25/08/2016
Celebrating 75 years SS Thistlegorm.
Very glad to contact you by presenting the upcoming World Diving Federation CMAS Scientific Committee Celebrating 75 Years SS Thistlegorm on the week 3-9 October2016, Sharm El Sheik – South Sinai Egypt.
The Celebration objective: is to reinforce the protection of underwater heritage in accordance with UNESCO General Conference 2001 on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage.
The event is coordinated and leads by more than 35 international participants - academics, experts and underwater archaeologists, journalists to look at ways to improve and safeguarding the site.
The Event Objectives & Activity:
Promote Wreck Diving in Red Sea in addition to enhance tourism
Tribute event on underwater cultural heritage from World War II.
Scientific project with special underwater “Photogrammetry” technique” to reconstruct the wreck .
Train in instructors and divers the new CMAS Underwater Cultural Heritage Discovery Course.
Brief history ;
The SS Thistlegorm was a British armed merchant Ship built in 1940 by Joseph Thompson & Son in Sunderland , England. She was sunk on 6 October 1941in Straits of Jubal near Ras Mohamed and is now a well-known diving site. The vessel carried out three successful voyages after her launch. The first was to the US to collect steel rails and aircraft parts, the second to Argentina for grain, and the third to the West Indies for rum. Prior to her fourth and final voyage, she had undergone repairs in Glasgow The vessel was privately owned but had been partly financed by the British government and was classified as an armed freighter. She was equipped with a 4.7-inch (120 mm) anti air craft gun and a heavy-calibre machine gun attached after construction to the stern of the ship. She was one of a number of "Thistle" ships owned and operated by the Albyn Line, which was founded in 1901, based in Sunderland, and had four vessels at the outbreak of World War II. She set sail on her fourth and final voyage from Glasgow on 2 June 1941, destined for Alexandria, Egypt. The vessel's cargo included: Bedford trucks, Universal Carrier armoured vehicles, Norton 16 H and BSA Motorcycles , Bren guns , cases of ammunition, and 0.303 rifles as well as radio equipment, Wellington boots , aircraft parts, railway wagons[3] and two LMS Stanier Class 8F steam locomotives. These steam locomotives and their associated coal and water tenders were carried as deck cargo and were for the Egyptian Railways. The rest of the cargo was for the Allied forces in Egypt. At the time the Thistlegorm sailed from Glasgow in June, this was the Western Desert Force, which in September 1941 became part of the newly formed Eighth Army. The crew of the ship, under Captain William Ellis, were supplemented by nine naval personnel to man the machine gun and the anti-aircraft gun. Due to German and Italian naval and air force activity in the Mediterranean, the Thistlegorm sailed as part of a convoy via Cape Town, South Africa, where she refuelled, before heading north up the East coast of Africa and into the Red Sea. On leaving Cape Town, the light cruiser HMS Carlisle joined the convoy. Due to a collision in the Suez Canal, the convoy could not transit through the canal to reach the port of Alexandria and instead moored at Safe Anchorage F,in September 1941 where she remained at anchor until her sinking on 6 October 1941. HMS Carlisle moored in the same anchorage. There was a large build-up of Allied troops in Egypt during September 1941 and German intelligence (Abweher) suspected that there was a troop carrier in the area bringing in additional troops. Two Heinkel He 111 aircraft of II Staffeln, Kampfgeschwader 26, Luftwaffe, were dispatched from Crete to find and destroy the troop carrier. This search failed but one of the bombers discovered the vessels moored in Safe Anchorage F. Targeting the largest ship, they dropped two bombs on the Thistlegorm, both of which struck hold 4 near the stern of the ship at 0130 on 6 October. The bomb and the explosion of some of the ammunition stored in hold 4 led to the sinking of the Thistlegorm with the loss of four sailors and five members of the Royal Navy gun crew. The survivors were picked up by HMS Carlisle. Captain Ellis was awarded the OBE for his actions following the explosion and a crewman, Angus McLeay, was awarded the George Medal and the Lloyd's War Medal for Bravery at Sea for saving another crew member. Most of the cargo remained within the ship, the major exception being the steam locomotives from the deck cargo, which were blown off, to either side of the wreck. ( Source Wikipedia ).
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