Stan Lockhart: An explosion heard in Dunoon

While at Dunoon Grammar School in the early 1940’s rumours were circulating that the sound of an explosion one night had been due to an unsuccessful attempt by a German submarine to penetrate the anti submarine boom defence. This stretched from the Castle Rocks immediately south of Dunoon Pier to the Cloch. While thinking about this recently as a result of a visit to the graves of submariners in Dunoon Cemetery I decided to research the matter.

My first enquiry was at the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office. Their Wrecks Office very helpfully provided a copy of a section of an Admiralty Chart. This showed a submarine lying in about 33 fathoms at a position roughly equidistant between Pladda, just south of Arran & Ailsa Craig at the south end of the Firth of Clyde. It is shown as the U33, a German submarine of 745 tons displacement. Under circumstances of loss was the brief enty “Depth Charged and sunk by HMS Gleaner”.

I then came across full details of the sinking boat by David Kahn entitled “Seizing the Enigma” (1993). These are that on 12 February 1940 the U33 was at night on the surface to lay mines at the entrance to the Firth when she was sighted by the Gleaner. The Gleaner fired four patterns of depth charges which damaged the submarine forcing it to the surface. The crew then scuttled the submarine, which sank almost immediately.

One interesting detail which emerged from this incident is that the crew of the submarine removed the eight rotors from the secret Enigma cipher machine. These were distributed among crew members with instructions that the rotors were to be dropped into the sea. One forgot and the three rotors he had on him were seized. The capture of the rotors speeded up the work of the cryptograpers at Bletchley who were trying to solve the cryptograms. After similar recoveries from other German ships the secret code was broken. As a result the Allies were able to intercept, solve and read the coded messages between the German High Command and the U-boats at sea. This gave their locations and movements enabling the Allies to divert their convoys around wolfpacks, sink U-boats and so win the crucial Battle of the Atlantic.

The other memory I have is in the late 1940s during Sunday walks looking at the gravestones in the then new cemetery of seamen from the submarine “HMS Untamed”. I had assumed that their submarine had been lost in the Clyde near Dunoon, hence their burial at Dunoon. I now wondered whether this had any connection with the explosion.

Consulting a website I found that the Untamed on 30 May, 1943 was in the Clyde on trials exercising with ships of the 8th Escort Group off Campbeltown. She had dived twice then failed to surface. She settled on the seabed at a depth of 160 feet off Sanda Island. This island lies approximately 1 and 3 quarter miles SSE of the SE end of the Kintyre peninsula. It was subsequently discovered that the forward part had flooded when the external log was not fully withdrawn thereby allowing seawater to force its way into the boat through an open sluice valve. The 36 man crew had been poisoned by a build up of carbon dioxide. None had escaped.

I later discovered in a book “Beneath the Waves – A History of HMS Submarine Losses” by AS Evans (1986) that the Royal Navy Diving Ship “Tedworth” directed salvage operations to recover the Untamed. About 26 June the Untamed was lifted and moved inside the boom of Campbeltown. The submarine was at some point towed to Barrow. It is not clear when the bodies of the crew were removed but it must have been at Campbeltown to clear it for inspection.

The big mystery is how the crew came to be buried at Dunoon and not at or near Campbeltown. Perhaps some reader can shed light on this. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, in response to a query stated “The only information we hold for Dunoon Cemetery is that the majority of the 1939-1945 War burials are in a plot which was set aside for Service War Graves. The burials in this plot include 34 casualties from the Untamed. The Commission does not have any information on the disposal of remains.”

While researching the above I noticed references to “HMS Vandal”. This submarine had been working up in Kilbrannan Sound on 24 February, 1943. It had been last seen leaving Lochranza but by nightfall had failed to make her surfacing signal. Searches of the area revealed no trace of the submarine. It had only been completed some four days earlier. The crew of 37 all perished. Again the Wrecks Office came to my aid with details. The submarine had a displacement of 740 tons. It was not found until 1994 in a depth of about 71 metres. The forward escape hatch was found open.

The location of the submarine is latitude 55 43 683 N longitude 005 20 017 W. The website I consulted gives the position as one and a half miles NW of Lochranza, Arran. The Vandal unfortunately had the shortest career of any submarine in the Royal Navy.

