Lloyds List and a ship lost without trace - a request.

[Kildonan]

Maureene, thank you for the heads-up on the copying service. I have had a reply already, and was intending to use his services, however....

 

In light of Dave's excellent National Archive information I may need to do my homework and make a visit to Kew, I have been once before whilst researching my grandfather's time in the RMA throughout WW1, so I have a rough idea of the set up.

 

Dave, many thanks for taking the time and effort to pass on these pearls of wisdom. You are obviously not a novice to this type of research! I was intending to take the Hotchkiss parts up to the IWM but I think they have now told their story and my time will be better spent in the NA, prior to returning to the wreck site. I am in Taunton, less than 5 mins from the UKHO so I will get in touch with the Wrecks Officer and update him on the two wrecks. I used to see his predecessor (Nelson) a lot, but haven't met the new WO.

 

Malcolm, & Dave,  The boiler info. is appreciated. There may well be two down there, the problem is that both the engine and boiler are detached from the main wreck site and I don't recall seeing any wreckage further out than the boiler, so there is little incentive to go in that direction when you know that the interesting part of the wreck is the other way. Perhaps we now need to "bite the bullet" and go for a look-see. Despite the current lack of a second boiler I am 90% certain that the wreck is the Serbistan.

[Guest]

Hello,

I dived on  this wreck over 40 years ago and always wondered what it was called. We just called it the ammunition wreck and it was pretty smashed up even then.. We raised a number of shell's (with strip cordite still in the casings) plus a number of the casings with Roumanie on the base. In an effort to establish the name of the vessel I contacted the Imperial War Museum about the shell's. Their reply was that they were Rumanian Howitzer shells but could give no other info.

After all these years nice to get a name.

(The strip cordite did start to 'fizz' as it dried out in the shells over the next few days. We panicked and dropped them back off Lamorna two days later !).

 

Cheers

J

[Kildonan]

Hello J,

It sounds like the wreck hasn't changed much since you dived it in the 1970s. There are still thousands of 75mm shell casings down there, I dived it earlier in the year and the winter storms had bent a large steel plate back on its self revealing shiny casings still in their wooden boxes. Interestingly there were also shallow boxes of brass fuses, each fuse sat within its own circular cut out, about 60 to a box. They looked like large brass spark plugs, we looked, but didn't touch. I figure that if anything is going to go bang down there it will be those!

 

I have informed the Wreck Officer at the UKHO about what members here have found out and also spoke with the Receiver of Wreck at the MCA.