb3TWZSHDWfCC9bepDevAPjsU-1t9Sqp1/s304/Lightoller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="230" data-original-width="304" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZh0AOEkk5LgrobJeEzbM6yS9gB-BtVevYNnco-OVyAtADPalKpijEQiI-Rxpj3n0X43DwZ2mA87WCz6UQTsCfNxHa1BlElV7fdtttawBiWXHknHjOEsuNkYoZUQe4vYVM5g68ShMDCgCiAFLQe2GnTdmLb3TWZSHDWfCC9bepDevAPjsU-1t9Sqp1/s1600/Lightoller.jpg" width="304" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">Charles
Lightoller (4 sinkings) – Born in 1874, Lightoller suffered his first shipwreck
in 1889 when a storm forced the sailing vessel <i>Holt Hill</i> to run aground. The
crew were later rescued from an uninhabited island. After surviving <i>Titanic</i>, he
went on to serve as First Officer on the liner <i>Oceanic </i>when she grounded and
sank in 1914. In command of the destroyer <i>HMS Falcon</i>, she was accidentally sunk
in a collision off Bridlington during a night time convoy manoeuvre where he
fought overnight to save half of his ship that was still afloat. After being
rescued he later took command of <i>HMS Garry</i> where he rammed and sunk the German
submarine<i> UB-110</i> off the Yorkshire coast. During the Second World War he took
his yacht <i>Sundowner </i>to the Dunkirk evacuation and rescued 130 people from the
beaches. He died in 1952 of heart disease.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiFCc8fx3d_mwb8ImnKSeikkfzxlKC4rMpakO5O4EvoTROn46scKKWhZXdIDp0yFB27oqST63nIt7DCCIUKAg0IFCUBGPqdtfpZAhvbrtPbQoDDrUm-2xwjpiUuCw8MTe0JntjF-rkPv50Q8xzkOOS4NBgDo8CAstD0Ky3q50Z6OQE8VNTDsK2c-Lq/s160/Priest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="136" data-original-width="160" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiFCc8fx3d_mwb8ImnKSeikkfzxlKC4rMpakO5O4EvoTROn46scKKWhZXdIDp0yFB27oqST63nIt7DCCIUKAg0IFCUBGPqdtfpZAhvbrtPbQoDDrUm-2xwjpiUuCw8MTe0JntjF-rkPv50Q8xzkOOS4NBgDo8CAstD0Ky3q50Z6OQE8VNTDsK2c-Lq/s1600/Priest.jpg" width="160" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">Arthur John
Priest (4 sinkings, 1 collision) – Possibly the largest amount of sea disasters
claimed by one single person on board <i>Titanic</i>, Priest was a fireman for the
great liners, surviving first the collision between the <i>Olympic </i>and <i>HMS Hawke</i>
off the Isle of Wight in 1911, survived a gun battle between the German vessel
<i>Greif </i>and his ship <i>Alcantara </i>where he was once again sunk, mined on the
<i>Titanic’s </i>sister ship <i>Britannic </i>off the Greek island of Kea in November 1916
while working as a hospital ship, then a torpedo despatched his final ship the
<i>Donegal </i>in the English Channel. After four sinkings and one collision,
incredibly Priest would not die until 1937 when “the unsinkable stoker”
succumbed to pneumonia in his bed in Southampton.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUlkZ3dIhvCBp7ke_7Hkj153vAEuv9Zu-ve5WBz111omFYQxN5WtYHFs8-T4Bkw0Z17c252xj3ypy3yxm9CLNpWG28HXk0qLOF3AssuZ5pII5Wxq8ZhGlpRWoUsCvd6UEHcW4uX1J16PLpbGHUf61saMLlFdU8RXpCoZWox9H0XFfHAVeGkrdj208a/s1513/Survivor%20-%20Violet%20Jessop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1513" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUlkZ3dIhvCBp7ke_7Hkj153vAEuv9Zu-ve5WBz111omFYQxN5WtYHFs8-T4Bkw0Z17c252xj3ypy3yxm9CLNpWG28HXk0qLOF3AssuZ5pII5Wxq8ZhGlpRWoUsCvd6UEHcW4uX1J16PLpbGHUf61saMLlFdU8RXpCoZWox9H0XFfHAVeGkrdj208a/s320/Survivor%20-%20Violet%20Jessop.jpg" width="203" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">Violet
Jessop (2 sinkings, 1 collision) – A stewardess on board <i>Titanic</i>, Violet had
already been on board <i>Olympic </i>during the Hawke collision, was rescued from the
lifeboat after <i>Titanic </i>went down and then found herself on the third sister
<i>Britannic </i>when she was mined. She later wrote a biography about her life and
had been referred to as “Miss Unsinkable.” She died of heart failure in 1971 at
the age of 83.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;">Archie
Jewell (3 sinkings) – After surviving <i>Titanic</i>, lookout Archie Jewell survived
the <i>Britannic </i>sinking but was later lost in the sinking of <i>Donegal</i>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;">George
Beauchamp (2 sinkings) – Following his survival from <i>Titanic</i>, stoker George
went on to serve on board the Cunard liner <i>Lusitania </i>when she was torpedoed off
the coast of Ireland on 7<sup>th</sup> May 1915 killing 1197 people. He
survived once again and said later that he would “stick to smaller” vessels. He
died in 1942 at the age of 72.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: arial;">Captain
Edward Smith (1 sinking, 1 collision) – Commanding officer of <i>Titanic </i>was also
captain of the <i>Olympic</i> during the <i>Hawke </i>collision. A subsequent investigation
blamed <i>Olympic </i>for the incident.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9o3l0LlN5oJRbsJ5R39fd4ed8n4jNedToNNqoxA-JFUz-Oe_-QNDt19NWuTtDiMK3NMUwK3xDqzTHP6xfG9d5lnCnMqREQmAPZjRnUELq7ERynzk25T6QT23-IT2VZzuUjtPsZ14KZfhcnhM6WEVTfaOPbkwZYQGGJDsNYmORpJqj3bwKhy2M7CXq/s995/Victim%20-%20Captain%20Edward%20John%20Smith%203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="995" data-original-width="744" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9o3l0LlN5oJRbsJ5R39fd4ed8n4jNedToNNqoxA-JFUz-Oe_-QNDt19NWuTtDiMK3NMUwK3xDqzTHP6xfG9d5lnCnMqREQmAPZjRnUELq7ERynzk25T6QT23-IT2VZzuUjtPsZ14KZfhcnhM6WEVTfaOPbkwZYQGGJDsNYmORpJqj3bwKhy2M7CXq/w149-h200/Victim%20-%20Captain%20Edward%20John%20Smith%203.jpg" width="149" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;">Frank
“Lucky” Tower – This has since been proved to be an urban legend, a man who was
said to have survived <i>Titanic</i>, <i>Lusitania </i>and the 1914 sinking of the liner
<i>Empress of Ireland</i> in a collision in the St Lawrence Seaway. No Frank Tower
appears on any list on either ship despite claims that it was a true story.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">Throughout history
there have been several incidents that have involved the same people. In 1991 a
group of entertainers took charge of the rescue of their crewmates and fellow
passengers on the liner <i>Oceanos </i>when she sank off the coast of South Africa.
Several of those same people were on board the Italian liner <i>Achille Lauro </i>in
1994 when she was consumed by fire and sank off Somalia</span><span style="line-height: 107%;">. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiChiu1fq1lKgjZN3HXZ4gWQsQeRfpbRST6U3O6KZVnKmOkPrrsj6uZrjroksuUddcSa0U795eUHJJSYHOPtn4pu7NO2cjsChowPlA6tSdJMk5h3p4DAcIvzkw-WOGlceBGfYDeiaSbDbIIrH3DjPHEpzTg_PZNiM77uy5yKguaKHEyLp0UACyXfNzP/s604/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="604" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiChiu1fq1lKgjZN3HXZ4gWQsQeRfpbRST6U3O6KZVnKmOkPrrsj6uZrjroksuUddcSa0U795eUHJJSYHOPtn4pu7NO2cjsChowPlA6tSdJMk5h3p4DAcIvzkw-WOGlceBGfYDeiaSbDbIIrH3DjPHEpzTg_PZNiM77uy5yKguaKHEyLp0UACyXfNzP/w400-h188/4.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i style="font-size: small;">HMHS Britannic</i><span style="font-size: small;">, a ship that many </span><i style="font-size: small;">Titanic </i><span style="font-size: small;">survivors would later serve on when she sank in 1916</span></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></span><p></p>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-29107427902947219902022-05-13T17:38:00.000+00:002022-05-13T17:38:06.929+00:00Britain’s Lost Tragedies Uncovered (and remembered)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQOK6vQDsJ69OKPydW_xiSTkaCmFWmaPrCacBkKyBTS4VTjKpr46a0GlKUqGDFyCiK6pFFXtQKq2Gu7QpVgAp9n44hlBbrm7muVGx8nA2xX7kySf_I--dQYMLWSGCqz1R9qV8s1tvwGSwt7TPrjVx_A3IBhyX8owIxw_936QGTP4ancTe3saOV8Ok8/s415/postcard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="415" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQOK6vQDsJ69OKPydW_xiSTkaCmFWmaPrCacBkKyBTS4VTjKpr46a0GlKUqGDFyCiK6pFFXtQKq2Gu7QpVgAp9n44hlBbrm7muVGx8nA2xX7kySf_I--dQYMLWSGCqz1R9qV8s1tvwGSwt7TPrjVx_A3IBhyX8owIxw_936QGTP4ancTe3saOV8Ok8/s320/postcard.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Since the age of 11 I have had a fascination with
disasters, particularly the lost ships of the world but this soon extended to
air disasters and then it spiralled into an archive of information that I have
now. As many people know I have written over a dozen books on disasters,
starting with the Great Gale of 1871 in my home town of Bridlington which saw
28 ships sink in one horrendous day, over 50 lives were lost and the two town
lifeboats put out of action.<p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">But as time went on there were many disasters that I would
come across, many of them being so forgotten that there is no memorial, no
books, no TV drama and in some cases it would only be an accidental acquiring
of a newspaper report from over a century ago that would lead me to discover
more. But despite many of these forgotten events, it came to my attention that
there were some that had a memorial to their victims already placed. As with
any tragic death, it is the relatives and friends of the deceased that are
affected the most, not to mention if there are any survivors who have to suffer
the PTSD for years to come. But as the years go by the stories get lost, so
this is where I come in.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8nR82FoRP96bzLO2IIOZJvOo36gBgAKOK8GOKztF2fo3Q7u9Qqc1HwY2LOj2vwizG8LHpl8uk4WLZNcEOY_gLqJsR20VkVkAtQOYBQTqzQzmsy584OsWJFaghzQvn0iM-rtKHQzO88xfXam4hmV2Qc3yu1yFgCfSpPYCIE6G6H4naF4Tkr-MhGjJG/s3664/Hollyrood%20Church,%20Southampton%20-%202%20December%202012(6).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2748" data-original-width="3664" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8nR82FoRP96bzLO2IIOZJvOo36gBgAKOK8GOKztF2fo3Q7u9Qqc1HwY2LOj2vwizG8LHpl8uk4WLZNcEOY_gLqJsR20VkVkAtQOYBQTqzQzmsy584OsWJFaghzQvn0iM-rtKHQzO88xfXam4hmV2Qc3yu1yFgCfSpPYCIE6G6H4naF4Tkr-MhGjJG/s320/Hollyrood%20Church,%20Southampton%20-%202%20December%202012(6).JPG" width="320" /></a></div>The History Press wanted a book of these largely unknown
incidents and so the hard part for me was which ones to put into print. It was
then a three year whirlwind of visiting places around the UK to try and find as
much information as possible to add to their stories. The first one (I did the
chapters in date order) was the Southampton fire of 1837. I had known about a
tragic fire in the area since 1997 when I first visited the city but never
looked into it any further. It turned out that just down the road from the
blitz-damaged ruins of Holyrood Church was a warehouse that, on the night of 7<sup>th</sup>
November 1837, had a small fire that soon grew to be a raging inferno. The
locals nearby tried to help extinguish the blaze but there was no hope. 22
people were killed, their names now forever engraved on either side of the
entrance to the church.<p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1kWghG3VTwNHA5EY66f38KQeTfPISqPDazW_CoBOa5nQ--EuAs05YwOUlSKCFGW-oMxGsuJ7mVd-DDKfx1Cj-AhcwgPGqPisEMNiLvtWbbgy1fV-TXGd-EhQ2ze3yTDZZjBABgVaBRmoOJzZ8yn3yDhUZnCKH9Vf4gCqyxxMl3W03GAxYkli2iReB/s3664/2.%20Whitby%20Lifeboat%20Museum%20-%204%20April%202017(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3664" data-original-width="2748" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1kWghG3VTwNHA5EY66f38KQeTfPISqPDazW_CoBOa5nQ--EuAs05YwOUlSKCFGW-oMxGsuJ7mVd-DDKfx1Cj-AhcwgPGqPisEMNiLvtWbbgy1fV-TXGd-EhQ2ze3yTDZZjBABgVaBRmoOJzZ8yn3yDhUZnCKH9Vf4gCqyxxMl3W03GAxYkli2iReB/w150-h200/2.%20Whitby%20Lifeboat%20Museum%20-%204%20April%202017(1).JPG" width="150" /></a></div>Over 300 miles north is the seaside town of Whitby, a
place on the North Yorkshire coast that I have visited on many occasions, not
least to see the lifeboat house and the memorials to the sinking of the
hospital ship Rohilla during the First World War. On the top of the cliffs
stands Whitby Abbey, overshadowing a small church where there is a memorial to
the lifeboat crew from 1861. Like Bridlington, Whitby suffered the same stormy
problem exactly ten years and one day before the Great Gale of 1871. Only this
time it was the lifeboat crew who died after heroically rescuing the crews of
several ships despite overwhelming cold, storms and exhaustion. Of the 13 crew
members, there was one survivor and that was Henry Freeman. He later went on to
be coxswain of the RNLI lifeboat and his grave today reflects his heroic career as does the lifeboat museum in the town. <div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdLTsw0mpzu4I7IfK5tMRx1PRmcrZJq36N3P66-5HRI36x9eK4LpaBZqbtz79kzIvM61QK_0vK_knTlEy_L0_A2lOEVXGTfbiwBA0PUFr9KbMvKBTWB4vnwU1vHQL4guROQj_3EIxo4XcacGVjZJx9juhGAp5iM4GtTCkg35ZUEQSTmvLpGnAmdREZ/s3664/8.%20Hull%20rail%20crash%20memorial,%20Hull%20Royal%20Infirmary%20-%208%20April%202013(4).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3664" data-original-width="2748" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdLTsw0mpzu4I7IfK5tMRx1PRmcrZJq36N3P66-5HRI36x9eK4LpaBZqbtz79kzIvM61QK_0vK_knTlEy_L0_A2lOEVXGTfbiwBA0PUFr9KbMvKBTWB4vnwU1vHQL4guROQj_3EIxo4XcacGVjZJx9juhGAp5iM4GtTCkg35ZUEQSTmvLpGnAmdREZ/w240-h320/8.%20Hull%20rail%20crash%20memorial,%20Hull%20Royal%20Infirmary%20-%208%20April%202013(4).JPG" width="240" /></a></div>The next memorial I wanted to write was that of the Hull
Paragon railway station disaster. It was 14<sup>th</sup> February 1927 that a
mistake at a signal box caused two trains to be on the same track on a collision
course. A train out of Hull and a train entering the station from the small
town of Withernsea smashed into each other and caused carnage. Eight people
were pronounced dead on the scene, four more would die later, most of them from
Withernsea. The survivors were left with horrific injuries and walls had to be
broken down in order to extract the victims from the railway lines and get them
to hospital. Today the area is still in use, although the Withernsea line is
long gone. A memorial plaque with an information board sits behind the Hull
Royal hospital overlooking where so much sadness reigned 95 years ago. Due to the
fact that I have since had further information on this disaster, and that I had
already written about the other two disasters on this same line (Lockington in
1986 and Burton Agnes 1947), it is my intention to write a book solely on this
crash.</div><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidRtLIy7BFzVTkuPsReUuus6JBZ4AE4AADkhQN8JI-KnuBcVFLdTsozvIEInGOz9_bijqZu87vJcacbE0WwbnDPKbWihH4T2NSnc4vpKvevi3imejZRctl6oXiwoT0Op3AWZZWwmizWqggdSjCD4_nmkRqecM6xUhkmZkRw7fzZOk1xMDxypayt81q/s3664/100_1022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2748" data-original-width="3664" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidRtLIy7BFzVTkuPsReUuus6JBZ4AE4AADkhQN8JI-KnuBcVFLdTsozvIEInGOz9_bijqZu87vJcacbE0WwbnDPKbWihH4T2NSnc4vpKvevi3imejZRctl6oXiwoT0Op3AWZZWwmizWqggdSjCD4_nmkRqecM6xUhkmZkRw7fzZOk1xMDxypayt81q/w200-h150/100_1022.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>Over to the Isle of Wight was another adventure to the
museums and monuments of Britain, so many interested places including castles.
