UKDIVING
Slob knobs in place and ready to dive !
Enjoying 8-10 metres of visibility , the divers descended onto the wreck and Mick moved along the starboard side of the bridge area , where the crew quarters would have been . With the ship having been under the Channel for more than 100 years , the wooden deck has rotted away , exposing the cabin area ; it was here that Mick came across a piece of brass that he brought to the surface for further inspection .
On returning to the boat , it became
“ Enjoying 8-10 metres of visibility , the divers descended onto the wreck "
obvious that the brass object was a plaque of some kind , and although it was rather grubby it was possible to make out where it had been hand stamped with the name C . SMITH . It measured 10 x 3 inches and had a series of rivet holes around its perimeter . A few rivets were still in place , suggesting it had previously been attached to something metal , which had long since rotted away . It ’ s difficult to be certain as to what it might have been attached to , the best guess is it would have been a ‘ ditty ’ box , a small container that sailors would keep personal belongings in , such as tobacco , money , photos and letters .
It had always been a dream of Thanet ’ s members to find a personal item and then set about tracing its history . Mick checked the crew list of HMS Flirt – while there were two Smiths on board , fortunately there was only one ‘ C ’ – Charles . On further investigation , Charles was found to be one of only nine survivors from the crew . It was at this point the trail went cold .
Another dive club member , Mark
German attack on the Dover Strait , 26-27 October 1916
The English Channel , especially the Dover Strait at its eastern end , was one of the main Allied shipping routes during the First World War . It saw a variety of different types of traffic : supplies and troop movements for the British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders ; shipping heading for London , Britain ’ s biggest port ; coastal shipping sailing between British ports ; and coal shipments from Britain to France to replace supplies from French coalfields now occupied by the Germans . About 80-100 merchant ships passed through the Dover Straits each day . German U-boat minelayers of the UC
56 type were very active minelaying in this area . The British employed trawlers as minesweepers . In the second half of 1916 , an average of just under six merchant ships per month were sunk or damaged by mines in British waters . This rose to 10 in the first half of 1917 but then fell back to four in the second half of 1917 . On average 178 mines a month were swept in 1916 , rising to 355 in 1917 .
An anti-submarine net barrage was also laid across the Dove Strait , which was maintained by drifters , but in practice tides and current made the task of such small craft difficult even in good weather . They were at best armed with a six-pounder gun and sometimes with just a machine gun , requiring them to be protected by destroyers and armed auxiliary steamers . On 24 October 1916 Vice Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon , commanding the Dover Patrol , was warned that the German naval forces in Flanders had been reinforced by a flotilla of destroyers . He thought it unlikely that the Germans would attack the Straits because no troops were transported at night , but that an attack on shipping in the Downs , an area off the north east coast of Kent , was likely .
That night 24 German Destroyers put