0:00
the nature of exploratory diving means
0:02
that you never know exactly what you're
0:05
going to find and sometimes you get
0:07
completely surprised that's exactly what
0:10
happened to us the day we discovered an
0:13
unknown and very unexpected landing
0:17
craft tank nearly 100 m down and 20 mil
0:21
to the northwest of Land's End the wreck
0:25
was really unusual and it took us a long
0:28
time and considerable re research to
0:31
realize exactly what it was that we'd
0:33
found only then did we realize that we
0:36
discovered the last resting place of at
0:39
least some of the 55 men of the ninth
0:42
landing craft tank filler who'd vanished
0:45
during horrendous Autumn storms in late
0:48
1944 you may ask how did we manage to
0:51
identify it well we didn't find a bell
0:56
or a maker plate or any anything that
0:59
had a number or a name on it instead
1:02
this was just a good oldfashioned
1:04
story as you'll see in the full video
1:07
later on this wreck was a really unusual
1:10
layout and had all sorts of odd
1:14
features probably the key feature
1:16
initially we found were two props
1:19
similar to the ones that you can see
1:20
here you can see they're quite small on
1:23
short drive shafts with uh mounted to
1:26
what is clearly the underside of the
1:27
hull with uh with A-frame
1:30
the two shafts led to two diesel engines
1:35
that's relatively unusual for Rex so
1:37
this was uh this was clearly you know
1:39
pretty modern and then the final thing
1:41
that we found that helped us not
1:44
identify the wreck But realize what sort
1:46
of Wreck it was was a uh a ramp right at
1:50
the front there was no anchors or chains
1:52
or anything like that there was just a
1:54
ramp once we put all these pieces
1:57
together then we realized that what this
1:59
was was a very large landing craft we
2:02
were then able to go into the archives
2:04
and try and figure out why a landing
2:06
craft might be in this area and that's
2:10
when we came across the uh the
2:12
horrendous story that I've already
2:13
introduced you to you may be wondering
2:16
why these landing craft were here after
2:19
all D-Day had taken place earlier in
2:24
1944 well the Navy were in the process
2:26
of moving large amounts of their
2:29
amphibious capab ility from the UK over
2:33
to the Far East presumably as part of
2:36
the plans for the invasion of Japan and
2:39
the islands around it so they'd
2:41
collected up landing craft and other
2:43
vessels from Glasgow Belfast Liverpool
2:48
and Milford Haven all of these craft
2:51
were assembled into a large Convoy towed
2:54
by freighter with some destroyers for
2:57
protection and even a few submarines
3:00
it's incredibly sad that it hadn't even
3:03
you know got as far really as leaving
3:06
our waters before they were hit by this
3:08
horrendous storm that resulted in so
3:11
many of them sinking and so much loss of
3:13
life what's amazing to me is that even
3:16
though this is easily within living
3:18
memory this horrendous tragedy seems to
3:21
have been almost completely forgotten
3:23
about certainly I'd never heard of it
3:27
the good news is though that there are
3:29
plenty of archive records from the
3:31
period and because not everybody died
3:35
there are some unbelievable survivors in
3:37
counts including this one here from the
3:40
senior left tenants on board LCT
3:44
488 which is the one that we think we
3:46
found it talks about days of horrendous
3:49
weather hatches getting smashed in
3:54
failing water coming on board and then
3:57
when the inevitable does happen
4:02
worse there's talk about panicky
4:05
crew people unwilling to leave the
4:08
vessel even when it was clear that it
4:10
was sinking and then in the final
4:14
paragraph he talks about what happened
4:16
to himself having spent days trying to
4:20
keep his LCT afloat and his crew alive
4:23
subl liutenant steel finally had to
4:25
abandon ship at night in a owling
4:33
October he then spent 3 hours in the
4:36
water before being rescued it's an
4:39
amazing survival story and I'd love to
4:42
know more about what happened to him
4:44
after this event unfortunately there's
4:49
records you may be interested as to
4:51
where this was happening well we were
4:54
operating out of Nuki on the North
4:57
Cornish coast and that's roughly where
4:59
our dive site was the sinking reports
5:02
for the majority of the lcts though were
5:06
West another reason why we weren't
5:10
one this is a diving video though and
5:14
you're probably all wondering what's