But up on a hill on a quiet country road near the village of Brook is a scarred
piece of chalk cliff, the site of the crash of a passenger flying boat. On 15<sup>th</sup>
November 1957 Aquila Airways flying boat City of Sydney took off from Calshot
with 58 people on board, but immediately had an engine failure that caused it
to be turned back. The aircraft slammed to the ground and what is actually
incredible is that 13 people survived. This became England’s worst air disaster
at the time and Britain’s second worst. At the foot of the cliff a memorial
stone marks the spot where you can stand and look up at where tragedy struck,
another plaque is in the nearby Brook church.<p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-DRCP-h7nD65qIwyZQC2xUHIgOauxZNfxcNnj3uLSNKJYYSv9GfFInjYtPyu949gylcUvJ5LQiKPSHVn8fN5Ky0CIH8zW0peA9LCVNsP5TqIBnQfxTyt0Axd7wZo898VHxxVtTvsBDRXB_VlPv7xwL1CEz-WHhapzupb28tWO82iOn6EpAdbORDUR/s2048/Dibbles%20Bridge%20memorial%20at%20Irene%20Jessops%20(Irenes%20photo)%20(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1533" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-DRCP-h7nD65qIwyZQC2xUHIgOauxZNfxcNnj3uLSNKJYYSv9GfFInjYtPyu949gylcUvJ5LQiKPSHVn8fN5Ky0CIH8zW0peA9LCVNsP5TqIBnQfxTyt0Axd7wZo898VHxxVtTvsBDRXB_VlPv7xwL1CEz-WHhapzupb28tWO82iOn6EpAdbORDUR/w240-h320/Dibbles%20Bridge%20memorial%20at%20Irene%20Jessops%20(Irenes%20photo)%20(2).jpg" width="240" /></a></div>Now what is incredible about this next disaster is not
that it occurred in a place just as quiet and peaceful, but that two similar
accidents happened here almost fifty years to the day between each other. On 10
June 1925 a day out on board an open top coach turned to disaster when one of
three in a line, carrying 23 passengers, suffered brake failure on a hill near Grassington,
North Yorkshire. The coach smashed through the wall of Dibbles Bridge and
landed upside down killing 7 people. Fast forward five decades, on 27 May 1975
and the exact same thing happened with a party of pensioners, the coach landing
in the exact same place, only this time it became (and still is to date)
Britain’s single worst road disaster with 33 killed. Most people came from the
town of Thornaby and the town has put a lot of effort into making sure their
residents are remembered by placing several memorials around the town, but the fact that the two disasters are so similar is
nothing short of eerie, especially when you compare the two images. <br /><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifb_NAb5PJizmdaRkVDHXwlE3N6PZ9hBBOJ5TpFAx5O73SohPCHbBAAj2CfEPf2HeR1UKcyUTOO0WzmGBoJeruo9uNRtUTdO3bPAviL9Esm7fNy7zVG2CYOWG3B_Az0z7zEhk-bYIdJBy8yb_I2GcHsX0z4r70GONrvAslo5Jb-TsZunhbijS-m1v8/s3664/100_7915.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3664" data-original-width="2748" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifb_NAb5PJizmdaRkVDHXwlE3N6PZ9hBBOJ5TpFAx5O73SohPCHbBAAj2CfEPf2HeR1UKcyUTOO0WzmGBoJeruo9uNRtUTdO3bPAviL9Esm7fNy7zVG2CYOWG3B_Az0z7zEhk-bYIdJBy8yb_I2GcHsX0z4r70GONrvAslo5Jb-TsZunhbijS-m1v8/s320/100_7915.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>London has seen its fair share of tragedy over the years.
I have already written about the Moorgate tube crash before and future projects
include the sinking of the Marchioness on the Thames. But two fires just months
apart would provide many headlines when an illegal drinking club was firebombed
by a disgruntled customer and killed 37 people in August 1980 (the killer was
jailed for life) and then in January 1981 a party in a house at 439 New Cross
Road had fire brigades race to the scene to be met with carnage. To this day
nobody knows exactly how the fire started, many people believe it was arson yet
with no concrete evidence this is merely speculative as all signs point to an
accident. 13 people died in the blaze, a friend of the deceased later
committing suicide. A plaque on the side of the house today remembers the 14
who died. To this day the New Cross Fire is steeped in controversy.<br /><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">One chapter that did shock me as being forgotten was the
explosion at a valve house for the water company in the village of Abbeystead in
Lancashire in 1986. During a tour of the plant, several locals were being shown
around to allow their minds to be put at rest over fears that the station was
causing a flooding issue nearby. What nobody knew is that there had been a build-up
of methane gas that had been released over time and when a demonstration was
taking place of the water pumping, this gas was released and all it took was a
cigarette. A resulting explosion ripped into the tunnels and lifted the ground
above their heads. 16 people were killed. A small plaque remembers those who
died but the name Abbeystead is barely remembered by anybody other than those
familiar with this tragedy.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL7P2TnOme6vY79d8dHDsvy0L8n1W2Zs1J9WiLohqQ5lUl-Ee38TFeOQ9u9-GYlRaQBWguw5m0Ar1ZGVj15Ab6wc2m1Vp_Qf49YxnAUKzYWJMJEfRFcWCjg2YBHg2RgJLEucgT5zOV29i8Q0vW2jNq_9ZNeY_ybLH93JE6K3W5lHd92KSo2SmqRyry/s3664/Crash%20site%20-%207%20April%202010(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2748" data-original-width="3664" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL7P2TnOme6vY79d8dHDsvy0L8n1W2Zs1J9WiLohqQ5lUl-Ee38TFeOQ9u9-GYlRaQBWguw5m0Ar1ZGVj15Ab6wc2m1Vp_Qf49YxnAUKzYWJMJEfRFcWCjg2YBHg2RgJLEucgT5zOV29i8Q0vW2jNq_9ZNeY_ybLH93JE6K3W5lHd92KSo2SmqRyry/s320/Crash%20site%20-%207%20April%202010(1).JPG" width="320" /></a></div>When I talk of forgotten disasters, I don’t ever think
that people live at the site of a place like this and don’t know a thing about
it. But when I visited the village of Dunkeswick 20 years after twelve people
were killed in an air disaster it shocked me that people can be so ignorant of
their local area. We are talking about people living in the next field! But on
24<sup>th</sup> May 1995 a dense fog rolled over the Leeds area and as Knight
Air flight 816 took off from Leeds-Bradford Airport it soon became apparent
that their artificial horizon was not working properly. The pilots could not
tell which way was up, the Embraer Bandeirante plunged into a farmer’s field
with no survivors. The nearest church at the tiny village of Weeton has a
memorial in their grounds.<p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAW7jDP63z1EFJ3UkIGVP868o-K122Ah1r3lS-Isq8p2um-AKhq82Bsa-elYyLZhQqk-xNxodTIt03n0D_uqNes-HpQ_2gXxK5b9VBP5iWUzU9pW6p8x-F7eeFf9pi9w-wXLSqkwmM4mTXS2a-rqtmBSBLwDzLhSoam3Xn2rTlZmhRrTfrm2Cph0q1/s800/12.%20Ronan_Point_collapse_closeup%20(Derek%20Voller%20-%20Ronan%20Point%20collapse,%20Canning%20Town%20-%20CC%20BY-SA%202.0).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="538" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAW7jDP63z1EFJ3UkIGVP868o-K122Ah1r3lS-Isq8p2um-AKhq82Bsa-elYyLZhQqk-xNxodTIt03n0D_uqNes-HpQ_2gXxK5b9VBP5iWUzU9pW6p8x-F7eeFf9pi9w-wXLSqkwmM4mTXS2a-rqtmBSBLwDzLhSoam3Xn2rTlZmhRrTfrm2Cph0q1/s320/12.%20Ronan_Point_collapse_closeup%20(Derek%20Voller%20-%20Ronan%20Point%20collapse,%20Canning%20Town%20-%20CC%20BY-SA%202.0).jpg" width="215" /></a></div>Each of these disasters made headlines at the time, for
those involved in the rescue operations, the recovery of bodies or even
surviving the injuries, they will never be far from their minds. But once the
press have walked away and moved on to the next story, many of these tragedies
will once again be left alone. Only the history books can now tell these
stories. Nobody is alive that remembers the Whitby storm or can tell us what
survivor Henry Freeman was like to talk to. I have written down as many as I
can and my work will keep on going for many years to come. These disasters here
have all been given memorials in one way or another. Many other stories in my
book have nothing. The Hosier Lane family massacre of 1869 has nothing, the
street itself devastated in a World War 2 air raid. The site of the Ronan Point
tower block that collapsed in 1968 is not marked. An explosion in an underpass
leading to Hull’s fishing docks has nothing but graffiti on its walls and the
terrible memories of 19 people being burned, two of them fatally.<br /><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">So today I continue my work and at this moment have
already researched more about the Hull rail disaster, got funding for a
memorial to a sinking ship during World War 2, got more books ready to be released
and, of course, renewed my National Archives reader card ready for the next
step. If anybody can help add further detail to my archive about any of these disasters, or indeed ones that I have never written about, then please get in touch via email - shipwreckdata@yahoo.co.uk - and I will reply. </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">Britain's Lost Tragedies Uncovered was published in 2021 by The History Press, priced £12.99 and available in paperback as well as e-book. </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyv8z3_44RvrxQX8CQzcU3xdZ_WcdTnTbmwbD_URQsbgDCoXzJ-m8VUOizcEDuGU7XjkN4WN5V0PUFx5uFi6golWfU191ejwb8UudUidMuf8jhmckamNagFmOt712gAUJn0WvEoUo0TIC8oHT_EyxwG1y4eFtOWwXfeFNA4Per72ht2ov7ByIF56rm/s500/Front%20Cover%20-%20Britains%20Lost%20Tragedies%20Uncovered.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="325" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyv8z3_44RvrxQX8CQzcU3xdZ_WcdTnTbmwbD_URQsbgDCoXzJ-m8VUOizcEDuGU7XjkN4WN5V0PUFx5uFi6golWfU191ejwb8UudUidMuf8jhmckamNagFmOt712gAUJn0WvEoUo0TIC8oHT_EyxwG1y4eFtOWwXfeFNA4Per72ht2ov7ByIF56rm/w260-h400/Front%20Cover%20-%20Britains%20Lost%20Tragedies%20Uncovered.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p></div>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-14479772754112614432022-05-02T15:06:00.006+00:002022-05-03T16:05:37.645+00:00The Lost Ships of the Falklands War 1982<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6nCKDLx8A9Dd6GL5R13uzQrFjna68GzrqS6R_xwJSZ83O4xiNYs8oVxqL0pODOJZowlCpJYlY2DZdMtiIQgB_Zr6a-cCFZyeivv9dg6pptM4h0w38eAFMPh3-zXuI3vGzu4YBIB5r-iBb5S1ZsjYtqy5ARzu9QBx718-ams0Me90341NiHspyLs8b/s1200/D3IOOXcW4AEtejS.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="962" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6nCKDLx8A9Dd6GL5R13uzQrFjna68GzrqS6R_xwJSZ83O4xiNYs8oVxqL0pODOJZowlCpJYlY2DZdMtiIQgB_Zr6a-cCFZyeivv9dg6pptM4h0w38eAFMPh3-zXuI3vGzu4YBIB5r-iBb5S1ZsjYtqy5ARzu9QBx718-ams0Me90341NiHspyLs8b/s320/D3IOOXcW4AEtejS.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>When war broke out in the South Atlantic in 1982 few could imagine just how much would happen in just a few months. From the initial invasion by Argentina of the island of South Georgia followed by the Falkland Islands in April, the British government wasted no time in sending a task force to retake the islands. By the time the Argentinian military surrendered on 14 June 1982 the seabed was littered with vessels. <br /><br /><i>Fenix </i>– Argentine landing craft said to be the first casualty of the war, but very little is known about her. She has been photographed wrecked on a beach by several sources. <br /><br /><i>ARA Santa Fe</i> – 25 April 1982. This Argentine Balao class submarine was originally the <i>USS Catfish</i>, launched in 1944 and sold to Argentina in 1971 and renamed. On 25 April 1982 she was sighted by a British helicopter after sailing from South Georgia following a mission to resupply and land marines. Depth charges were launched and the now surfaced submarine was riddled with small arms fire which made her inoperable. Going alongside Grytviken pier, the sub partially sank there and was later scuttled in deep water three years later. <br /><br /><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbnICRDd2BnGZE8dNC820HeJhCGWiNaKjGu0UFRv4fb9qoOMhUreqj0TU7a2ba2cmitGOxhb4BsGvOZfGr7g8THKUKC2M_lKm3PXeYMBDvJyZDDnrOckZHj4tV1_5c7pXvFncwOvasIlusyWl5Nq5ATsWglCpYX-SFj_65z8wCx2oB31ZYNtTo1Mdo/s640/1.png" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="417" data-original-width="640" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbnICRDd2BnGZE8dNC820HeJhCGWiNaKjGu0UFRv4fb9qoOMhUreqj0TU7a2ba2cmitGOxhb4BsGvOZfGr7g8THKUKC2M_lKm3PXeYMBDvJyZDDnrOckZHj4tV1_5c7pXvFncwOvasIlusyWl5Nq5ATsWglCpYX-SFj_65z8wCx2oB31ZYNtTo1Mdo/s320/1.png" width="320" /></a>ARA General Belgrano</i> – A cruiser originally launched by the US Navy as the <i>USS Phoenix</i> she was famously photographed at Pearl Harbour during the 1941 Japanese attack, incredibly unscathed as the fleet burned around her. Sold to Argentina she was renamed <i>17 de Octubre </i>then eventually General Belgrano. On 2nd May 1982 she was part of a task group escorted by smaller ships and unbeknown to her followed by the British submarine <i>HMS Conqueror</i>. With every intention to turn towards the Falklands to take part in hostilities, <i>Conqueror </i>was given permission to sink her. Torpedoes sank her leaving 323 dead, hundreds of survivors floated for hours before the escort ships even realised the vessel had gone down. In 2003 a National Geographic expedition failed to find the wreck in a search involving survivors of both <i>Belgrano </i>and <i>Conqueror</i>.<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir2NsT6zfWkOHDu88cpPawWkePjt19zU-8QjcFQXdZOJz_iJN6fkXKSOipCxp7wuDdDHV2ahu-6qxzG6byDDy1CSP6qTeY4KP7ZWdECP6RDbM1rL3UfPjVAvQ-bQH0YMLH58xrR2QSFuo5iNlai_ZFnoKNEWpWim4sl4bpApn-q8UyjTuTTqut5Suw/s640/2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="361" data-original-width="640" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir2NsT6zfWkOHDu88cpPawWkePjt19zU-8QjcFQXdZOJz_iJN6fkXKSOipCxp7wuDdDHV2ahu-6qxzG6byDDy1CSP6qTeY4KP7ZWdECP6RDbM1rL3UfPjVAvQ-bQH0YMLH58xrR2QSFuo5iNlai_ZFnoKNEWpWim4sl4bpApn-q8UyjTuTTqut5Suw/s320/2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><i>HMS Sheffield</i> – 4th May 1982. The Type 42 destroyer commissioned in 1975 was the first British casualty after an air attack ended with an Exocet missile slamming into her side and igniting fires within the ship. 20 of her crew died, 261 others survived. The ship was taken under tow by <i>HMS Yarmouth</i> but after six days the flooding within became too much and she sank, the first warship sunk in conflict since the Second World War. <br /><br /><i>Narwal </i>– Argentine fishing vessel damaged in air attack by aircraft from <i>HMS Hermes</i> 9th May 1982. The bombs failed to explode but enough damage was caused to see the vessel founder the following day. <br /><br /><i>Isla del los Estados </i>– Argentine military supply ship that had only been in service for 18 months when she sank on 11 May 1982 after a battle with <i>HMS Alacrity</i>’s 4.5 inch gun killing all but two of her 24 crew. <br /><br /><i>Rio Carcarana </i>– An Argentine cargo ship, she was attacked on 16th May 1982 by British aircraft and was soon on fire. Fearing the detonation of her cargo of munitions the crew were ordered to abandon ship, although she only sank days later when <i>HMS Antelope</i> despatched the derelict burnt out hulk by two Sea Skua missiles. <br /><br /><i>HMS Ardent</i> – 21 May 1982. Type 21 frigate, attacked by Argentine aircraft in Falkland Sound, two bombs struck the ship but failed to explode. Several more bombs from other aircraft slammed into various points around the vessel causing major fires. <i>HMS Yarmouth</i> took off the survivors but 22 others were dead. Ardent sank the following day in shallow water. <br /><br /><i>HMS Antelope<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1AkIUL0nFLd_uq6Cmlja3rqKbScuzOXjhQbbjN2Cp9UQsBuOiPULSvt0DoOkRDGmA2OO4gElOTbGg9Tvk95s-lCbm3Xn4XTBG20l1qqK_aG8eNNxjrsOlemAK3El_dLC-ZFMs0DsUtqaCpm2xva0-8uLc8lSweqps1tyj6tY3ewYyJwE_is5gmxMV/s640/3.