PICTURE SPECIAL: WWII shipwreck off Wick coastline ‘flies’ ensign flag again after more than 80 years – poignant tribute to HMS Exmouth torpedoed by Nazi sub in 1940
A poignant series of photographs detailed the moment an ensign flag was raised on a WWII shipwreck off the Wick coastline in tribute to all who perished on HMS Exmouth in 1940.
Members of the public were invited to St Fergus Church in Wick on Thursday evening to inspect other images by the dive team which had been surveying the stricken vessel lying 20 nautical miles east-south-east of the town and at around 60m of depth.
“Tonight’s been really moving,” said Lt Cdr Jen Smith, one of the dive team leaders, who had just laid a wreath at the graves of the 18 crew members buried in Wick Cemetery.
“It’s very touching to see so many members of the local community turn up to show that she [HMS Exmouth] is special to the town. It was great to have a trainee chaplain with us as well and added poignancy to the occasion.”
Kev Stewart from Wick is the army chaplain in training referred to and at the graves of the sailors he read out the famous lines of the Exhortation being ably supported by St Fergus church elder John Cormack. “Before that I read out a prayer of remembrance for all 189 souls that perished on that day,” he added.
The sombre event played out at the special site in Wick Cemetery set aside for all those who perished during both of the 20th century’s global conflicts with members of the RBLS as well as representatives from various services being present.
After the event, all were invited along with members of the public to attend an event in St Fergus church at which images were shown from the team of divers who surveyed the wreck of HMS Exmouth, as part of a wider project to “preserve naval heritage and ensure naval war losses are not forgotten”. Mr Cormack from the church spoke about the artefacts within St Fergus that are part of a memorial by the HMS Exmouth Association.
HMS Exmouth was designated under the Protection of Military Remains Act in 2002 as a “controlled site”, after its discovery the year prior, and the present team obtained a licence from the Ministry of Defence to survey the site.
The project was led by Lt Cdr Smith along with Rich Walker supported by a team of civilian volunteers. The aim of the survey was to assess the current condition of the wreck, which will assist in preserving the heritage of a maritime military grave.
Whilst the survey seeks to concentrate directly on the wreck site, the wider project is focused on the story of HMS Exmouth, both the ship and the sailors. It is hoped the project will raise awareness of the importance of this theatre of war in this area of Scotland, and ensure the ship is not forgotten by helping relatives of those lost and the wider public to visualise the ship’s final resting place.
The survey carried out last week was conducted from the diving support vessel MV Clasina, skippered by Bob Anderson. The team of divers are all qualified technical divers, utilising closed-circuit rebreathers to conduct the dives. Each team of divers spend between 30-60 minutes on the wreck, before slowing ascending to carry out decompression over 1-2 hours. The divers are following a strict “look, do not touch” rule, and no artefacts were recovered. Instead, imagery is being captured of key aspects of the wreck, so that the wider public can ‘see’ HMS Exmouth how she is today.
In addition to the dive survey, a side-scan survey of the site has been conducted by Kevin Heath of Sula Diving. This provides a general overview of the extent of the wreck site and assists the divers with navigation. The side-scan survey revealed that the wreck is not intact, but is broken just aft of the midships section, with the stern section resting at an angle to the forward section.
Over the next few months, the project team will collate all the imagery and data obtained and publish a report of the wreck site, which will be publicly available.
HMS Exmouth was an E-class destroyer, commissioned by the Royal Navy on November 9, 1934. During her service, she was assigned to the Home and Mediterranean Fleets. On January 21, 1940, whilst conducting escort duties in the North Sea she was torpedoed by German U-boat U-22 and sank with the loss of all 189 crew. She was the first surface warship to be lost with all hands in WW2.
The destroyer was escorting steamship Cyprian Prince from Aberdeen to Scapa Flow with supplies when spotted by the U-22, under the command of Karl-Heinrich Jenisch, which was on patrol in the North Sea. At 5.35am U-22 fired a single torpedo from a range of 1500m, which 2 mins 35 secs later struck the starboard side of HMS Exmouth; she sank within two minutes with the loss of all hands. A second torpedo fired at the Cyprian Prince missed or failed to explode.
After the initial torpedo impact, there was a secondary massive explosion of the Exmouth’s ammunition magazine. The Cyprian Prince almost collided with the German sub and it was deemed to dangerous to pick up survivors.
One of the divers, Jim Burke, said: “The water’s so clear just now, you can see it from a long way away as you approach it.
“It’s actually a beautiful wreck that’s full of life like an octopus’ garden and a fine resting place. I wish more people could see it. There are the stark stones in the cemetery and then you see where the actual people are – it’s such a beautiful place.”
He described the wreck as being “quite collapsed down” after the secondary explosion and has assumed an L shape on the seabed. “There are lots of identifiable pieces. We found the bridge today and it still had the telegraph in place. The compass pedestal is in great shape being made of brass which doesn’t degrade.”
Munitions were also evident but were not deemed to be of any danger to the dive team.
Lt Cdr Smith added: “You can go and walk the battlefields of the Somme and along the Normandy beaches but you can’t do that with naval war graves. We’re trying to capture as much as we can there and virtually bring it to the surface to allow people who can’t visit to see it for themselves.”