5:15
going on well I've been descending down
5:18
the shotline following my frequent buddy
5:20
Rick and if you can see the strobe
5:23
flashing in front of me that's him
5:26
conditions aren't particularly great you
5:29
can see the visibility is a lot poorer
5:31
on than on many of my other videos and
5:33
I'm here scootering down to 100
5:37
m well what does that look like as a
5:39
dive profile well I'm not going to get
5:42
very long down there 25 minutes absolute
5:46
Max on this dive and then I've got
5:50
several hours of decompression to look
5:51
forward to before the end of the dive
5:54
giving me a total run time on this one
5:56
of about 2 hours and 25 minutes
6:01
the good news for the video is that
6:03
after a long descent I'm finally getting
6:06
close to the bottom you can see in front
6:08
of me there Rick he's tying in the
6:13
waser I'm going to leave my scooter to
6:16
dangle now while I attach my
6:18
strobe that obviously really important
6:21
to help us find our way back the good
6:23
news is while I'm doing that you can see
6:26
Rick not intentional my scooters just
6:29
dangling but Rick's sorting out all his
6:32
admin I'm going to grab hold of my
6:34
scooter now turn it back upright I'm
6:37
going to start heading off the first
6:39
thing you can see is how poor the
6:41
visibility is not only has it been
6:43
kicked up from the shot and probably by
6:46
what we're doing but it is just
6:48
generally poor I'm coming on to the
6:51
wreck now this looks pretty standard so
6:54
far you know it's fairly well broken
6:57
appears quite small what I don't realize
7:00
though is just off to my left hand side
7:02
there was an engine and this thing in
7:04
front of me that I'm just scootering
7:06
past I should have spotted it but I
7:08
didn't until I was on the surface that
7:11
was actually an inverted gun mount turns
7:13
out to be one of the anti-aircraft guns
7:16
that were fitted the LCT had two
7:19
possibly three the actual guns buried in
7:22
the uh in the mud but that was the uh
7:25
was the mount for it kind of cone
7:28
shaped I'm not on the the rest of the
7:30
wreck trying to figure out what's
7:33
what normally on steam ship wrecks
7:36
you're looking for things like engines
7:39
compound steam engines or boilers now
7:43
clearly there's nothing like that down
7:44
here it's quite a bit of troll gear
7:47
quite a bit of rope but no sign of uh
7:50
any of the usual sorts of things you can
7:53
also see one of the other divers down
7:54
there off to my right we uh we actually
7:57
went down as a three because it was a
8:00
three of us on scooters so we're racing
8:03
around trying to figure out what's going
8:05
on trying to find something that's of
8:09
Interest there's that troll gear again
8:12
some poor fisherman lost all his bits
8:15
pieces now I've put my scooter down here
8:18
it's resting on the wreck I'm not sure
8:21
why I've done that but it's probably in
8:23
order to free my hands up to do
8:26
something whatever it is seems like I'm
8:29
off again there's that troll gear again
8:31
and then looking there wow that's a
8:36
propeller that's interesting clearly I'm
8:39
at the stern of the ship so I'm now
8:43
side and you know what I'm doing at this
8:46
point is I'm looking for something else
8:48
I know that if I head from the stern
8:50
forward I'm going to eventually hit the
8:52
engines and the boilers and that at this
8:55
moment in time is what I'm looking out
8:56
for I still think I'm diving on a steam
9:00
so here there's loads of pipes and
9:03
cables you know the cables in particular
9:06
tend to be associated with kind of later
9:08
wrecks so you don't get much electrical
9:11
stuff on on World War I or obviously
9:13
earlier so loads of cables probably
9:16
means it's either in between the wars or
9:21
war so here I am moving forward once
9:24
again you know really looking out for
9:26
that engine and boiler not seeing
9:27
anything just all this kind of this odd
9:31
uh super structure you know quite thin
9:34
ribs quite thin you know well uh
9:37
corroded uh plates you see the other
9:40
divers up there with me and we're both
9:43
forward no sign of of any of the kind of
9:45
stuff we're looking at though really
9:47
really kind of confusing and
9:50
unusual as is often the case with the
9:53
Deep wrecks that are a long way offshore
9:55
there's loads of fish down here they're
9:57
quite big ones I'm sure they'd be really
9:59
tasty they're also not in the least bit
10:02
concerned about divers and are actually