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="361" data-original-width="640" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1AkIUL0nFLd_uq6Cmlja3rqKbScuzOXjhQbbjN2Cp9UQsBuOiPULSvt0DoOkRDGmA2OO4gElOTbGg9Tvk95s-lCbm3Xn4XTBG20l1qqK_aG8eNNxjrsOlemAK3El_dLC-ZFMs0DsUtqaCpm2xva0-8uLc8lSweqps1tyj6tY3ewYyJwE_is5gmxMV/w379-h214/3.jpg" width="379" /></a></i> – On 21 May 1982 the Type 21 frigate came under air attack and fought back with SeaCat missiles, disabling one aircraft but not before a bomb penetrated her hull killing one crewman. Incredibly the bomb did not explode. Another attack saw an aircraft crash after coming under fire from <i>Antelope's </i>20mm guns. Attempts to diffuse the unexploded ordnance still on board saw the bomb detonate on the night of 23rd May killing one member of the team and injuring another. The ship was ripped apart and sank in two sections, thankfully most people survived. <br /><br /><i>HMS Coventry</i> – 25 May 1982. Air attack on <i>Coventry</i>, another Type 42 destroyer, resulted in explosion and fire following bomb strike. Of the three bombs that hit the ship, one failed to explode. 20 killed, ship capsized with very little time and survivors rescued by nearby ships in nearby task group. Wreck has been located and surveyed by Royal Navy over the last few years. <br /><br /><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1HlZ-P9ZhEbIbWEP0B-GNBYxVBYUJrqylZ0CzqA_ysdMzCW0pxNcqHqd1EtL-ALAn3a9ftKehS3ch0n6Cr4Xt1B3DHfkXf2babY3hQD0-YAAv8S6_od_d4klnzazYzwePaRcB62zyh0TY2ZoNEoF3tTSlGefUUOJuL0DX1CAHYdLotUPzC0xZQWGr/s640/4.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="366" data-original-width="640" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1HlZ-P9ZhEbIbWEP0B-GNBYxVBYUJrqylZ0CzqA_ysdMzCW0pxNcqHqd1EtL-ALAn3a9ftKehS3ch0n6Cr4Xt1B3DHfkXf2babY3hQD0-YAAv8S6_od_d4klnzazYzwePaRcB62zyh0TY2ZoNEoF3tTSlGefUUOJuL0DX1CAHYdLotUPzC0xZQWGr/w349-h199/4.jpg" width="349" /></a></div>Atlantic Conveyor</i> – 25 May 1982. Taken from civilian owners Cunard to be used as cargo transport, she was hit by two missiles the same day as <i>HMS Coventry</i> resulting in fires consuming vital stores which included helicopter parts. Vessel later sank with 12 killed. <br /><br /><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfZIaea0BO3W0nZcIZz0pXzpIPwbFhPuHX4whep_ninyxnkFz-HCGrYAfUWX4vmw0oQ8IjUEN16FGu5N0LiE3zLPeZWGLPIYtWQYVjQvWRbxR5vS6Btbe2_K1nMsda-26Tu-XgRFbjSY01m_JPPnqqQYke3gb6rpOjuiFs-bh0KBcvhdtjC2HEyKBd/s648/RFA-sir-galahad-Falklands.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="365" data-original-width="648" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfZIaea0BO3W0nZcIZz0pXzpIPwbFhPuHX4whep_ninyxnkFz-HCGrYAfUWX4vmw0oQ8IjUEN16FGu5N0LiE3zLPeZWGLPIYtWQYVjQvWRbxR5vS6Btbe2_K1nMsda-26Tu-XgRFbjSY01m_JPPnqqQYke3gb6rpOjuiFs-bh0KBcvhdtjC2HEyKBd/w400-h225/RFA-sir-galahad-Falklands.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>RFA Sir Galahad</i> – Together with <i>RFA Sir Tristram</i>, these two Landing Ship Logistics came under air attack on 8th June 1982 in what was one of the worst incidents for the British of the entire war. Direct hits on both ships saw the death of 48 crew and soldiers with many more suffering horrific burns, the most famous being Welsh Guardsman Simon Weston who has since become the image of the Falklands survivor due to his facial burns and public story. <i>Sir Galahad</i> was later sunk in deep water, <i>Sir Tristram</i> carried back to Britain on the back of a heavy lift ship. <br /><br /><i>Foxtrot 4</i> – On 8th June 1982, she was one of four LCU landing craft from <i>HMS Fearless</i> and was transporting army personnel and vehicles down St Choiseul Sound when it came under attack from Argentine aircraft. Taking direct hit from a bomb, she was taken in tow before sinking. Six people were killed, there were 11 survivors. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Rb1SLevIcsFzSl0LYFtOx13OoVCe0ykHNpLGJsVFuOHy-VL16h5zakedKkhVzQXdCHhoID43-GCJsYyWSd1hPwois8Hs1JjPXmjoeCeStbtUaZe3-52voD30yEG6EqQjAVbzMEdPwk78i1zYBeMdT4M3D2rjawx9nVMm8keO6DB2Zb-6Uid1SAuN/s377/F4%20(1).JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="207" data-original-width="377" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Rb1SLevIcsFzSl0LYFtOx13OoVCe0ykHNpLGJsVFuOHy-VL16h5zakedKkhVzQXdCHhoID43-GCJsYyWSd1hPwois8Hs1JjPXmjoeCeStbtUaZe3-52voD30yEG6EqQjAVbzMEdPwk78i1zYBeMdT4M3D2rjawx9nVMm8keO6DB2Zb-6Uid1SAuN/s320/F4%20(1).JPG" width="320" /></a></div></div><div><i>Hercules </i>– Not officially on the list of ships sunk during the Falklands War, on 8th June 1982 this Liberian tanker was bombed by Argentine aircraft in the mistaken belief that it was a British supply vessel almost 500 miles away from the conflict. There were no injuries to the crew who were later rescued and the ship was scuttled after an unexploded bomb was found in the tank. A controversy around this sinking has never fully been settled. <br /><br /><i>Bahia Buen Suceso</i> – Argentine landing craft which was captured by British forces on 15th June 1982 and sunk as target by Royal Navy on 21st October 1982. <br /><br /> Despite the ships above being sunk and out of action, there were many more on both sides that suffered damage, death and destruction in the course of their duties. These include <i>HMS Glamorgan, HMS Plymouth, HMS Brilliant, RFA Sir Tristram, HMS Glasgow, ARA Guerrico, Alferez Sobral, Formosa, Piedra Buena, HMS Arrow, HMS Alacrity</i> and many more. As with many wars that have come before and will so in the future, most people involved with the incidents here bear no ill feeling towards their former enemy. Pilots have met up with the crews of the ships they have bombed, crew of the Conqueror have shook hands with those who survived the <i>General Belgrano</i> and despite the long running Argentine claim to the islands, the people who live on the Falkland Islands cast their vote and today still remain under the flag of Great Britain. <div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGFluNYEDv1GkKaatf6d8eITaJTfvr5Z9oeQskX1UH61uvJDJGEZVj-8Im7WPmoIQVFo-C9GWGtNzbHFGUNsb4Pe12ENYTWE1AXsoOlqXNrDHIOgKspESUWFAkHtII_Dbv56Y9EA9ALiwbRY2m0UJ7gmtAuuFBXuZS54gL2gcXsm4d_U4-O2Y27xXv/s640/Sir%20Tristram%20damaged.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="640" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGFluNYEDv1GkKaatf6d8eITaJTfvr5Z9oeQskX1UH61uvJDJGEZVj-8Im7WPmoIQVFo-C9GWGtNzbHFGUNsb4Pe12ENYTWE1AXsoOlqXNrDHIOgKspESUWFAkHtII_Dbv56Y9EA9ALiwbRY2m0UJ7gmtAuuFBXuZS54gL2gcXsm4d_U4-O2Y27xXv/w400-h249/Sir%20Tristram%20damaged.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><br />Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-25315947045651649692022-04-26T15:57:00.000+00:002022-04-26T15:57:00.990+00:00Tragedy on board the Alfa America<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvSA3-vVJCJRVjk3wIY0U43Q4lkeacGJ5i_kM5BkeTeV8GEzphLxHwF2MpJlir4SNrqx1BqSSm5ssA3-yYcdYbsnEyQLVDjZJjcV4LsnEZUO5zK7urRwOL7MRAQPqLluIwQ4xk7t17gTCQ6_8yhGtD0YRXP6Rtf8gZ-uiFJUpKVX6Lt5PM0-_n5k2M/s800/Alfa%20America.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvSA3-vVJCJRVjk3wIY0U43Q4lkeacGJ5i_kM5BkeTeV8GEzphLxHwF2MpJlir4SNrqx1BqSSm5ssA3-yYcdYbsnEyQLVDjZJjcV4LsnEZUO5zK7urRwOL7MRAQPqLluIwQ4xk7t17gTCQ6_8yhGtD0YRXP6Rtf8gZ-uiFJUpKVX6Lt5PM0-_n5k2M/w400-h266/Alfa%20America.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: normal;">© Joerg Seyler via ShipSpotting.com</span><br style="color: #212529; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: normal;" /></td></tr></tbody></table>On Thursday 28</span><sup style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"> March 1996 a call
came through to Humber Coastguard at Bridlington that an incident on board a huge
oil tanker off the East Yorkshire coast required urgent assistance. Two people
had entered a slop tank for routine checks and had become unresponsive, a call
for Humberside Fire and Rescue was made at 2017 Hours and before long a number
of rescue parties were making their way to the ship which was at anchor around
three miles from Flamborough Head.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">The ship was the crude oil supertanker Alfa
America (IMO number 7716048), built in 1979 at the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.333333px;">Mitsubishi</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"> yard in Nagasaki,
Japan. Launched as the Nordic Faith, she was renamed Fina America upon her
change of owners in 1983 before being sold again to Shinobu Shipping Co Ltd in
1994 where the name Alfa America was emblazoned on her bow. At over 51,000
gross tons, she had a deadweight of 90,000 tons and flew the flag of the
Bahamas, carrying a crew from Croatia.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJF6ziPlKKuOzg_d4SaSZKBoVToa7pZ1lYqPDQTq1UZD9jQZLqfJqhq73VesXMTfo2fGdSJaOO6UJsJl7E_ELBY9pOwdqg5Whtt-P5BGk93VrxR_jK0uR5KdnVoz8lFntYxW0FE6T461e1RLpDmWh36NhdJlZW8abP0OkeygkcELYzHah2zyilPVHc/s640/Hurworth%201997.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="640" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJF6ziPlKKuOzg_d4SaSZKBoVToa7pZ1lYqPDQTq1UZD9jQZLqfJqhq73VesXMTfo2fGdSJaOO6UJsJl7E_ELBY9pOwdqg5Whtt-P5BGk93VrxR_jK0uR5KdnVoz8lFntYxW0FE6T461e1RLpDmWh36NhdJlZW8abP0OkeygkcELYzHah2zyilPVHc/s320/Hurworth%201997.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>As the fire teams reached the ship by Sea
King helicopter, the mine hunter HMS Hurworth also provided assistance as she
neared the huge vessel. Providing a platform for teams to work from, the ships
company also assisted with teams on Breathing Apparatus to back up the
firefighting teams and rig fans for ventilation. As the fire teams made their
way into the confined space of the waste tank, oil and waste coating every
surface, it soon became apparent that there were both of the missing crew were
dead and an RAF firefighter who had attempted a rescue and had become
distressed now himself required urgent medical attention. A third crewman who
had gone in after the first two was also flow to hospital.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">The crew of the Alfa America were informed of
the tragedy, but due to the complications of the compartment and the terrible
conditions within the tank itself, the ship would have to continue its journey
to Teesport (which it was already heading to after departing Hull) in order to
get a team on board to recover the bodies. With a heavy heart, the anchor was
weighed and the ship proceeded north to a very dismal port visit.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8oh-lZ8BqXEHJhYZs64LjjWN9Olpxw-hjK1tgauGm_pPjwhH12QhmnAc-0mjW8ABtMiqRkY5LewXgHKUiug7AhlFyXL2Z7h6894qaqniZ75wquxIRm3EO5wdB4oKDzop6K90pjL_vmfd7kfEL7asArpSjNZLQp_-DrcftYc4xL4CEzfB3B652mGrC/s303/Screenshot%202022-04-26%20164903.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="205" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8oh-lZ8BqXEHJhYZs64LjjWN9Olpxw-hjK1tgauGm_pPjwhH12QhmnAc-0mjW8ABtMiqRkY5LewXgHKUiug7AhlFyXL2Z7h6894qaqniZ75wquxIRm3EO5wdB4oKDzop6K90pjL_vmfd7kfEL7asArpSjNZLQp_-DrcftYc4xL4CEzfB3B652mGrC/s1600/Screenshot%202022-04-26%20164903.jpg" width="205" /></a></div>The two bodies were recovered and an
investigation showed that it was an accidental overcoming of fumes that had
caused the crewmen to lose consciousness in a confined space. The death toll
could easily have been higher if it wasn’t for the fact at least one of the
fire fighters from Humberside Fire and Rescue had experience working on tankers
previously. The crewman and firefighter who were taken to hospital made a full
recovery.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">Alfa America faded from the news as quick as
it had arrived, she was front page of the Yorkshire Post and a few other local
papers, other than that very little was written. She was later sold yet again
and renamed Alfa Ship (2002-6) and finally Sing Lee which was her final name
before being towed to Bangladesh in April 2006 for scrapping. Ironically the
deaths of two crewmen just a few miles from Yorkshire made less headlines than
the controversy over her scrapping, as an article in the Bangladesh newspaper
The Daily Star points out that Greenpeace had listed this ship as a hazard and
therefore the Government would refuse to dismantle her due to the presence of toxic
materials and environmental waste involved. She was eventually scrapped as
planned.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-26922571566148871022022-03-04T16:56:00.000+00:002022-03-04T16:56:00.855+00:00Capsizing of a Hovercraft<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjun06UIbx39xCRE-SkOVb5fhefyuq45-TORqDzdsX6sTsvCQRc-9e2xukYXrONa9QwirgP9mLBbxrS-znc5T8qYxhDN5bzMoQLSfIaRlc3M1wQBbA8jjQqJ22fR9mWTf4Og3glJqmpcJZk_Q1tceg6H5BSpfuit-CEa_R0dGuGscqpXkBRnZWsGjV6=s2202" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1361" data-original-width="2202" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjun06UIbx39xCRE-SkOVb5fhefyuq45-TORqDzdsX6sTsvCQRc-9e2xukYXrONa9QwirgP9mLBbxrS-znc5T8qYxhDN5bzMoQLSfIaRlc3M1wQBbA8jjQqJ22fR9mWTf4Og3glJqmpcJZk_Q1tceg6H5BSpfuit-CEa_R0dGuGscqpXkBRnZWsGjV6=s320" width="320" /></a></div>One of the safest modes of transport on the sea is in
fact the hovercraft, not technically a ship, or a boat but it is an aircraft
which originally came under the regulations of the Civil Aviation Authority.
