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'The
Longest Night'........
The Empire Heritage represents a time capsule
of World War Two, a silent part of the world where images of a historic
conflict stand still. Leigh
Bishop now brings these images of a fascinating shipwreck and
her unusual cargo to the surface, as well as the survivor's tale
of convoy HXF 305.
Huge prop on the Empire Heritage photo by
Leigh Bishop |
Over past years several divers have referred the
shipwreck 'Empire Heritage' as that of the Thistlegrom to the
Northern Hemisphere! Whether this is a case for debate is in
my opinion quite questionable however having visited the Empire
Heritage on several occasions it must be said that her unusual
cargo is indeed an extraordinary sight. For this is the WW2
wreck that has literally dozens of Sherman tanks and military
vehicles scattering both wreckage and the adjacent seabed. |
The site leaves such a vivid image imprinted to memory it
becomes easily understandable why many divers actually compare
this dive with that of the Thistlegorm sunk in the Red Sea.
A wreck also carrying transportation cargo in great visibility.
Regular readers of Deep Image will be aware of my recent features
that concentrate on specific shipwrecks off North West Ireland,
for it is here that lie undisputedly some of the most fascinating
and visually stunning shipwrecks in the world. One of the main
reasons for this as I've stipulated in the past is the outstanding
visibility and the wreck of Empire Heritage is certainly no
exception. Originally I set off destined for Western Ireland
for one reason to photograph the Justicia I soon discovered
that wrecks such as the Justicia and even HMS Audacious have
overshadowed many other wrecks close by such as the Empire Heritage
a vessel previously named Tafelberg.
True is it to say that had the Empire Heritage sunk in another
location she surely would have been much talked of dive. All
intent to quit the Irish scene and move on photographing and
writing of shipwrecks elsewhere it was a hard job twisting editor
Ron Mahoney's arm into publishing at least a tiny bit more from
this area of the British Isles. Having developed the last rolls
of film from my Irish adventures it would have been a crime
to catalogue the resulting 35mm time exposure black & white
film shot across Empire Heritage and thus store them into the
Deep Image archive without publication. Many of the shipwrecks
I write of have a depth of history behind them. In the case
of the oil tanker Empire Heritage is wasn't so much as the history
of the ship that intrigued me it was more the events that her
passengers and crew went through before and after the ship sank.
Having met up with several divers who had dived the wreck I
asked on each occasion what they knew of the wreck!
The answer was all too predictable in that it wasn’t much
at all, other than the fact that it was the wreck that was carrying
"Those Tanks". If there was one thing certain here
it was that we all needed to learn more of this classic wreck
dive and there was no better way to deliver the information
across than in an exclusive feature for 990. In that way those
who intend to visit the wreck in the future not to mention those
who already have could learn historic background information
that would hopefully add a little more integrity to the dive
itself. For those like me who spend endless hours at the public
records office in London and elsewhere searching the archives
in the hunt for shipwreck information, will only to well understand
the painstaking task in hand. The case of the Empire Heritage
was indeed quite the opposite with an abundance of information
clearly at hand. It was simply a case of sifting through all
the secret documents from the war diaries and Naval messages
to filter out all the necessary information. As far as merchant
steamships go the Empire Heritage was |
Trucks fallen from the wreck |
quite a large vessel at 15,702-tons and 512ft
in length so you can immediately image the amount of ship that
now lies on the offshore rocky seabed of the North Atlantic.
At the time of her loss she carried just over her own weight
in oil fuel cargo as well as 1,900-tons of deck cargo which
included government stores such as the Sherman tanks I have
spoken of as well as various military trucks and machinery.
It was approaching the tale end of WW2 when she set sail in
convoy on the 25th August 1944 from New York destined for Liverpool
England. |
As we are aware she would never make it to Liverpool and
was attacked and sunk by enemy U-boat two weeks later on the
8th Sept as she approached north west Ireland. Like many merchant
ships of the time Empire Heritage was reasonably armed at
the time of her loss with a single 4inch gun one 12pdr and
six Oerlikons. On top of that she sailed the commodore's column
in heavy convoy coded HXF 305 force 33 alongside other merchant
ships and of course their escorts, a convoy which report ably,
consisted of 100 ships. The board of inquiry into the circumstances
attending the loss of SS Empire Heritage assembled on board
his Majesty's Canadian ship 'Dunver' at 0930 on the 15th Sept
1944. Then as a board of inquiry with all intents to hold
a full and careful investigation into the circumstances attending
the loss as well as the loss of RFA 'Pinto' also sunk after
she attended to the survivors of the Empire Heritage.
©Leigh Bishop |
Continue to page 2 of
'The Longest Night'
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