10:04
really interested in our in our lights
10:07
any moment now one of them is going to
10:09
swim into the uh into the scooter and
10:11
camera um so here we are we're kind of
10:16
we swimming forward or rather we're
10:18
scooting forward there it goes that's
10:19
the one just hits me I'm scootering
10:23
looking looking for anything really I've
10:26
missed the boilers if there are any um
10:29
um you know this is quite a long way
10:31
forward I'm now at the front of the
10:33
wreck it's nothing just this kind of big
10:36
piece of plate I didn't recognize it at
10:39
the time but it wasn't until later on
10:41
that I realized what I'm actually
10:42
looking at here is the landing craft
10:45
ramp this was the thing that would be
10:47
lowered up and down and allowed tanks to
10:51
off just seemed like a really odd piece
10:54
of Hull at the time wasn't until later
10:57
on that we started looking
10:59
at the photos and everything that I
11:01
realized that's exactly what it was what
11:04
there isn't though is any of the other
11:06
stuff that you associate with the front
11:08
of a ship there's no capston there's no
11:10
anchors there's no anchor chain there's
11:14
just this kind of odd you know Hull
11:18
construction it all makes sense once you
11:20
realize it's an LCT but at the time it
11:24
confusing I guess at this point it's
11:26
also worth mentioning I made a major
11:27
faux par on this dime
11:30
as the first set of divers down we have
11:32
two main jobs the first is to make sure
11:35
that the shot is secured into the wreck
11:37
using the waster and you've obviously
11:39
seen Rick do that the second is to
11:42
release the pill which is a small boy
11:45
this lets the divers on the surface know
11:47
that the shot is in and secure so they
11:49
can get in now unfortunately although I
11:52
did release the pill it got stuck under
11:55
my arm so the other divers never
11:57
actually or some of them never never
12:00
water that meant that when I got to the
12:03
surface several hours later and the pill
12:05
was spotted under my arm I got a huge
12:08
amount of abuse and quite rightly these
12:11
people had spent a lot of time and paid
12:13
a lot of money to get out to this far of
12:18
course my view is always that you should
12:20
get in even if there isn't a
12:23
pill you always miss 100% of the shots
12:26
you don't take anyway back on a
12:30
once again I'm scootering around and all
12:32
there is is just bits of plate and bits
12:36
of ribs there's nothing that looks like
12:39
any part of a ship I still haven't seen
12:42
any boilers or engines or the kind of
12:46
things that you associate with a steam
12:47
ship all there is is loads of silt and
12:52
mud uh which has been kicked up by the
12:54
other divers so uh so so not great
13:00
anyway I'm uh I'm on the side of the
13:02
wreck once again still going uh I've
13:05
been to the front I'm now heading back
13:07
towards the uh towards the stern you
13:10
know hoping that I'll spot frankly you
13:12
know whatever it was that I missed but
13:17
joy as I say at this time I I'm I'm
13:20
really confused you normally know what
13:23
to expect on shipwrecks and you're
13:25
normally able to uh to get your bearings
13:28
pretty quickly absolutely nothing with
13:33
one even the other divers you can see
13:36
everyone's sort of scootering around
13:38
desperately trying to find something
13:40
there's three of us down here on
13:41
scooters and uh none of us has really
13:45
you know gripped the wreck and and and
13:47
kind of realized what there is all the
13:51
all we've seen really is that uh is that
13:53
bronze prop there's actually two which
13:56
you'll see in a moment and these are the
13:58
things when I get back to them that
14:00
actually start to give us our first
14:02
clues about what it is there's a bit of
14:04
a a bronze valve down there um so you
14:08
know clearly I'm back in and around the
14:10
area of the engine and you know more
14:14
wiring some kind of box structure there
14:18
you know what is this I realize this has
14:20
got to be it now I don't realize it
14:23
until later on but what I'm actually
14:25
just been looking at there is one of the
14:27
two diesel engines that they are on this
14:30
but I'm not thinking about diesel
14:31
engines at this time I'm thinking about
14:34
steam engines I know what they look like
14:36
they don't look like that so here I am
14:40
back at the stern you probably saw it a
14:42
moment ago but there's one of the props