Over the years these craft have shown that they can mix speed with success for
both the civilian capacity (ferries) and military. But as with any mode of
transport, accidents do happen and in this case a freak accident that had never
happened before….and has never happened since.<p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">It was a stormy day on Saturday 4<sup>th</sup> March
1972, the waves were choppy out in the Solent (the body of water separating the
Isle of Wight from the mainland). The passenger carrying SRN6 type craft,
numbered 012, was departing its terminal on the Isle of Wight for the fast
crossing to Southsea, just outside the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour. On board
were 27 people including the pilot and, just by chance, one of the passengers
asked a random question – How do you get out of here in an emergency? He was
shown how to break the window and that satisfied his curiosity.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi2UKWZOLF3OuVz6fzepTJgQb2CHzQVBdprwzfVjEPUV0sIbpsMLyeBL9zNbIM6o2wQFwtN1b5qqURYf89JgkBtMgjir-6U99IuwUW1luojChxvcjio_No9R5oO5L9doGfwREGcQ-D7Ax9OzH4oa3V_Ke_FrbBmUHO0VOFS9SULAqs7tLqch37OMfSl=s3664" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2748" data-original-width="3664" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi2UKWZOLF3OuVz6fzepTJgQb2CHzQVBdprwzfVjEPUV0sIbpsMLyeBL9zNbIM6o2wQFwtN1b5qqURYf89JgkBtMgjir-6U99IuwUW1luojChxvcjio_No9R5oO5L9doGfwREGcQ-D7Ax9OzH4oa3V_Ke_FrbBmUHO0VOFS9SULAqs7tLqch37OMfSl=s320" width="320" /></a></div>The small craft skimmed the surface of the Solent and
slowed down as it approached the Southsea terminal. What nobody knew at the time
was the tidal conditions mixed with the bad weather were causing deep troughs
just outside the harbour and the craft started dipping side to side. As one
side dipped down, the opposite side caught the strong wind and acted like a
huge sail, silently flipping the hovercraft over until the entire craft was
upside down.<br /><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Those who saw this from shore were shocked at what had
just occurred. Emergency services were called as the craft, now flat and
exposing the underbelly, drifted towards the landing site. But in the cabin,
the passenger who had asked that vital question started breaking the emergency
glass and getting people out to safety.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">It didn’t take long for fire crews to arrive, boarding
the craft and hacking away at the craft with axes to try and gain entry from
above. By now survivors were coming ashore, the pilot remaining on board the
crafts upturned hull to assist the fire teams. Helicopters searched for
survivors who may have drifted out to sea and ferry those to hospital that were
now on dry land.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhay8CaZS9PFrb37uKbKPpCmP8zYdt182MGUiyrjNaN_B9B4bOTUWLfSDJ8amupplCWYvkxY0ynEO3XTOq0Sxau9XeoULHV_k-Aaj7opF0egOID3aNq2pa7ljiwnFEo2dkNZVTE1eK3CItebpETNayzcHAk8Y8Ftbe5c0y6SBOBG80h39AxOuqFbfWU=s735" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="444" data-original-width="735" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhay8CaZS9PFrb37uKbKPpCmP8zYdt182MGUiyrjNaN_B9B4bOTUWLfSDJ8amupplCWYvkxY0ynEO3XTOq0Sxau9XeoULHV_k-Aaj7opF0egOID3aNq2pa7ljiwnFEo2dkNZVTE1eK3CItebpETNayzcHAk8Y8Ftbe5c0y6SBOBG80h39AxOuqFbfWU=s320" width="320" /></a></div>Tragically five people died, one of them a young girl who
had been taken on the hovercraft as
treat by her uncle who had also perished. One body was never found.
SRN6-012 was taken into Portsmouth Harbour by the RFA Swin (right) and raised where an
investigation began. The final blame was placed on the bad weather and it was
clear that the pilot had taken all precautions and could not have predicted
such a freak event.<p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">The craft itself was repaired and put back into service
away from the UK, eventually being scrapped years later.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghH9e85VBngjDup43Ea-q9RgaDU5q_lpL2v5jEsBXnuOBf1Iry8nDJot96E2Z-CSzrh-Z0V3-xUDF2vC7LQ_1Jm6Sh-YFQ1585sRhPy4sqlx6y878dPYbjOy8vOa8Y8DjIn6wQ0ZiFqvPDTKq4KCcseTpiG9MQ6l_9W7bHDx0mv0rZ1nQSZwHuRDTQ=s384" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="297" data-original-width="384" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghH9e85VBngjDup43Ea-q9RgaDU5q_lpL2v5jEsBXnuOBf1Iry8nDJot96E2Z-CSzrh-Z0V3-xUDF2vC7LQ_1Jm6Sh-YFQ1585sRhPy4sqlx6y878dPYbjOy8vOa8Y8DjIn6wQ0ZiFqvPDTKq4KCcseTpiG9MQ6l_9W7bHDx0mv0rZ1nQSZwHuRDTQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div>It was 1997 that I first heard of this in an article in
the Daily Mail “On this Day” section. I was shocked that there was very little
about this in the public domain. The only other hovercraft accidents involved
the much larger SRN4 The Princess Margaret hitting Dover harbour wall in 1985
killing four people, but it took years of research to finally get enough
information together to finally publish a small book which I named Capsized in
the Solent.<p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">I did try to get a memorial plaque put up for the five
who died, but sadly there was not only very little interest but people were
actively expressing that one wasn’t placed anywhere and that the whole tragic
event should be swept under the carpet. There might not be a plaque, but my
writing hopefully gives people a chance to know what happened that day and how
one man’s random question probably saved most of the lives on board.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">It is inevitable that people contact me long after my projects are complete, but a recent interview with the BBC has led to two survivors getting in touch with me recently and already I am getting new insight into a long-forgotten tragedy which should always be remembered. </p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjDzq57XJHzvrAo1S2t10RDBarQY9tRShzWYM8NN_4JOLsIAsOoGwvWYsr-TpYr5bEgBDwlJ-JoOKc6jpvZRadPy4IfSA08qc0WAn14XO0WvXrwdYZm8YqUebSU0vUs8M157lfwKplRXOcWjsKkRhm1cAAKElVRqixao3TGXNLiQ6Sq0A64BLFrmc8O=s499" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="353" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjDzq57XJHzvrAo1S2t10RDBarQY9tRShzWYM8NN_4JOLsIAsOoGwvWYsr-TpYr5bEgBDwlJ-JoOKc6jpvZRadPy4IfSA08qc0WAn14XO0WvXrwdYZm8YqUebSU0vUs8M157lfwKplRXOcWjsKkRhm1cAAKElVRqixao3TGXNLiQ6Sq0A64BLFrmc8O=w283-h400" width="283" /></a><br /><br /><br /></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-30761557131446722282021-12-16T14:24:00.002+00:002021-12-16T14:24:46.047+00:00Houndsditch Police Murders and the Siege of Sydney Street<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhivGD65r9cN88463P6vwKhDTNIW2ZHrYvosGq4rXnZrnJVf8W0hU7V5CZ3KTSHZIVG5NHRPITZyJQWhbl7NOEvyUj3ZxBC6PKV8DnC1B6rgcsgeRnxfOzgB6-2-x9DKNOZNto7xUAMyZcrwyusJ_y92N5a0qP8P4ZqYExiWfmtHkjEvAqUFG9JPcxd=s785" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="785" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhivGD65r9cN88463P6vwKhDTNIW2ZHrYvosGq4rXnZrnJVf8W0hU7V5CZ3KTSHZIVG5NHRPITZyJQWhbl7NOEvyUj3ZxBC6PKV8DnC1B6rgcsgeRnxfOzgB6-2-x9DKNOZNto7xUAMyZcrwyusJ_y92N5a0qP8P4ZqYExiWfmtHkjEvAqUFG9JPcxd=s320" width="320" /></a></div>The jewellers shop at 119 Houndsditch, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city></st1:place>, was owned by a Henry Samuel Harris
and in the cold month of December 1910 he had no idea that a plan was being
hatched to rob his workplace and take the contents of the safe. This was being
done by a bunch of criminals from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Latvia</st1:country-region>
and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Russia</st1:country-region></st1:place>
who had spent the weeks renting the premises next door to the jeweller in order
for their plans to take place.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The gang took their time with the plot, bringing equipment
in over several weeks to cut through the building and the safe. A good robbery
takes a lot of planning, and good planning takes time. On 16<sup>th</sup>
December the robbery plan was swung into action, but the amount of drilling and
noise that was being made alerted people walking past and it was brought to the
attention of a passing policeman.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Further suspicions were roused when a member of the gang was
seen acting strangely and so further police officers were called, by now a
group of them were gathering near to the shop. One of the adjoining houses was
knocked on to see if there was anything going on, not realising that a previous
officer had already done this and had alerted the gang to the police presence.
