Mission to trace 20 shipwrecks

The last they saw was the crew huddled together in the wheelhouse, a crewman signalling for help with a torch into the raging black night.

All efforts to save the 11 men – two were aged just 18 – proved futile with the lifeboat unable to get close and the winds so high that rockets attempting to get a line aboard from the cliffs above were blown back.

The last message from the Skegness shortly before 3am was: “Calling all stations”.

Nothing more was ever heard.

Now divers from Scarborough are setting out to explore the wreckage of the trawler, which was on its way home to Hull when it ran aground at Speeton in September 1935.

In all they are setting out to record 20 wrecks.

They include the British merchant steamer, the Ella Sayer, which was torpedoed by a German U-boat in April 1918 and three other as yet unidentified vessels.

Many because of their age, battering by the elements and salvage expeditions in the past, are little more than heaps of plate.

Some have only the boilers and engines left standing.

But Anne Morrison, founding member of the newly-formed South Bay Scuba Scarborough branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club, says it is important to capture what is left before it disappears.

The club is encouraging divers of all levels to take part in the project, which involve dives in relatively shallow waters up to 20 metres deep.

The Fred Everard ran aground at Ravenscar in 1965, with its cargo of paper, after being caught in a gale.

A salvage operation went bust having recovered little of the wreck which lies in a rocky gully – meaning even today there’s plenty for divers to explore.

Anne, 62, who is also treasurer and membership secretary, said it was an important mission to record details of the wrecks.

And many divers from across the country had expressed interest in helping through social media.

She said: “Some of these wrecks are quite well dived while others are only visited on very rare occasions.

“There’s a surprising amount of life on them and the depth means everybody can put their names down to take part.

“We want to record any notable features, the size of the wrecks, their position, orientation and condition.

“All the information will be carefully recorded and given, together with any photography and video we obtain, to Scarborough’s Maritime Heritage Group and used to enhance a display they are putting together later in the year.”

While membership of many sports clubs and associations are falling, the new club has proved hugely successful, thanks, Anne says, to Facebook attracting divers from across the county and beyond, including a fire crew from West Yorkshire and people from Huddersfield, Cleethorpes, Hull and Nottingham.

She said: “I’ve been diving 29 years and I like any kind of diving, deep, shallow, trips away. People see how active we are on Facebook and they join.

“We are absolutely amazed at how well it has gone. We already have 82 very active members made up of people from all walks of life with one thing in common – a love of scuba diving.”

The survey has been made possible thanks to a £1,150 grant from the BSAC Jubilee Trust, which supports interesting and worthwhile scuba diving projects.

News of the grant came months after club members were awarded a £10,000 Sport England grant which they have used to buy the club’s own Mitchell 31 dive boat.

Source: www.yorkshirepost.co.uk