14:45
is just off to my right hand side so
14:47
it's above that troll gear um but here I
14:50
am at the stern really confused hoping
14:54
really for a kind of Nirvana moment uh
14:57
so there's as I say there's one one of
14:59
the props there's another diver over
15:02
there it's probably uh probably Rick
15:04
taking some photos so I decide probably
15:07
the best thing to do is to get some
15:09
decent video of that prop looks
15:11
relatively modern uh three bladed curved
15:15
you know that's not the sort of thing
15:17
you'd associate with a really old steam
15:19
ship there's another one there actually
15:22
if you look at it closely you can see
15:23
it's on an a mount on the the underneath
15:26
of the hull and there's the prop shaft
15:30
it no doubt towards the engine but it's
15:34
quite confusing there's lots of uh lots
15:36
of wreckage lots of ropes lots of troll
15:39
gear but as I go up here there's the the
15:41
gland where it would go into the
15:43
actually into the ship and just up here
15:46
uh you're going to see the engine very
15:48
shortly I think that's probably uh the
15:52
yeah and there off to the left hand side
15:56
I think I'm going to video in a second
15:58
is the uh is the engine I'm still
16:00
confused because I'm not really thinking
16:02
about diesel engines I'm thinking about
16:05
other things no idea what that is but
16:08
clearly it's some sort of uh something
16:10
for sort of transferring through 90°
16:12
potentially that might be part of the
16:15
the rudder system I'll be honest I don't
16:17
really know uh I'm just guessing at that
16:20
point but underneath me here is the uh
16:24
engine um it's actually upside down
16:28
which is a pit because if it was the
16:29
right way up I'd probably recognize the
16:32
valves and stuff on the top of it it's
16:34
also possible that we there may be some
16:36
sort of uh plate on it that might have
16:38
allowed us to identify it there you go
16:40
that's the uh that's a diesel engine
16:46
is we can't conclusively identify this
16:49
wreck we know it's a landing craft by
16:52
the uh by the construction now there's
16:54
some sort of uh Electrical uh board you
16:58
know maybe fuses or a junction board or
17:01
something you know quite old but clearly
17:03
indicates that there's a lot of
17:05
electrical stuff on this wreck um I
17:07
think I've probably just put the scooter
17:09
down maybe while I I try and pull
17:12
something out might be that electrical
17:16
board um and then I'm kind of I'm off
17:18
again really you know just trying to
17:21
trying to make some sort of sense of
17:23
this I mean there's loads of sort of
17:26
stuff here that You' associate with kind
17:27
of Machinery space is you know you've
17:29
seen the pipes you've seen a lot of
17:31
wires as I say that is that's really
17:34
indicative of a kind of a more modern
17:37
wreck than the the late 19th early 20th
17:40
century steam ships that were used to
17:41
diving so another really good clue that
17:44
this is uh you know probably second
17:48
world war um and tied in with the design
17:51
I think that's probably one of the other
17:53
engines there there's clearly some sort
17:55
of uh pipe with some um insulation
17:58
around it probably as bestest us I guess
18:01
from the era uh you know don't want to
18:04
be touching that really um that's the
18:07
other engine I think so uh I've realized
18:11
that this is important part of the wreck
18:13
and I'm just trying to trying to video
18:15
everything I can in the hope that
18:16
something may prove useful in
18:18
identifying it actually what is really
18:21
useful is the two short prop shafts with
18:24
the uh the two props and those A-frames
18:27
that I mentioned earlier on there's
18:29
actually one on uh on both uh both prop
18:33
shafts once again when we were able to
18:36
look at the designs of lcts it became
18:40
really uh obvious that that's what this
18:43
was if you think about it a landing
18:46
craft tank goes up to a beach the uh the
18:49
ramp is is obviously at the front and
18:52
that's how Stuff get gets on and off so
18:54
you want that to be as far away as you
18:56
can from the props um you also want the
18:58
engines and stuff at the back cuz the
19:00
tanks and everything are going to be in
19:01
the front so this bit here is probably
19:04
the most intact bit of the wreck just
19:07
off to my left hand side in fact here
19:09
you can see some box structure there was
19:11
a a bit of a ladder earlier on there as