By now the robbers were surrounded, but things took a turn for the worst very
quickly.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEijvcfGP4rkIaKtsfPbzTRKr_e8syxYz5KiCjHOnoLBlfDS3MKb4HECvyKrF88t61KFVh6eA79LqbH-Ld5qngaBA9qyw7BR0T8BWGw1hA6h4jKQgOaRg0Pbqb6oxM2EB2o3TOmnRVTk5WK6jw8Q8_zPRqhKsgdKDtXz8MWY2pJNwLzAmsefL87psQOS=s3664" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2748" data-original-width="3664" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEijvcfGP4rkIaKtsfPbzTRKr_e8syxYz5KiCjHOnoLBlfDS3MKb4HECvyKrF88t61KFVh6eA79LqbH-Ld5qngaBA9qyw7BR0T8BWGw1hA6h4jKQgOaRg0Pbqb6oxM2EB2o3TOmnRVTk5WK6jw8Q8_zPRqhKsgdKDtXz8MWY2pJNwLzAmsefL87psQOS=s320" width="320" /></a></div>The robbers decided to make a run for it and opened fire on
the police officers, killing one and injuring two more. As they appeared in the
street they shot their way out of the area, injuring a further two officers,
but not before one of the robbers was wounded and had to be carried away by his
associates. The injured police officers were taken to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">London</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Hospital</st1:placetype></st1:place>
at Whitechapel, but two of them died the following day.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The deaths of Sergeant Charles Tucker, Sergeant Robert
Bentley and Constable Walter Choate was now a huge murder hunt, a gang was on
the loose that had cruelly cut down three police officers in their line of
duty. Investigations showed that foreign gang members were to blame, cemented
by the later discovery of the body of one of them as robber George Gardstein
had succumbed to his injuries in the fire fight and his body left for the local
doctor to discover after the gang had called on him for help saying he had been
shot accidentally by a friend. The police were quick to find that he was the
one injured in the shootout.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhehnHEkXq_buqjuXNIj925r8EcxZ1xrJ9BwBhk2gf7E3GRWXf0DQh_xdDFVvSN0CEtaGXnjGeskE9_R_CbduL2b_tJYKUIwIp8zqChrTTGsKENNTZTGwoMM133TjAC-gY-Qb7kkBmx08-s4xxWy5RN57Wk16NxJ7w_V_BZM-n61eFbl2O_Md6EEAMQ=s800" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhehnHEkXq_buqjuXNIj925r8EcxZ1xrJ9BwBhk2gf7E3GRWXf0DQh_xdDFVvSN0CEtaGXnjGeskE9_R_CbduL2b_tJYKUIwIp8zqChrTTGsKENNTZTGwoMM133TjAC-gY-Qb7kkBmx08-s4xxWy5RN57Wk16NxJ7w_V_BZM-n61eFbl2O_Md6EEAMQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div>The publicity in this case was overwhelming, soon
information came forward that brought up more evidence against the
perpetrators, including that they were currently hiding out at No 100 Sydney
Street. When the police went round to check on the morning of 3<sup>rd</sup>
January 1911 they were fired upon and this proved that they were the guys they
were hunting for. Gunfire between the gang and the police went on most of the
day, the military were called in to help what was now being called the Siege of
Sydney Street and all eyes were now watching every move and reported in the press.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Home Secretary Winston Churchill turned up to see for
himself the situation, but things were about to escalate even further when
smoke was seen coming out of the building. The building was soon an inferno,
the cause of the fire never being determined, but the shooting stopped and
nobody was seen to leave the house. Eventually the fire teams gained access and
found two bodies, but as the building collapsed it fell on several of the
rescuers, one of whom died six months later.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiiEDedcw7bnCOghCXVtgVI-qA4-4WgnH2JmbQrWc8tBSexNfoOtOJppAbXu7AXfouMpWMAUBshfSxWlMGQcgRcj1RTpD2Y_YLZbHBDdF315lbhDD2wypSIhBzNmjpzoPo3-4xbKmXZzG9skcjbWhBi5lugags-gnOTic81eOVOMzineiY3tVfK_DVD=s3664" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3664" data-original-width="2748" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiiEDedcw7bnCOghCXVtgVI-qA4-4WgnH2JmbQrWc8tBSexNfoOtOJppAbXu7AXfouMpWMAUBshfSxWlMGQcgRcj1RTpD2Y_YLZbHBDdF315lbhDD2wypSIhBzNmjpzoPo3-4xbKmXZzG9skcjbWhBi5lugags-gnOTic81eOVOMzineiY3tVfK_DVD=s320" width="240" /></a></div>Several people were put on trial for the crimes, but only
one was found guilty of conspiracy which was later overturned. The main
figurehead in this entire drama centred around a man known as Peter the
Painter, a Latvian anarchist who many believe was not only not involved but may
not have even existed, almost like chasing a ghost.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The whole episode was a tragedy that left 7 dead (3 police,
1 fireman, 3 gang members) and left a mark on the City of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city> police that remains today to be one of
the largest loss of life of police officers at any one time. Today the sites no
longer exist, World War 2 bombing raids putting paid to them, but two plaques
honour the three officers and one fireman at the two locations. The City of
London Police Museum has a fascinating collection of items relating to the loss
of their three officers in their headquarters on <st1:address w:st="on"><st1:street w:st="on">Wood Street</st1:street>, <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city></st1:address>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBNOQ5bjA9ZEEMNZFw-Me9TKyUGGCIME3967sNXIlKCZH1Ptex7zQ5ORPb7vwsB6m5ZxFCfwfCjArgXKolGd7ybCLV8DLwuQjTmaUTvW41QjKuVbRx9ad9vDl4_5HTcKNC-Z85DV85dobgbHz-jLyqb_UZkYAh0hwuM_kYbKVf0rnq05aocmzZa9zB=s3664" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2748" data-original-width="3664" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBNOQ5bjA9ZEEMNZFw-Me9TKyUGGCIME3967sNXIlKCZH1Ptex7zQ5ORPb7vwsB6m5ZxFCfwfCjArgXKolGd7ybCLV8DLwuQjTmaUTvW41QjKuVbRx9ad9vDl4_5HTcKNC-Z85DV85dobgbHz-jLyqb_UZkYAh0hwuM_kYbKVf0rnq05aocmzZa9zB=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><br /><br />Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-33026966766969926722021-11-25T08:34:00.002+00:002021-11-25T08:34:53.379+00:00The Sinking of HMS Barham<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEivuJ5aZkLWLB_kgorBz5GlgqFo003QNA6Yz8Pan6lJMQ1O42z1WiLSCsPu9O9m1J9Efn61JmUxoX3h9JY6EcaVUFMm6Z4wgdVPKPBso2DD7ZwhtK-0sY4Z6WG5zANuPyBty_MBTurqcKvcGfRoexCFJb_V2cCncOXDkkcZAjIGYF0raNuV3xroeNm2=s728" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="728" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEivuJ5aZkLWLB_kgorBz5GlgqFo003QNA6Yz8Pan6lJMQ1O42z1WiLSCsPu9O9m1J9Efn61JmUxoX3h9JY6EcaVUFMm6Z4wgdVPKPBso2DD7ZwhtK-0sY4Z6WG5zANuPyBty_MBTurqcKvcGfRoexCFJb_V2cCncOXDkkcZAjIGYF0raNuV3xroeNm2=s320" width="320" /></a></div>Of all the warships in the Royal Navy that have gone down in
history, the story of HMS Barham is one that has been told many times, not
least because her demise was caught on camera so horrifically and a completely
unrelated incident involving the supernatural led her to be in the news for
what can only be described as a bizarre case of modern day witchcraft.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Barham was launched on New Years Eve 1914 on the River
Clyde, one of five Queen Elizabeth class battleships that was 643 feet 9 inches
long, around 33,000 tons and carried an impressive armament of four 15 inch
guns on two forward turrets. With over 1000 crew on board, she was built in a
time when the Dreadnoughts were the up and coming warship, more powerful and
heavily armoured than anything launched before, and Barham was one of those
ships. Not least because she had been launched as the world was plunged into
war just a few months earlier.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgMtdlHtL3fk2anUkGEzBjT6e-Y8PWvXRyRlJ4eW2QFESxB9UycFKtTZVByN-Dr6bQ6coFn9KOgHvl-GeGNvMjK1A2e3IQmneHx1pz8rdsmVCTe73lZym6nvwXi1VZZqiOvEpV09C83AvtDj6mSvePkI_E4ZXUs4v9o7UAg3aMhmtLXBc8ZcKjqQeeQ=s870" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="870" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgMtdlHtL3fk2anUkGEzBjT6e-Y8PWvXRyRlJ4eW2QFESxB9UycFKtTZVByN-Dr6bQ6coFn9KOgHvl-GeGNvMjK1A2e3IQmneHx1pz8rdsmVCTe73lZym6nvwXi1VZZqiOvEpV09C83AvtDj6mSvePkI_E4ZXUs4v9o7UAg3aMhmtLXBc8ZcKjqQeeQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div>After she was commissioned in October 1915 she found herself
at the Battle of Jutland on 31<sup>st</sup> May 1916 which was both a victory
and a disaster for both sides. She was struck by German shells several times
which left 26 of her crew dead and dozens more injured. Her war service
continued and she was present at the final surrender of the High Seas Fleet in
1918.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">21 years later she was part of the Mediterranean fleet when
the Second World War was declared, so her mission now was to head back to
British waters and join the home fleet. As she neared the <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region> at the top of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Ireland</st1:country-region></st1:place> she was met by several
escort destroyers to add to the others that were already in a protective screen
around her. But in the early hours of 12<sup>th</sup> December 1939, as the
fleet reached the Clyde approaches off the Mull of Kintyre, one of these
escorts, HMS Duchess (below), was struck by the Barham and sank. 136 of her crew were
killed, there were only 24 survivors. (For more information on this my book
Collision in the Night tells the story of the Duchess.)</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgZLmUMWi4otjGM-vHUMgE6Neo0i2Z64U8l9Lss7GvW_IF3zr_N_bX9JqAhdBna487vYqOIZFjL990UbmAhDgqOgI_w96DBzKi9N6lMTAllB2HTeMkz06vb-2yV_nEgVWqGDWhnIUOwKmdk-qf3sEzmoixpHIpqSMFGObm6i-3lC918wnDSG228XCNs=s350" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="233" data-original-width="350" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgZLmUMWi4otjGM-vHUMgE6Neo0i2Z64U8l9Lss7GvW_IF3zr_N_bX9JqAhdBna487vYqOIZFjL990UbmAhDgqOgI_w96DBzKi9N6lMTAllB2HTeMkz06vb-2yV_nEgVWqGDWhnIUOwKmdk-qf3sEzmoixpHIpqSMFGObm6i-3lC918wnDSG228XCNs=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So Barham now sailed around the Atlantic and <st1:place w:st="on">Mediterranean</st1:place> assisting with operations which included a
U-boat torpedo striking her causing enough damage for her to put about and head
for repairs. Soon back to sea she took part in several engagements where her
guns were blazing against the enemy forces and in November 1941 she was heading
out of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Alexandria</st1:place></st1:city>
hunting for Italian convoys.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On 25<sup>th</sup> November the submarine U-331 saw the
fleet and fired four torpedoes at the Barham, three of which struck the ship in
quick succession. The huge battleship rolled over slowly as crew fought to
escape the sinking ship, but at this exact moment the warship Valient was doing
something that would propel the death of the Barham into history. On board the
Valient was a cameraman filming the ship for Pathé News. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiL_I7Ayq_gawzSrPLRBX6DnyYHXGSyIhtBvOeo9s5ysfkOesaJ8201Xy3CziGoFSBLCBLyxFSP2HJSRTgnXsn_evSIWMYW9wrG-zUPigU07Ff9jPUtJUX4jNdU2JcEBUodPkmaZWsnnhuEauXVlTUNpFIEe4CnS_D5vyKbOeCZYBToOJ9qZAcgVkHq=s543" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="543" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiL_I7Ayq_gawzSrPLRBX6DnyYHXGSyIhtBvOeo9s5ysfkOesaJ8201Xy3CziGoFSBLCBLyxFSP2HJSRTgnXsn_evSIWMYW9wrG-zUPigU07Ff9jPUtJUX4jNdU2JcEBUodPkmaZWsnnhuEauXVlTUNpFIEe4CnS_D5vyKbOeCZYBToOJ9qZAcgVkHq=s320" width="320" /></a></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Barham was rolling right over onto her side when
suddenly the magazine blew up and hug<br />e pieces of the ship flew in every
direction. The sight was shocking and the smoke enveloped everything around it.
By the time the smoke had clearend, Barham had gone. 862 of her crew were
killed, the nearby warships managing to rescue 487 survivors, two of whom would
die later.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj7F3N6Wi3LHXZsDXAxJzCc3qtL_ntgG6ehjscdS0KtE63AjBy6msG-U_GmXp77yD3mXPw8pnb3P9PLjrFIgrEMIjTBwgeqK5jCoOm0VgFnqYxmr5fDSj5FQ0O8780Rzf9AKkD4pGuQiHWIVGULsxSNkIhVv8qKZBx48Ey1wxj3ySN3xE8kOabxpG20=s700" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="700" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj7F3N6Wi3LHXZsDXAxJzCc3qtL_ntgG6ehjscdS0KtE63AjBy6msG-U_GmXp77yD3mXPw8pnb3P9PLjrFIgrEMIjTBwgeqK5jCoOm0VgFnqYxmr5fDSj5FQ0O8780Rzf9AKkD4pGuQiHWIVGULsxSNkIhVv8qKZBx48Ey1wxj3ySN3xE8kOabxpG20=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Meanwhile in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Portsmouth</st1:city></st1:place>
a woman named Helen Duncan was conducting a séance in front of an audience and
announced that a sailor had come to her and said that the warship HMS Barham
had been sunk. The military immediately took an interest in this because
nothing official had been released yet, therefore how she got that information
was a mystery (this could have been simply hearing from a relative who had
received an official death notice before it was made public). She was arrested
and became the last woman in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Britain</st1:place></st1:country-region>
to be tried for witchcraft and fraudulent spiritual activity.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Barham wreck has never been found, but she lies
somewhere in the Eastern Med. Maybe some day we will gaze upon her once again.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Memorials to the Barham are dotted around the country at
various war memorials, one being at the National Memorial Arboretum which I
visited in 2020.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhEdOq_s8dbsNRJ8doYIqf44pslEH5UBF7hhXTeo35I4gMulTH7B0z7RKvsoWTVLJU34F2bwfGYEaSIoKZcf1VE-BAG5kvqkHae73vXyMTRXKTvngIkNl1o-Oc3xHHuQ1ngBUiJEYpXz0HziKOABI_Zo31z-t2pyE64m_7v19RNQESZxu5KWQDDVis1=s2048" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhEdOq_s8dbsNRJ8doYIqf44pslEH5UBF7hhXTeo35I4gMulTH7B0z7RKvsoWTVLJU34F2bwfGYEaSIoKZcf1VE-BAG5kvqkHae73vXyMTRXKTvngIkNl1o-Oc3xHHuQ1ngBUiJEYpXz0HziKOABI_Zo31z-t2pyE64m_7v19RNQESZxu5KWQDDVis1=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-81934960127683479002021-11-03T19:31:00.000+00:002021-11-03T19:31:44.959+00:00Disaster for the Ark Royal – 2003<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4axVwqWlu_So-0ItZOrM0_I8fCk3uqSwGWC1_LXz7mKXqjwfh-lM3FV1Dl-IOXjvJKffO_RjlUnV7GJUIdGv60ubcICa8FAcG3D-A_hcronJDd-LhO1mZ2LlaspiwUSGT2bKfsqsb6WCGiTImhyWzHfn3v0VIAhReb6eKF7hv13Kpb66A5NOCxKdx=s2048" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4axVwqWlu_So-0ItZOrM0_I8fCk3uqSwGWC1_LXz7mKXqjwfh-lM3FV1Dl-IOXjvJKffO_RjlUnV7GJUIdGv60ubcICa8FAcG3D-A_hcronJDd-LhO1mZ2LlaspiwUSGT2bKfsqsb6WCGiTImhyWzHfn3v0VIAhReb6eKF7hv13Kpb66A5NOCxKdx=s320" width="320" /></a></div>It was just 24 hours after war had been declared between a
coalition force comprising of the <st1:country-region w:st="on">USA</st1:country-region>,
<st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Poland</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Australia</st1:country-region>
and a host of other nations against the dictatorship regime of Saddam Hussein
in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region></st1:place>.
Deployed off the coast at the top of the <st1:place w:st="on">Persian Gulf</st1:place>
were several warships of these nations. <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Britain</st1:place></st1:country-region> had sent their aircraft
carrier HMS Ark Royal to lead the naval task force under Commodore Jamie
Miller.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The second day of the Iraq invasion saw a US helicopter
crash on 21<sup>st</sup> March 2003, all 12 people on board were killed
comprising 8 Brits and 4 Americans, but the aircraft wasn’t shot down, it
turned out the helicopter had a mechanical fault. Not a good start for any
military operation, but things were not about to get any better.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Two Sea King helicopters from 849 Squadron A Flight based at
Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose were carrying out operations from the Ark
Royal in the early hours of 22<sup>nd</sup> March. One was returning from a
sortie while the second had just refuelled on the deck and was taking off.
