Weymouth trip 2004

The Royal Navy's Monitor class submarines were constructed as WW1 was drawing to a close. These submarines were designed to carry a 60 ton 12 in gun in front of the conning towers. Guns of this size were normally the main armament of battleships and could fire a 1 ton shell over 10 miles. The attack strategy was to search for an enemy ship at a periscope depth of 30 feet and with a suitable target in view, line up on the target with the gun trained at the appropriate angle. With only the last 6 feet of the barrel showing above the surface, the gun was fired and the submarine would dive to a 'safe' depth. These submarines can be seen as precursors to the missile launching trident/polaris submarines of todayThe M1 was sunk in an exercise after the war following a collision with a surface vessel which knocked the gun from its mount flooding it with water. This was the subject of an interesting "Journey's to the bottom of the Sea" documentary screened on the BBC.

The M2, was converted to a submarine aircraft carrier following the removal of its gun with the construction of a watertight hanger which housed a two-seater biplane. The small, single prop Parnall Peto seaplane had specially designed folding wings in order to squeeze into the hanger, and was launched by a compressed air catapult along a short length of track. The theory was that the plane would fly around looking for enemy ships, note their position, and then land (on floats) as near to the submarine as possible. A winch attached to the top of the hanger would haul it back onto its rails where it was then slid back in and two sets of watertight doors closed behind it. The submarine would then dive on a course to meet said ships and finish the job with its torpedoes. It was during exercises in the English Channel on the morning of January 26th 1932 that she dived and never came up again. She was found 8 days later sitting upright and intact by Navy hardhat divers who reported that both hanger doors were open as well as the 21-inch hatch that connected the hanger to the submarine. Entangled in the wreckage of the plane which had crumpled and been pushed to the back of the hanger by tons of incoming water were the bodies of aircraft technician Leslie Gregory and Leading Seaman Albert Jacobs. The rest of the 58 crew had drowned inside where their remains rest to this day.

It is thought that in trying to improve their launch speed record, the hanger doors were opened a few seconds too early in anticipation of breaking the surface. If the access hatch had been closed after the two crewmen preparing the plane for launching had entered the hanger, the remaining crew would have survived. A salvage operation immediately commenced but was called off just before Christmas after 11 months of intense effort by 26 divers logging 1500 dives.

The first thing you notice diving the sub is its size - I have dived a number of submarines/Uboats of this era which were generally much smaller. To accommodate the gun these submarines had to be big and their size is comparable to submarines in use today. At 100m long it is longer than the Hispania and it sits upright on the bottom with a max depth of 35m. Our skipper had shotted the conning tower and we still had a bit of a current on the wreck when we descended, making it quite hard work to reach the wreck. On hitting the conning tower, I let my breathing rate calm down then we followed the submarine towards the stern. It was quite easy to tell we were heading in that direction even in poor vis (we had probably 5m) as the conning tower is shaped aerodynamically with a kind of aerofoil point towards the stern. At the stern it was possible to the prop shafts sticking out of the back of the boat, along with the rudders and steering gear.

After this we swam back to the conning tower and past this to the aircraft hanger noting the winch above the entrance which was used to bring the boat on board. The only part of the submarine's interior that is accessible is the hangar, there is quite a lot of silt in here which can be stirred up easily making the poor vis even worse. The poor vis combined with the knowledge that the hangar was the cause of the sinking makes it quite a spooky experience exploring this area. Not long after we entered, the hangar started to get crowded, and a silty, as another boat load of divers joined us on the wreck - time for a sharp exit. Following this we just then had time for a quick look at the launch rail in front of the hangar before making our ascent. Another indication of the submarines size as we were only able to view half of it, leaving more to view on a return visit.

Acknowledgements

Tinky for organising the trip, Steve Taylor my buddy. Mike the Skipper of the K2 for putting us on the wreck. Mark Baker who's article "The M2 - The only submersible aircraft carrier" provided most of the historical detail for this article.


Diving the M2

Weymouth Posse