19:13
well so I have no idea what this was
19:16
it's it's obviously part of the bottom
19:18
of the uh the LCT because the LCT is
19:21
upside down that's why the props are
19:23
upright and I guess that probably
19:27
figures when you think about how how it
19:28
was sunk you know these things filled
19:31
with water and then went down and
19:33
inevitably in that kind of uh those kind
19:36
of conditions they would end up inverted
19:39
and down they went so that's how come
19:41
it's on the bottom that's how come it's
19:43
inverted that's how come we uh were able
19:46
to see the props and the inverted
19:48
engines but nothing like uh the
19:51
Wheelhouse or any the bridge gear or
19:54
unfortunately anything that would be
19:55
helpful in identifying it I think I've
19:59
just stuck my nose inside part of that
20:01
um that upright structure and you can
20:03
see here that that by doing so I've
20:05
absolutely trashed the vi I'm now
20:08
accelerating out of it and you can see
20:14
of I'm going to go back I think to to
20:18
the bits the only bits that look like
20:20
part of a wreck and just you know have
20:22
another good look around using the rest
20:23
of my bottom time to to see if you know
20:26
maybe just maybe I can identify
20:29
uh you can see the strobes you can see
20:31
there's other divers down here now you
20:32
can see the Torches and stuff this is
20:34
back in a bit that I've kind of been
20:36
where all these cables and stuff are you
20:38
know maybe maybe above those um although
20:41
below those in the orientation it is now
20:44
that's where the bridge was there's uh
20:46
there's another diver on their scooter
20:49
you know once again we were all equally
20:52
confused and uh it wasn't until we were
20:54
sort of talking about it on the way back
20:56
and started to consider what type of
20:58
maybe laid out in this way that we
21:00
came up with the um the LCT thing again
21:04
there's there's whatever that is for
21:05
rotating stuff through
21:07
90° um who knows it's fairly big bit of
21:10
kit though there's one of the prop
21:12
shafts again off to the left hand side
21:15
you probably uh saw some lights I think
21:17
that was Rick who was taking some photos
21:20
props um I'm going to put some of his
21:23
photos up later on he likes to leave
21:26
video likes on the seabed as he has done
21:28
there to kind of illuminate what he's
21:30
looking at I'm going to provide a bit of
21:32
extra light but that does allow you to
21:33
really clearly see the uh the A-frame
21:36
there which is mounting the uh mounting
21:38
the prop on uh also clearly see the prop
21:42
and the prop shaft heading back and in
21:44
fact the bottom of the uh the hole there
21:45
as well there's a bit of it left also I
21:48
think is a really clear indication that
21:51
this wreck is upside
21:53
down so those of you seen my other
21:55
videos know that I often do this when
21:59
if I think you need some light on
22:00
something I'll kind of stay in one
22:03
position use my lights to kind of
22:06
enhance the light that he's already got
22:09
which uh which generally makes a better
22:11
photos uh also it's great because it
22:13
means that I sometimes get in the photo
22:16
so uh that's what I'm doing I reckon
22:19
he's had enough time to take photos now
22:21
there's a bit of uh big old net down
22:24
there uh loads of silt um so I'm off
22:30
heading back towards where the shot is
22:32
and that's obviously where we landed on
22:35
bottom I can't believe I've got that
22:37
long left um I'm not sure there's going
22:39
to be that much more I can do down here
22:42
so it's uh I think it's probably time
22:46
for my dive to come to an
22:49
end oh no I'm just going to uh I'm just
22:51
going to video that uh that engine once
22:53
again and I think it's really clear from
22:55
this bit of video that it is a big
22:59
inverted you can see the uh the cylinder
23:02
head at the at the bottom there
23:05
um I'd love to have been able to get
23:07
underneath because almost certainly
23:08
there's a plate on there that would uh
23:10
that would help us identify the engine
23:13
um and you know if we could get a serial
23:15
number off it almost certainly identify
23:17
the LCT as well cuz cuz records are uh
23:21
good uh yeah I've been here quite a few
23:24
times with all these cables um I guess
23:27
just hoping that there's something that
23:29
I uh that I may have missed uh doesn't
23:32
seem there is just more
23:35
silt and more more smashed up wreck and