Their job was to conduct surveillance work in the Al Faw region of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgT9ppcqX6IZH6hoTn67uM0G7Ie1Ax0Q-8sZRpCe4JDOcJ2e_khQgsHg78M1rTbdWhFijC8eteNSEUT6oUDPlk4bvjzIMBdaleC26kamyOheUDFPPrMDYRoS9nZ5-drOtSmMUqjmeiOmZyCl-ATNfcTAv1LWS7Q7HM8Ic5Ox1wTV4twQ2GB8Zq8TFx-=s640" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="504" data-original-width="640" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgT9ppcqX6IZH6hoTn67uM0G7Ie1Ax0Q-8sZRpCe4JDOcJ2e_khQgsHg78M1rTbdWhFijC8eteNSEUT6oUDPlk4bvjzIMBdaleC26kamyOheUDFPPrMDYRoS9nZ5-drOtSmMUqjmeiOmZyCl-ATNfcTAv1LWS7Q7HM8Ic5Ox1wTV4twQ2GB8Zq8TFx-=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">As one was taking off the other one was inbound and both
aircraft sighted each other, they were warned that they were heading close to
which they both acknowledged that they had each other in sight. But nothing
prepared anybody for what was about to happen. The two Sea Kings collided in
mid air much to the horror of those tracking the two craft.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To this day nobody knows what happened and why they hit each
other. As the wreckage dropped into the sea just a few miles away from the ship
it was obvious that there were no survivors. All 7 personnel in the two
helicopters died – Six from the Royal Navy, one from the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">USA</st1:place></st1:country-region>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Over the next few days the debris from the aircraft was
recovered along with the bodies of the seven crew, an investigation shedding no
more light on what caused the crash than before. Tributes were paid by Captain
Alan Massey, commanding officer of the Ark Royal as well as those high up in
the Royal Navy and Government.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Basra</st1:place></st1:city>,
the main town at the centre of British military operations, a memorial was made
with small brass plaques giving the names of each person who died during Op
Telic (the mission name), already there were 14 names to go on just in the
first 48 hours from the losses of the helicopters and many more would be added.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region></st1:place>
war ended officially in May 2003, the continuous conflict would not be at an
end for another eight years. By the time British forces left the country, 179 <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region> service personnel had lost their lives, for
the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">USA</st1:country-region></st1:place>
that would be 4,424. Today the regime is long gone, the country is an ally and
the memorial plaques were taken from the base in <st1:city w:st="on">Basra</st1:city>
and placed at the National Memorial Arboretum in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region>. (See images below.)</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">HMS Ark Royal was eventually decommissioned in 2011 to be
scrapped two years later in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Turkey</st1:place></st1:country-region></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFz-nVi90Deflu2j5vmoPTeMj_1ilS-Hw6EcTsh19wjkP7aEGT6QoxQe_sI5cPfhBjd-iE-HREM5OXv0n4maRnmzXDl1Hvv2HxxksyFpD55w72HPG6AlSSwpYlXwj-Np4ANGV_ZPDB3S5k6qSI7c3JwaKQj63npz6BM6xfDtpf4WpzN5Epj0-E8uJN=s2048" imageanchor="1" style="display: inline !important; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFz-nVi90Deflu2j5vmoPTeMj_1ilS-Hw6EcTsh19wjkP7aEGT6QoxQe_sI5cPfhBjd-iE-HREM5OXv0n4maRnmzXDl1Hvv2HxxksyFpD55w72HPG6AlSSwpYlXwj-Np4ANGV_ZPDB3S5k6qSI7c3JwaKQj63npz6BM6xfDtpf4WpzN5Epj0-E8uJN=w400-h299" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgya0kTDWbyV1aogmZYqpFWN26hAct5kO56D8zCPWd-nZG5T1E1mSj4mLKBlVqY_fa06DE8VHtm3qxxa8jpD4o3x8-AC9lKdemO_vWxq_zH1XB5VKA5_3CE53Tigv4YEV52lq7PZO_HtXXiRrwYa0-Dvp_w16XV3ZAVkPhZkCsGhtCaUlZubIRF1gMA=s2048" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgya0kTDWbyV1aogmZYqpFWN26hAct5kO56D8zCPWd-nZG5T1E1mSj4mLKBlVqY_fa06DE8VHtm3qxxa8jpD4o3x8-AC9lKdemO_vWxq_zH1XB5VKA5_3CE53Tigv4YEV52lq7PZO_HtXXiRrwYa0-Dvp_w16XV3ZAVkPhZkCsGhtCaUlZubIRF1gMA=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjyKSr5tAQN7_OBE9g9oFCTC33zVXQx5aDKRUCGLblFLGN7Kk6GeCae1tyovjnsyxrvJCQumowKCMri79aqdUximCDH69-D8-lzjYoaAqpiv20_aUJ7oNK7DnQcLswPAufcNY6upN68VdtP-aLa5pqI_2yTebd4VmeuP-qiE7sgb8jf6keZTaTa2LS6=s2048" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjyKSr5tAQN7_OBE9g9oFCTC33zVXQx5aDKRUCGLblFLGN7Kk6GeCae1tyovjnsyxrvJCQumowKCMri79aqdUximCDH69-D8-lzjYoaAqpiv20_aUJ7oNK7DnQcLswPAufcNY6upN68VdtP-aLa5pqI_2yTebd4VmeuP-qiE7sgb8jf6keZTaTa2LS6=w401-h302" width="401" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-align: center;"> </span></p>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-62488489225469683872021-10-19T15:08:00.013+00:002021-10-19T15:22:41.913+00:00Death in the ice – The loss of the Erebus and Terror<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi2Wl1CCbT7fLGSHHRo1MLP8MR71-hUlQ9_735j_ZipJkli_Z8DhhBW073vAdcOBjdXTpBrjlsdhgjnlBoZB7eguez_YM93592ZN7j2hLEdjcCC1WpSc6TphoA3LshtnPcsLjAiQEg_C5_MZugoPw934IWE9j_DHmm07jjI-kZAK4EbmiWWg6WyWdES=s470" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="470" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi2Wl1CCbT7fLGSHHRo1MLP8MR71-hUlQ9_735j_ZipJkli_Z8DhhBW073vAdcOBjdXTpBrjlsdhgjnlBoZB7eguez_YM93592ZN7j2hLEdjcCC1WpSc6TphoA3LshtnPcsLjAiQEg_C5_MZugoPw934IWE9j_DHmm07jjI-kZAK4EbmiWWg6WyWdES=s320" width="320" /></a></div>There are few sea stories that come with a vast amount of
drama of such ships as those that set sail to the Arctic as part of explorer
John Franklin’s expedition to find the North West Passage, a channel said to
link the Atlantic with the Pacific and could save many weeks and months sailing
around America to get to the west coast. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Franklin</st1:city></st1:place>
was no stranger to voyaging and in 1845 he set off aboard the ships <i>HMS Erebus</i>
and <i>HMS Terror</i> with 133 men.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">They sailed on 19 May 1845 from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Kent</st1:country-region></st1:place>, by the time July had come
they had made it up to the ice, landed five men due to sickness and bade
farewell to the two ships that had accompanied them. With 129 men on board in
total, great things were expected, with the voyage expecting to take a long
time, but as no word of them came back people started to get concerned.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh7usDvKDdWejuFdmCcecC09rlwotuTE9cckaEyFChDuKzsM6-Fin0eaXTff-sg6ZSxjbN5Uy-3rI-Gkpb04ti9pp5vrAslVFJ6OXQ1f34JHZlc8b0EZwANKLQtyveF53A3eYVOJFOVOpwDf2qm7EO4GC7lAnN3gVEe3PgXiF1DDDJIL3FllVVWrUpU=s402" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="306" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh7usDvKDdWejuFdmCcecC09rlwotuTE9cckaEyFChDuKzsM6-Fin0eaXTff-sg6ZSxjbN5Uy-3rI-Gkpb04ti9pp5vrAslVFJ6OXQ1f34JHZlc8b0EZwANKLQtyveF53A3eYVOJFOVOpwDf2qm7EO4GC7lAnN3gVEe3PgXiF1DDDJIL3FllVVWrUpU=s320" width="244" /></a></div>After two years with nothing from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Franklin</st1:city></st1:place>, search parties were drafted up to
be sent out to conduct a hunt for the two ships and their missing crews. Years
went by with rumours of sightings of the ships, over land the Inuit tribes told
of a group of explorers that starved to death and showed them items that were
confirmed to be from the lost expedition.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As the years ticked by, more evidence was found including
written records of the expedition, frozen corpses, items from the ships and
graves of several sailors. It was in 1984 that permission was granted to exhume
three graves on <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Beechey</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Island</st1:placetype></st1:place> by Professor Owen
Beattie who wanted to find out exactly what had killed them.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Beattie found that pneumonia with lead poisoning had been
the cause of death once the corpses had been exhumed and tested. The cans of
food were poorly soldered and they lead may have contaminated the food and
slowly killed them.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But the most interesting discovery came only recently when
search teams located both ships on the seabed. <i>Erebus </i>was located in just 36
feet of water, deteriorated but upright, in September 2014. Two years later
the Arctic Research Foundation announced that the <i>Terror </i>had been found in 79
feet of water and in pristine condition.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgz2Kj3ponKF2O4ygKXAYzTT0PZrvnwwKWeZ38whWYDu613ARIiy1n53ziZuEkwvv-Iu6mcUytEo0QhcMKNbUL8N4QSpeJUTQuIMaSVVFj6oeUY_Pq13S9Imm1shgnH9UqQrSb5gEJqYNPMHclU5d6sJa2xTvp3JoSVHUd2-fRZYa-Re5rn6qaVtO5b=s962" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="571" data-original-width="962" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgz2Kj3ponKF2O4ygKXAYzTT0PZrvnwwKWeZ38whWYDu613ARIiy1n53ziZuEkwvv-Iu6mcUytEo0QhcMKNbUL8N4QSpeJUTQuIMaSVVFj6oeUY_Pq13S9Imm1shgnH9UqQrSb5gEJqYNPMHclU5d6sJa2xTvp3JoSVHUd2-fRZYa-Re5rn6qaVtO5b=s320" width="320" /></a></div>Since the discoveries there have been several dives on the
wrecks with remote cameras and incredible images of these lost ships have been
broadcast to the world. There is still a lot to learn about the mysterious
vanishing of this entire expedition, but now all the pieces of the puzzle are
there, it will only be a matter of time before we learn as much as there is to
know about this.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjAE-Iy-01fnEBPKt7sO2TktzuQfJPDlYFovu_s5hS0LJA9i3xQa3w9C6XrIQxIUrnx-Og0FjgS61L_C4r_uxSpjSKkD8x30v83w_aKcLPdIuIrUdCm7MFh40Hp0jDqxf96j0QpMyA8qQIbEk0f4JPcnPseIcpElTpV4T1ezHX5Gjg49a4O7l_2Ni8Q=s2048" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjAE-Iy-01fnEBPKt7sO2TktzuQfJPDlYFovu_s5hS0LJA9i3xQa3w9C6XrIQxIUrnx-Og0FjgS61L_C4r_uxSpjSKkD8x30v83w_aKcLPdIuIrUdCm7MFh40Hp0jDqxf96j0QpMyA8qQIbEk0f4JPcnPseIcpElTpV4T1ezHX5Gjg49a4O7l_2Ni8Q=w150-h200" width="150" /></a></div>Franklin and his team are commemorated in <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>
and there is a museum in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Oslo</st1:city>,
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Norway</st1:country-region></st1:place>, which
gives plenty of details about the search for the North West Passage in the place
where Roald Amundsen’s two ships <i>Fram </i>and <i>Gjoa </i>are now on display. It will only
be a matter of time before items recovered from the <i>Erebus </i>and <i>Terror </i>are on
display for all to see and maybe even one day the wrecks themselves raised like
the Amundsens Maud was a few years back.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But incredibly, it was the mysteriousness of the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Franklin</st1:place></st1:city> expedition that
has made this the most memorable of them all, the loss of two ships and 129
crew has gone down in history as one of the great sea stories, with still so
many unanswered questions, but this has ensured that their tragic legacy will live
forever.</p><p class="MsoNormal">The statue of Sir John Franklin in central London (right) and a monument in nearby Greenwich (below). </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiM_1liKnwgxkROOXVhckbEm1zj4r0Onl_2o5XvwZ9x5asbTVwMrXhulV4SXcKe3w1bki-Dj23lnbxgM_NI3S1apq0mSOB6iVwI-83hBiEqqUj4TvqSzjvDKJlq-cTbTH6QjpHUl6G3nxisi3VDxSo787UkV7TIS7DqerPYjmOIv2PRgty7yiKoxZ9Y=s2048" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiM_1liKnwgxkROOXVhckbEm1zj4r0Onl_2o5XvwZ9x5asbTVwMrXhulV4SXcKe3w1bki-Dj23lnbxgM_NI3S1apq0mSOB6iVwI-83hBiEqqUj4TvqSzjvDKJlq-cTbTH6QjpHUl6G3nxisi3VDxSo787UkV7TIS7DqerPYjmOIv2PRgty7yiKoxZ9Y=s320" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-58226435706345934482021-10-13T16:53:00.002+00:002021-10-17T08:12:32.559+00:00HMS Royal Oak – The Story of Joseph Cachia<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEioyXaj95Z0WVlDQN5j37ZNnXmBBeYK-0cZ-1pUvSHZpGArjOqL0JsKKZgVGtXP8L0hALUmEWaUyX2y1hfY1a0VNapmw-dLwwnAEvzVmjsh59xEDRKaksjLPmVgsDJ_pNf1pRIvl911gFkLWSgcMTrYQKgW_0XPA2XKRTyUh8CocjeQ5Q9zjA0jEpr4=s423" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="255" data-original-width="423" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEioyXaj95Z0WVlDQN5j37ZNnXmBBeYK-0cZ-1pUvSHZpGArjOqL0JsKKZgVGtXP8L0hALUmEWaUyX2y1hfY1a0VNapmw-dLwwnAEvzVmjsh59xEDRKaksjLPmVgsDJ_pNf1pRIvl911gFkLWSgcMTrYQKgW_0XPA2XKRTyUh8CocjeQ5Q9zjA0jEpr4=s320" width="320" /></a></div>Of all the missions in the Second World War, one stood out in the early months as both death defying and impressive, despite the huge loss of life it caused. It was always believed that the Royal Navy’s Home Fleet based at Scapa Flow was safe from attack, the bay close to the capital Kirkwall was the perfect size and shelter to anchor a fleet of the finest warships afloat away from danger, but all this confidence came to a sudden and explosive end by the actions of U-boat skipper Gunther Prien. <p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh17DQsqiFJfruAg6U4fJRqUr6kRzPt_VREBnXkuF7cuyXj9veaujiiyOOweqJMM3nHL1hjket8A421K_ZlMZfyfecQe8x-udgoPmf3Dgsp-9XYkRa1vPEZyuxQ4Ehf2ncINxtY-aVhC4yWHgK_6KVnkcXF2cYqB0MANGMmi2hGu83DYO3uIwyviStx=s319" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="319" data-original-width="200" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh17DQsqiFJfruAg6U4fJRqUr6kRzPt_VREBnXkuF7cuyXj9veaujiiyOOweqJMM3nHL1hjket8A421K_ZlMZfyfecQe8x-udgoPmf3Dgsp-9XYkRa1vPEZyuxQ4Ehf2ncINxtY-aVhC4yWHgK_6KVnkcXF2cYqB0MANGMmi2hGu83DYO3uIwyviStx=w179-h286" width="179" /></a></div>It was the night of 13th October 1939 when Prien took his submarine, <i>U-47</i>, to the north coast of Scotland, his mission being to sneak into Scapa Flow and attack the ships before making a run for it. This was almost a suicide mission, but one that required an enormous amount of patience, calculation and bravery if they were to navigate between the defences that protected these ships. <p></p><p>On board the <i>Royal Oak</i>, things were silent, most of the sailors asleep in their messdecks. One of these was Leading Steward Joseph Benedetto Cachia (right), born in Malta yet serving on board this ship so far from his native Mediterranean island nation. At 36 years old, Joseph married Catherine Debattista on 19th November 1931 in Sliema and had two daughters, Lilian and Carmen. He wasn’t the only Maltese national on board, around a dozen more at least, mostly people who lived by the sea and wanted to join the Royal Navy for adventure, never believing that one day they would be back in a World War far from home. