Patrick Holliday wanted a grand project to help mark the 50th anniversary of his club, Milton Keynes SAC. You don’ t get much grander than a White Star Liner!
EXPEDITIONDIVING
White Star flag flies again on Laurentic’ s bow
Golden years
Diving the Laurentic
Patrick Holliday wanted a grand project to help mark the 50th anniversary of his club, Milton Keynes SAC. You don’ t get much grander than a White Star Liner!
1920s diver admires ingots
including sailors and marines. Just as she was leaving Lough Swilly a massive explosion tore through the bow area on the port side. While the surviving crew were reeling, a second explosion on the same side crippled the engine room and sent Laurentic quickly into a heavy list. The men did their best to get into the lifeboats but were hampered by blizzard conditions and freezing temperatures, with many dying of
The club noticeboard was festooned with bits of paper, each one a trip proposal looking for sign-ups. The venues were familiar: a weekend in Portland on the RIB, training trips to Stoney Cove and Capernwray, as well as overseas plans for Malta and the Red Sea.
Jostling for attention among the notices was one headed‘ Ireland 2026, Donegal and Laurentic’, a name unfamiliar to most Milton Keynes Sub-Aqua Club members. Yet we all have a bucket list dive, and for
Graham and Matt strike‘ gold’ at Fanad me this was it: A White Star Liner from the golden age of the Atlantic era. Ironically enough, gold was to become the theme for this particular expedition.
The ship’ s story
Built by Harland and Wolff in 1908, Laurentic was something of a miniprototype for the Olympic class with the same twin reciprocating engines driving wing propellers, plus a steam turbine through the centre screw. Interestingly, her sister ship Megantic was identical except for twin-screw propulsion only, a layout that proved 15 % less efficient. Harland and Wolff’ s engineers thus incorporated the superior design for the proposed White Star liners of Olympic, Titanic and Britannic, which would soon begin to rise up in steel at the Belfast shipyard.
Laurentic spent five successful years running the north Atlantic routes to the USA and Canada. When launched she was simply SS( steamship) although thanks to her impressive speed and foresight from the builders was quickly requisitioned for use as an armed merchant cruiser at the outbreak of The First World War.
On January 25th 1917 HMS Laurentic was preparing to depart County Donegal in Ireland, bound for Canada. Almost 500 men were on board, all military,
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