23:39
nothing that looks like anything that I
23:41
recognize at this time so it's going to
23:46
be it's going to be really frustrating
23:49
on the bottom but actually uh once we
23:52
start to put the pieces together and
23:54
realize what it is we found it's
23:56
actually um something I'm really proud
23:58
of actually to kind of give that uh
24:01
sense of closure for for people who are
24:04
still um you know people who still knew
24:07
people on this wreck and there is there
24:09
is quite a lot if you go on to the uh
24:11
combined ops website I'll I'll put that
24:13
in the chat in the in the comments um
24:16
there's loads of information on there
24:17
there's loads of photos of uh of people
24:19
who were lost on the the various wrecks
24:22
from uh uh the ninth LCT FL tell and uh
24:26
you know some of the stories you know
24:27
one particular one that got me is a a
24:30
guy's granddaughter's posted about it um
24:34
his grandmother once she realized that
24:37
her husband had been lost immigrated to
24:39
Canada after the war and that's where
24:41
the family has been ever since so there
24:44
we go final bit of uh video of the one
24:48
engines um and I think that is it that
24:51
is going to be my time up and it's uh
24:53
it's time to head back to the surface
24:59
first things first though obviously what
25:01
I'm going to do is I'm going to get my
25:03
strobes there's Rick with probably just
25:05
a communicated and I've told him that
25:07
I'm going we tend to head up to the
25:10
surface at the same time so there we are
25:13
my double strobe I'm going to P pick
25:16
that off and then we're going to uh
25:18
going to start heading up to the
25:21
surface with the with the joys of a long
25:23
long boat Journey back to look forward
25:28
so good opportunity to chat about what
25:31
we found and to try and make sense of it
25:35
I mean that that that also shows just
25:37
how dark it was down there dark and
25:40
rubbish visibility so uh not not a dive
25:45
that I remember with a great fondness
25:47
apart from you know what it's done is
25:51
it's it's solved another underwater
25:52
mystery and uh you know brought to light
25:55
something none of us were aware of which
25:58
is uh which is really nice and as I said
26:01
at the beginning I think this kind of
26:04
exploratory diving is full of surprises
26:07
and this was uh definitely one for
26:10
us here I am uh headed back up as you
26:13
know I like to get up quite
26:16
quickly not only it but as I'm going up
26:19
it would appear that one of the other
26:20
divers coming down and this is uh one of
26:24
the guys they were waiting for the pill
26:26
and they had a long chat on the surface
26:28
about what to do when we didn't appear
26:30
some of them were like s it I'm going in
26:33
and in they came and some of the other
26:35
ones decided to stay on the
26:37
surface um you can argue about what's
26:39
the right decision to
26:40
do uh ultimately I have to say I'd have
26:44
been doing exactly the same thing as
26:47
diver I've touched upon quite a bit of
26:49
the story behind the uh the ninth
26:51
landing craft tank ftill but the great
26:55
news is if you're interested in it
26:57
there's a load more online on the
26:59
excellent combined ops website I'm going
27:02
to stick the link to this down in my in
27:04
my comments but hopefully you can see
27:07
the the sort of information there is on
27:08
there it's a brilliant piece of work and
27:10
I absolutely commend the guy who's put
27:12
it together who who I think was the son
27:15
of um you know one of the guys who was
27:17
sadly lost on one of the
27:19
lcts the other really nice thing about
27:22
this uh page is that it also has lots of
27:25
the stories of those um who were lost
27:29
you know provided normally by relatives
27:31
including some photos and it also names
27:34
every single person who was lost uh
27:36
during this horrendous event and I
27:38
really commend you to uh to go and have
27:40
a look at it it's uh it's a really
27:43
important website and uh you know I had
27:46
a ton of information off it so I'd like
27:48
to say thank you very much to the guys
27:50
who put it together well that's the end
27:52
of another one of my videos I hope
27:54
you've enjoyed it as always please um it
27:58
would be great if you could comment or
28:00
like send it to your friends subscribe
28:04
all the usual sort of stuff and of
28:06
course you know feel free to watch as
28:08
many of my other videos as you like