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj3SlkifXR2aMTBWWCg9htr3hDD8tsni9g7w38hHRiAmSFQf1mJI5VW2NLyE9QYGlhnZDTFuXg3rL_F9jEnkxQ5Knp3t_ET90MNEFmSb5ZEpaIJpF4AI2jtU5uje1J5pO2Am48e2VeK3c0uooLW7zzZZvRDNCxq-nv8KJgwYjJvIkbd1pX1RKfdl1mB=s356" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="267" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj3SlkifXR2aMTBWWCg9htr3hDD8tsni9g7w38hHRiAmSFQf1mJI5VW2NLyE9QYGlhnZDTFuXg3rL_F9jEnkxQ5Knp3t_ET90MNEFmSb5ZEpaIJpF4AI2jtU5uje1J5pO2Am48e2VeK3c0uooLW7zzZZvRDNCxq-nv8KJgwYjJvIkbd1pX1RKfdl1mB=w187-h249" width="187" /></a></div><p></p><p>The <i>Royal Oak</i> was an old battleship now, commissioned in 1916 just in time to see action in the Battle of Jutland, but she still had immense firepower, not least in her eight 15 inch guns in four turrets that could pack a punch for any enemy ship that got too close for comfort. With a crew of over 1200, she spent her peacetime years conducting patrols and even managed to star in a movie. At 620 feet in length, she was dwarfed by some of the more modern warships that were now being seen on the world’s stage. </p><p>Meanwhile as Prien was sneaking through the Scapa Flow defences, the hands of midnight ticked over into the morning of 14th October. With the silhouettes of the vessels at anchor, Prien lined up his U-boat for attack. He fired several torpedoes at the battleship, only one of which struck home, so he quickly made ready for a second attack where three more torpedoes all hit their target.<i> Royal Oak</i> was doomed, she rolled over and sank less than half an hour after the first explosion. </p><p><i>U-47</i> managed to escape from Scapa Flow and returned to Germany a hero, Prien being awarded the Knights Cross. <i>Royal Oak</i> went down and took 835 crew with her, there were 424 survivors. One of those killed with Leading Steward Cahia. </p><p></p><p>It is only when the relatives of those who died on board such ships start to dig into their family history that the story of the people on board ships such as <i>Royal Oak</i> come to light. Cahia’s name is mentioned in several places – the Book of Remembrance at Kirkwall Cathedral, the Naval Memorial situated on The Hoe in Plymouth and he is also named on a monument in his hometown of Sliema in Malta. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj3wsWMqH_uk_3z2sEWKC6AdD2wyBpsee-EgKU3qh6H6j8kP5O8R-djJRMJKnQtXMyBD68R-J2BR_hj6mmwF4LLLblpQPm5LMh9pSIsDD2rXcP0b9ky0WlAprwOUhmAeN7ug_52mRWXmTFJa9qSVHAPCs3OiNeCl8nxN9Z2fNn70K55JCtfr0fN7MBU=s373" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="373" data-original-width="280" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj3wsWMqH_uk_3z2sEWKC6AdD2wyBpsee-EgKU3qh6H6j8kP5O8R-djJRMJKnQtXMyBD68R-J2BR_hj6mmwF4LLLblpQPm5LMh9pSIsDD2rXcP0b9ky0WlAprwOUhmAeN7ug_52mRWXmTFJa9qSVHAPCs3OiNeCl8nxN9Z2fNn70K55JCtfr0fN7MBU=w186-h248" width="186" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiJW-jLbLGyBSogdENI5x75DQnxVJXGrpZakpg-j8CVDoNYJ9eQFUqExabh64KkSqq_uQtj-1pELkr6gyzwn1TcBjNv-WzArEn72Knay9tNaV4x2y5nPAeJmdSHxnY9MSunF7ndHDzLmCjUG1hDgoWaHXLlIIh_QRReMRlbIWVDTE9Ukv3g7-6yKiHT=s373" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="373" data-original-width="280" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiJW-jLbLGyBSogdENI5x75DQnxVJXGrpZakpg-j8CVDoNYJ9eQFUqExabh64KkSqq_uQtj-1pELkr6gyzwn1TcBjNv-WzArEn72Knay9tNaV4x2y5nPAeJmdSHxnY9MSunF7ndHDzLmCjUG1hDgoWaHXLlIIh_QRReMRlbIWVDTE9Ukv3g7-6yKiHT=w187-h249" width="187" /></a></div><p></p><p>Joseph Cahia became one of the first Maltese casualties of the Second World War, the island was not directly affected with the war until fighting broke out with Italy in June the following year and the island was under siege from the axis powers, a siege that was broken by the success of the convoys fighting through to deliver much needed supplies. Cahia’s daughters both emigrated to Australia after the war and his descendants talked about him with pride for many years after. The tragic part of this story was that he was only duty that day covering for a shipmate that was on a date. Would he have been one of the lucky ones if he had not done a good turn for a friend?</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgAyq85lypCyCAZJ10W0kLApgtoWh_lBpyV98jzSGBBb2W3XkbsdWBuJkfUeLLOiMuIawgUxtMguhCOVG6I-rLaRam8qW-yCYauWrnGCq-Y9ALlVi8yYtztewFcYN7mls1dT4dcDx0R_-UbU9D-6mbeM6WJLeybMKRXl8iiv_DkDZXpJIKBKbH0emKB=s1600" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgAyq85lypCyCAZJ10W0kLApgtoWh_lBpyV98jzSGBBb2W3XkbsdWBuJkfUeLLOiMuIawgUxtMguhCOVG6I-rLaRam8qW-yCYauWrnGCq-Y9ALlVi8yYtztewFcYN7mls1dT4dcDx0R_-UbU9D-6mbeM6WJLeybMKRXl8iiv_DkDZXpJIKBKbH0emKB=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>Today the <i>Royal Oak</i> is upside down still where she landed after that fateful night in 1939. She has been dived on but is officially a war grave and so only with special permission can this shipwreck be visited, usually by divers from the Royal Navy who will change the ship’s ensign and make sure that the spirit of the Mighty Oak is kept alive. </p><p>For Leading Steward Cachia, his legacy and that of his 800+ shipmates will never be forgotten. </p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjm7i8SO56cgLixD2BlzQUqAcklAkrjheFGzKlTFX8hM7zoOgQ3FPJWTdBSrGM-KXvVBa5uOqShuquIn2f1sCBamNLyTBjAnKYSPVt4bZZ4utSOUXY_lTuG3VipO3vy6cDbSisxOhdw8CX9oMu6NN6QnjT2T_YS7bgrRZAx0_8_l3kdgf_HVYsHkaJ0=s2048" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjm7i8SO56cgLixD2BlzQUqAcklAkrjheFGzKlTFX8hM7zoOgQ3FPJWTdBSrGM-KXvVBa5uOqShuquIn2f1sCBamNLyTBjAnKYSPVt4bZZ4utSOUXY_lTuG3VipO3vy6cDbSisxOhdw8CX9oMu6NN6QnjT2T_YS7bgrRZAx0_8_l3kdgf_HVYsHkaJ0=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">National Memorial Arboretum plaque to <i>Royal Oak</i></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /></div>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-57958129410038964592021-09-29T15:38:00.001+00:002021-09-29T15:38:14.280+00:00The Whitechapel Murders of 1888<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEplXEyuxgZPJlH-yK6-a3sIMTh89xlHoKkL-JCK0_zGwdREEG6I4uc6W-UGYwtiS3A6s43OZGSsFeniv0xJYODhc-GMiHZNbok72bQfrhBPWZBLiiTQF8NKvJh2adGQO3i7hTSuQnLfM/s400/news+report.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="400" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEplXEyuxgZPJlH-yK6-a3sIMTh89xlHoKkL-JCK0_zGwdREEG6I4uc6W-UGYwtiS3A6s43OZGSsFeniv0xJYODhc-GMiHZNbok72bQfrhBPWZBLiiTQF8NKvJh2adGQO3i7hTSuQnLfM/s320/news+report.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The person who murdered at least five women in the
Whitechapel area of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city></st1:place>
in late 1888 is without doubt the most famous serial killer in the world. This
is probably because he was the first one that had such a memorable modus
operandi that also came with a catchy nickname that the press loved – Jack the
Ripper.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now officially the killer has never been caught, charged or
identified, but as the last 133 years have shown, there have been no shortage
of suspects and evidence.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh99Xa9bLOHhs_TrBxHqk6j7EFwL3IIIS21ovBEhTsidJxsa3-9GzkskJc888mGvrVQCR7MlnUp0vaSFJp_9u2dVDw1D4y8-ztYTn6eYpnSGDbiGDyzcQ9GlAQbNmt9xa9A8GtzG4yDz38/s271/Victim+1+-+Mary+Ann+Nichols+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="179" data-original-width="271" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh99Xa9bLOHhs_TrBxHqk6j7EFwL3IIIS21ovBEhTsidJxsa3-9GzkskJc888mGvrVQCR7MlnUp0vaSFJp_9u2dVDw1D4y8-ztYTn6eYpnSGDbiGDyzcQ9GlAQbNmt9xa9A8GtzG4yDz38/s0/Victim+1+-+Mary+Ann+Nichols+2.jpg" width="271" /></a></div>It was 31<sup>st</sup> August 1888 that the body of Polly
Nichols was found murdered in Bucks Row, a gruesome sight but one that was never
seen before to this extent. She had been mutilated and stabbed numerous times,
yet nobody came forward to say that they had seen a thing.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On 8<sup>th</sup> September a second victim, Annie Chapman,
was found outside the back doorway of <st1:address w:st="on"><st1:street w:st="on">29
Hanbury Street</st1:street></st1:address>, she too had been savagely attacked
in the same way. It didn’t take a genius to link the two murders but worse was
to come.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNp3WcLUdU5cz4B9AW2CPvZO6tBzBnPwfONcEM33w30kSmJvhgiWzI7dvIhoU_E3e0yxffpggRfLB9yArqzr4Oii_Z0WEstxe9DLXAh1pheTqz0HSJZ-_jDlijhbssH9c8H6nDvZZgSa4/s2048/Hanbury+Street%252C+site+of+Chapman+murder+-+17+March+2012%25281%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNp3WcLUdU5cz4B9AW2CPvZO6tBzBnPwfONcEM33w30kSmJvhgiWzI7dvIhoU_E3e0yxffpggRfLB9yArqzr4Oii_Z0WEstxe9DLXAh1pheTqz0HSJZ-_jDlijhbssH9c8H6nDvZZgSa4/s320/Hanbury+Street%252C+site+of+Chapman+murder+-+17+March+2012%25281%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>30<sup>th</sup> September 1888 went down in history as the
“double event” when two bodies were found at different locations. The first one
was Elizabeth Stride, but her corpse had not been as butchered as the others,
within less than an hour it was found out why – the killer most likely had been
disturbed and run off. The body of Catherine Eddowes was laid in <st1:address w:st="on"><st1:street w:st="on">Mitre Square</st1:street></st1:address> and
ripped open like the others.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">By now the police were worried that there was a maniac out
stalking the streets that had murdered four women in just a month. It wasn’t
that there was not enough information – there was too much! A lot of it was
hoax letters, even a piece of kidney sent to the police saying that it had come
from one of the victims.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinX9VZ0iXAKYx3IJ0kIgdzvpJrcJiLliL-I_P9u8N10PEIBasYH7XdMJMVcqOvdocxvuzxkyeULMU8lis9eXJi6fXK2ZiNnLPDcZVSME50fufShv0TIMUaI6Ds-rgCGaO0_oj1HEldxCU/s2048/100_5441.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinX9VZ0iXAKYx3IJ0kIgdzvpJrcJiLliL-I_P9u8N10PEIBasYH7XdMJMVcqOvdocxvuzxkyeULMU8lis9eXJi6fXK2ZiNnLPDcZVSME50fufShv0TIMUaI6Ds-rgCGaO0_oj1HEldxCU/s320/100_5441.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>In the morning of 9<sup>th</sup> November 1888 a visitor to <st1:address w:st="on"><st1:street w:st="on">13 Millers Court</st1:street></st1:address>
found the final victim of Jack the Ripper’s murderous rampage. This one was
inside a small room, a bedsit that Mary Kelly had rented, giving the killer as
much time as he needed to carry out his deed. Because of this her body was
unrecognisable, laid on her bed and cut up into pieces, innards spread out and
blood everywhere.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Officially this was the last victim of Jack the Ripper,
although there were others before and after these five that may have been down
to the same killer. With too many clues to go on the list of suspects over the
years has been astronomical, it seems that every day a new expert comes along
and gives their own theory on sometimes the smallest possible evidence.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxlajj7pGjbYsJ7QUQuoArvWF24gOH37yyRpOwDmFUugv1dyUqEWJXzl7Xj_1tNdRA42BO6sJY8dD7cUuUm92ndjJhGDLumerBlbCW8-1z7S9maLnrJRdqTEmkozAgHQnhSRDZxR-OfWg/s2048/Wood+Street+Police+Station+museum+Jack+the+Ripper+display+-+26+July+2013%25283%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1530" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxlajj7pGjbYsJ7QUQuoArvWF24gOH37yyRpOwDmFUugv1dyUqEWJXzl7Xj_1tNdRA42BO6sJY8dD7cUuUm92ndjJhGDLumerBlbCW8-1z7S9maLnrJRdqTEmkozAgHQnhSRDZxR-OfWg/s320/Wood+Street+Police+Station+museum+Jack+the+Ripper+display+-+26+July+2013%25283%2529.JPG" width="239" /></a></div>At the top of this suspect list though is Aaron Kosminski,
who was caught by the police just after the fifth murder and was named by
police in official memo’s as the killer, but it was the startling DNA evidence
that showed up on a shawl found at the scene of the murder of Catherine Eddowes
that had both the victim and the descendent of Kosminski on. Although this has
been criticised due to the possibility of cross-contamination, passage of time and
other arguments, the truth of the matter is this Polish Jew lived very close to
the murders and was sent to a workhouse due to his deteriorating mental state.
