Kristina Pedder reports from the Liberty 80 Conference, looking back at the rich history of the UK’ s most dived shipwreck
UKDIVING years of the
James Eagan Layne
Kristina Pedder reports from the Liberty 80 Conference, looking back at the rich history of the UK’ s most dived shipwreck
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE SHIPS PROJECT, UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE
PHOTO: KIRSTY ANDREWS
Eighty years ago, on 21 March 1945, the cargo ship SS James Eagan Layne was torpedoed by U-boat 399. Now lying on a shallow sandy seabed off Plymouth, this classic UK wreck dive is also a wonderful science project and an artificial reef that is home to some 260 species of wildlife.
On the 80th anniversary of the sinking of the James Eagan Layne, the ship’ s stars and stripes, brought from the US by the family of the seaman who saved it from the waves, was flown from the Rame Head coastguard station overlooking the wreck site in Whitsand Bay in Cornwall.
A one-day conference in Plymouth a day later celebrated the Liberty 80 Project, set up by the volunteers from the Plymouthbased SHIPS Project CIC to research and
document all aspects of the life of the ship, recognising the role of supply lines and civilians in military conflict. Relatives of the seamen brought over the actual Stars and Stripes flag from the day the James sank( pictured on the opposite page).
James Eagan Layne was a late casualty in the Battle of the Atlantic which raged for much of the Second World War. From the start, the Allies used escorted convoys to protect desperately needed merchant shipping crossing the Atlantic to supply the war in Europe. Germany wanted to blockade the UK, using U-boats hunting in wolfpacks to destroy significant numbers of cargo ships.
A staggering 2,710 Liberty Ships were built and launched to boost the merchant fleet; of which James Eagan Layne was one. The Allies also developed increasingly sophisticated U-boat detection systems and the campaign moved inshore as Germany concentrated on destroying shipping in the Western Approaches to the English Channel. Here in 1945, U399 evaded detection and struck a deadly blow, sinking SS James Eagan Layne just a few weeks before Victory in Europe.
Build‘ em quick
Between 1941 and 1945, US shipyards competed to get the Liberty Ships built, producing an average of three every two days. With many men away at war, the workforce included plenty of women. Despite being thought of as single-use ships, they were if anything
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The James pictured at its launch