Later he was forced to be locked up in a mental asylum until his death in 1919.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSlLqlcuvtV0V_b39KMz43A1EsczlAJUB8pbXpLTX82cLRUq2DBdOx-u0uhM552myU-tsJMZUYjgfeZr-WE_TjRmo4x2lX9uix02eWu9WPY4MQ49YI2WtxeX5sElfPJlxkrjmXFzsBNOs/s2048/Ten+Bells+pub+-+17+March+2012%25281%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSlLqlcuvtV0V_b39KMz43A1EsczlAJUB8pbXpLTX82cLRUq2DBdOx-u0uhM552myU-tsJMZUYjgfeZr-WE_TjRmo4x2lX9uix02eWu9WPY4MQ49YI2WtxeX5sElfPJlxkrjmXFzsBNOs/s320/Ten+Bells+pub+-+17+March+2012%25281%2529.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>Today there is very little left of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city></st1:place> that once was, so many streets have
changed since 1888 but there is still the pub The Ten Bells where the victims
were said to drink, the streets are there but the houses are long gone, Mary
Kelly’s home is now a car park. Jack the Ripper tours are a common sight at
Tower Hill tube station where visitors can pay a fee to be taken around the
areas where the victims were found. A historian friend of mine did it for free
up until recently, plus he was more in depth and asked you to remember that
these women were not just celebrity victims, they were human beings who had
families and now thanks to a killer we still can’t officially name, their names
will be remembered forever.<p></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><br /><br /><br /><br />Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-77542689247655538162021-09-10T13:11:00.003+00:002021-09-10T13:12:41.746+00:00Latvian Supermarket Collapse<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUXWfDqIvCqz-Dw6hWHzybPXvn1NFqDW0TaCoS2_7Db5Mao0qfR-cYh-2J1TMI9HzlJNLPgAThxJszszwACWlVoCWWl7WXAIh0gbdabOKWILyKpZ1eLCHAmCtLK_LGD7UqhebRvfgncxY/s3984/Latvia+collapse.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2240" data-original-width="3984" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUXWfDqIvCqz-Dw6hWHzybPXvn1NFqDW0TaCoS2_7Db5Mao0qfR-cYh-2J1TMI9HzlJNLPgAThxJszszwACWlVoCWWl7WXAIh0gbdabOKWILyKpZ1eLCHAmCtLK_LGD7UqhebRvfgncxY/s320/Latvia+collapse.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>It was November 2018 when I visited the Latvian capital <st1:city w:st="on">Riga</st1:city>, it was the 100<sup>th</sup> anniversary of their <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Independence</st1:place></st1:city> and
celebrations were in the air for the next few days, but while I was here I had
one place on my mind to visit and research, the site of a disaster that shook
the city just a few years before.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It was the early evening of 21<sup>st</sup> November 2013
and over 100 shoppers were in the Maxima supermarket in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Riga</st1:city></st1:place>’s Zolitude district when a fire alarm
went off. It was quickly established that it was a false alarm caused by
maintenance work going on, but soon after a huge part of the building collapsed
in on itself over the checkouts and buried dozens of people under rubble.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Q5OjaqLvwVT5f2U0Ji9dcpGcIyd_1nSEQP9W2FYniBPmIjwGJ9gD5Cs8wgkcAqg5_jLmga97twCMuzJEW5djW45ZHMt1RN2LeDn2ZvTbpRvmnleDsCrqt0UEIn23m9jSjflRyKX75Xc/s522/4.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="293" data-original-width="522" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Q5OjaqLvwVT5f2U0Ji9dcpGcIyd_1nSEQP9W2FYniBPmIjwGJ9gD5Cs8wgkcAqg5_jLmga97twCMuzJEW5djW45ZHMt1RN2LeDn2ZvTbpRvmnleDsCrqt0UEIn23m9jSjflRyKX75Xc/s320/4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Emergency services were called and a huge rescue operation
was launched, fire teams dug away at the rubble to reach survivors but more was
to come when a further part of the roof fell onto the rescue teams, crushing
more and leaving further people trapped. By now it was realised that this was a
huge emergency that could change at any time and so firefighters were allowed
only half an hour on site per person before being relieved.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Out in the car park soldiers started setting up tents for
the rescue workers and for dealing with survivors. But as time went on and
survivors were getting less and less, periods of absolute silence were called
for in order to listen for signs of life. Mobile phones were ringing within the
collapsed building, most likely from worried relatives and people who had not
been heard from for several hours.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwWuKKOQ9ai42royu5RK4OyPu29_FOy-6LoKUywebax1FjLpxcPvmu15Vzws8B_359F29WH-KrnU0vKzN-NGu8j1XyZ8m_mS3yP4-66Jyp0XktjahEZp7_dCOyFSQuN9aBv0B-bC97gO8/s2048/IMG_5071.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwWuKKOQ9ai42royu5RK4OyPu29_FOy-6LoKUywebax1FjLpxcPvmu15Vzws8B_359F29WH-KrnU0vKzN-NGu8j1XyZ8m_mS3yP4-66Jyp0XktjahEZp7_dCOyFSQuN9aBv0B-bC97gO8/s320/IMG_5071.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The digging went on into the night and well into the next
few days, during this time a third collapse happened but this time everyone was
out of the way in time. In the end it was found that a total of 54 people had
been killed, three of them firefighters during the second collapse. The shock
of the disaster was felt throughout <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Riga</st1:place></st1:city>
and the mayor ordered immediate inspections of all buildings that were worked
on by the same company as this supermarket.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the end the collapse was blamed on structural errors in
the building and one civil engineer was jailed for six year. The building
itself was demolished within days and the site cleared.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It was just a few days away from the 5<sup>th</sup>
anniversary of the disaster that I took a taxi over to the site, not sure what
to expect or if it would be an area that would be dangerous. Thankfully it was
actually a nice place to walk around, just normal people going about their
business. In th<br />e middle of the shopping district was a car park with what
looked like a flat roof but at ground level, surrounded by fencing. In front of
this was a memorial that resembled the <st1:placename w:st="on">Twin</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Towers</st1:placetype> of the old World Trade Centre
in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state>,
tributes already adorning it.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJQheCvDdaIYfxD5ZwGK56jPAwziM9rSl2RLVYqo9DoSNXSSffP7LG6B_Q6rkTZEeeiqJVXJF-v8z6fMv3ydVUpahuYZRhtNeWwToHzXHTZ0GkDQHWbd5x4GQ-aA9BNxA_PJhq5zowqcI/s2048/IMG_5073.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJQheCvDdaIYfxD5ZwGK56jPAwziM9rSl2RLVYqo9DoSNXSSffP7LG6B_Q6rkTZEeeiqJVXJF-v8z6fMv3ydVUpahuYZRhtNeWwToHzXHTZ0GkDQHWbd5x4GQ-aA9BNxA_PJhq5zowqcI/s320/IMG_5073.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Like with any disaster site, it is always hard to imagine
what it must have been like here to have this all happen in front of you. I
have been to many sites like this and each time I am astounded by how normal
everything is around it, almost like it hadn’t happened. I think over time they
are making the memorial more permanent but as it stood this was just a
temporary monument. With the site visited and photographs taken of the memorial
and site, it was a visit to a nearby supermarket and then catching a bus back
to the city centre.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now a disaster of this magnitude would not be forgotten, but
it was the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Firefighters</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Museum</st1:placetype></st1:place> that would
remember it more than anyone for they lost three of their guys in the collapse
and had several more injured. This museum was quite a walk away and very cheap
to get in, but it was worth the effort. This has a complete history of Latvian
fire fighting and the Maxima collapse featured heavily in one particular room.
Photos of the rescue adorned the wall, an actual chunk of the concrete on
display, fire helmets and other parts of the story, each one with its own
history. It was good to see that this was documented, but incredible to find
that a disaster like this should never have happened in the first place.</p><p class="MsoNormal">But then again, can’t you say that about all of them?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIe243MjWUh7TQCVwYhrusghMnASFMj95FDgisoUVyVX5lMnCPJxFbRq4tg-E9rq-DOqNsvkGhd7cwFFJu6tiOEN0D_xLO4x0VjH2TOZmtMbD6Vjw-SveRA8pwE0ltMbH7Zst4F6kqKX8/s2048/100_2775.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIe243MjWUh7TQCVwYhrusghMnASFMj95FDgisoUVyVX5lMnCPJxFbRq4tg-E9rq-DOqNsvkGhd7cwFFJu6tiOEN0D_xLO4x0VjH2TOZmtMbD6Vjw-SveRA8pwE0ltMbH7Zst4F6kqKX8/w400-h300/100_2775.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8115070907970735513.post-77919168835153886492021-08-26T08:13:00.002+00:002021-08-26T08:13:31.651+00:00A visit to the memorials of Washington DC<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtf-MWVusPEo-kWdn_t-1r3G-D3tDpHsGdhCrQBA8RYp8YUE8vI9lXGkdzFSzARw52x11ACwm5Qu_88zOXyxolwJdil25k_QdlsKLPLC5gFbHgW_-N6mtWmnBH9TVMRBypAsdVN18bdUE/s1224/21319097_10154845049268062_4456058413078830972_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1224" data-original-width="918" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtf-MWVusPEo-kWdn_t-1r3G-D3tDpHsGdhCrQBA8RYp8YUE8vI9lXGkdzFSzARw52x11ACwm5Qu_88zOXyxolwJdil25k_QdlsKLPLC5gFbHgW_-N6mtWmnBH9TVMRBypAsdVN18bdUE/w150-h200/21319097_10154845049268062_4456058413078830972_o.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>The capital city of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">United States of America</st1:country-region></st1:place> is filled
with fascinating history, the museums lined up between the Capitol and the
White House could take days to go around and the monuments dotted across the
city would extend that trip into weeks. As a shipwreck and disaster researcher,
I focused on those type of monuments when I went to visit in 2017. <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Two memorials side by side of the entrance to the <st1:city w:st="on">Lincoln</st1:city> memorial were the ones dedicated to the <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> military losses in the wars in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:country-region> and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Korea</st1:country-region></st1:place>, where over 100,000 names are
on these panels. It makes for shocking reading when you see that each name is a
real person, someone who had a family and career dreams yet ended their lives
in a war so far from home. The Korean side had a mock up of the patrols,
statues of soldiers trodding through vegetation, not knowing if this next step
was going to be their last.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9nhek0gouZIHVCZNELyWiO1jAAsZ6QI8eANbAK0qgFcv1kuoZsY4E_OkzUkm2t50uHYVi0HcwxIzj2iCXXvP6_hDCz4Stolk-7-FuDRcykEqHzzfQbXYHfLOBjPx7E9S2wGkaAbxdvv0/s2048/100_4481.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9nhek0gouZIHVCZNELyWiO1jAAsZ6QI8eANbAK0qgFcv1kuoZsY4E_OkzUkm2t50uHYVi0HcwxIzj2iCXXvP6_hDCz4Stolk-7-FuDRcykEqHzzfQbXYHfLOBjPx7E9S2wGkaAbxdvv0/w150-h200/100_4481.JPG" width="150" /></a>Close by, just behind <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Lincoln</st1:city></st1:place>,
is a monument to the Father of the American Navy, John Paul Jones. Born in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Scotland</st1:country-region></st1:place>,
Jones fought the British at the Battle of Flamborough Head where his ship, the
Bonhomme Richard, was sunk after an overnight battle on 23<sup>rd</sup> September
1779. He went on to be a Russian Admiral and took part in many sorties before
he died alone in a <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paris</st1:place></st1:city>
apartment many years later. The monument to him has a scene of battle with many
of his legendary quotes such as “I have not yet begun to fight” which he
famously shouted from the deck of his blazing ship.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwPHclDRDaiJeHbQ94R_Y5MbUOPASzW59m8THmfSY5870uL3gX3o1BewYRpoKXLDYBp3UdI3T_KzLSwhomHzCRMJFj-BfwCj0X_yVr_AXOCGe-Dam8JiSPmn_JCwnChCtqZL2NwGqbyyM/s2048/100_4430.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwPHclDRDaiJeHbQ94R_Y5MbUOPASzW59m8THmfSY5870uL3gX3o1BewYRpoKXLDYBp3UdI3T_KzLSwhomHzCRMJFj-BfwCj0X_yVr_AXOCGe-Dam8JiSPmn_JCwnChCtqZL2NwGqbyyM/s320/100_4430.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>One of the major things my wife and I went to see was the
Pentagon, the home of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region></st1:place>
military and the scene of one of the terrorist attacks on 11<sup>th</sup>
September 2001. While <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state></st1:place>
was reeling from the attacks on their World Trade Centre, a third passenger
plane was directed at one of the sides of the Pentagon and demolished a hefty
part of the well built structure. 184 people were killed and today the site has
a memorial garden which names all those who were tragically lost in this
pointless terror attack. Despite the main roads being so close, the area was
quiet and secluded. By coincidence the attack happened on the 60<sup>th</sup>
anniversary of the Pentagon being built as a stone around the other side gives
the date 11<sup>th</sup> September 1941.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Heading out in a taxi we then directed our taxi to an area
next to the <st1:place w:st="on">Potomac River</st1:place> where a large
memorial to the sinking of the liner Titanic in 1912 stood. A huge statue of a
man with his arms outstretched was dedicated “to the men of the Titanic” from
the women of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region></st1:place>.
This was another memorial that was nice and quiet and in very good shape for
its age. One of many memorials to this most famous of shipwrecks.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL4VxTrxAAhGelAdg3BCz51Eee6dsvwFAsAO-K1ihlp37TNYE_A3SksdUPSGo1xC6cC7E3qx39IOpxAfdVOxW1dh4qpOYM1dBw3DbrVZwpJg6mPHeRNbpcAXGXaQBUXkggN7N7oUMLFhk/s2048/IMG_7189.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL4VxTrxAAhGelAdg3BCz51Eee6dsvwFAsAO-K1ihlp37TNYE_A3SksdUPSGo1xC6cC7E3qx39IOpxAfdVOxW1dh4qpOYM1dBw3DbrVZwpJg6mPHeRNbpcAXGXaQBUXkggN7N7oUMLFhk/s320/IMG_7189.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The Potomac River is also the scene of a major disaster on
13<sup>th</sup> January 1982 when Air <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Florida</st1:state></st1:place>
flight 90 took off from the nearby airport and could not gain enough height due
to ice on the wings. Losing altitude the Boeing 737 struck a bridge and smashed
into several cars before plummeting into the icy river below. Despite a major
rescue operation, there were just five survivors from the aircraft, but four
others died on the bridge in their cars bringing a total death toll of 78. The
bridge was later renamed the Arland D. Williams Jr. Memorial Bridge after one of the heroic passengers of the
flight as a monument to his bravery in helping others that cost him his life.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3SQRZQ-ZjVrYjUpC_FoeZGVzuX7-M-8rvp4DycxBsbaLVipYen1m7GhI5iw06FdgBHelJi_N75iNXNCgQDCyO2kGDdZiMSIGOx75u2q1-TZVH89BziA1jVmdWYUvNr9-Yg9LqVn3UX0I/s2048/Crash+bridge+-+22+August+2017%25286%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3SQRZQ-ZjVrYjUpC_FoeZGVzuX7-M-8rvp4DycxBsbaLVipYen1m7GhI5iw06FdgBHelJi_N75iNXNCgQDCyO2kGDdZiMSIGOx75u2q1-TZVH89BziA1jVmdWYUvNr9-Yg9LqVn3UX0I/w400-h300/Crash+bridge+-+22+August+2017%25286%2529.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />Disasters and Shipwreckshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16748168447619363330noreply@blogger.com0