It is likely the the Untamed as did the Vandal sailed from the Holy Loch, being the home base of the Clyde Submarine Flotilla. It is an amazing coincidence that two new submarines, the Untamed 6 weeks in service and the Vandal 4 days, both on trials, had disappeared to the west of Arran and both sunk probably due to faults and not to enemy action.

This brief account is not intended as an exhaustive examination of the losses of these two ships and what caused the losses nor is any criticism intended of their crews who were faced with sudden and dire emergencies. One can only admire the immense courage of the crews.

It would appear therefore on the basis of the above that the noise of any explosion was not linked with these submarines.

A possible explanation of the explosion could be the destruction of the Aircraft Carrier “HMS Dasher” due to a massive internal explosion. This occurred when the carrier was sailing in the channel between Ardrossan and Arran on 27 March, 1943. The carrier sank with the loss of 379 lives. No enemy action was involved. As the distance from Ardrossan to Dunoon is about 20 miles it is possible that the sound of this carried as far as Dunoon. The loss was so great that it was hushed up at the time by the Government.

Moving still nearer to Dunoon there was the mysterious sinking of the French Destroyer “Maille Breeze” off Greenock on 30 April 1940. Torpedo tubes were accidentally fired, setting fire to fuel and the ship blew up and sank with the loss of 28 ratings. It is thought that the choosing of the site for the Free French monument on the Lyle Hill was greatly influenced by this tragedy. This could be another possible explanation.

Finally, there was the serious incident on a date possibly in 1944 in the Holy Loch off Sandbank. In the loch at the time were the Depot Ships Forth, Alrawdah and Montcalm renamed Wolfe (an ironic choice of name) and numerous other ships and submarines. On returning from missions it was the practice for checks to be made on the firing mechanisms of the torpedo tubes in submarines but only after all torpedoes were removed. On this occasion a live torpedo was not removed. When the firing mechanism was activated a live torpedo was despatched towards Sandbank. Fortunately it missed all vessels and struck the shore near the house Fife Park to the north of Robertson’s yard, shattering windows in many Sandbank houses and it is said leaving a crater big enough to hold two buses.

A recent book “The Secrets of HMS Dasher” by John and Noreen Steele (2004) has suggested that a similar accidental discharge of a live torpedo from a British submarine was responsible for the sinking of the Dasher. Two British submarines were apparently in the vicinity of the Dasher at the time of her sinking, one being involved in exercises some 4/5 miles from the Dasher.

While I did not conclusively solve the mystery of the explosion I did unravel some interesting but tragic stories of the war which are probably now forgotten by all except relatives of those who tragically lost their lives.

Finally it is of interest to note that the paddle steamer “Waverley” nearly landed up at the grave of the Untamed. On 20 June, 2004 she touched rocky bottom on Boiler’s Reef, southwest of Sanda Island, Kintyre but fortunately there was no serious damage to the steamer.

Seumas Moireasdan on CELTIC WIKIPEDIAE

Tha Seumas Moireasdan a Nis, agus tha e a-nis a fuireach ann an Steornabhagh ag obair airson Proiseact nan Ealan, a' deanamh obair theicneolas dhaibh. Tha esan dhan bheachd gu bheil deagh chothrom ann do chananan beaga an-drasta le bhith a' gluasad bho TBh/Reidio gu siostaman nas fhosgailte man an eadar lion.

The Wikipedia is a concept which almost everyone is now familiar with, an encyclopedia which anybody can edit. Many though do not realise it is a multilingual phenomenon. There are approaching 250 different language wikipedias, including many languages that have never had an a encyclopedia in their history. An example of this is the Scottish Gaelic Wikipedia or 'An leabhar mòr-eòlais saor' started in September 2003 and appproaching ~4300 articles today. At the moment many of these are stubs ( base articles waiting to be expanded ) but there a growing number of well-written and translated articles on subjects that have never before had decent online Gaelic references before.

I became interested in the potenial for the Gaelic wikipedia and its neighbouring Celtic wikipedias, Vicipéid, an Chiclipéid Shaor ( Irish ) and Wicipedia, y gwyddoniadur rhydd ( Welsh ) when I was at a conference with Welsh and Irish speakers discussing possible projects to strengthen ties between the languages. I felt it was an obvious framework to strengthen links between our cultures.

It is interesting to compare the relative performances of the Celtic wikipedias, as these may reflect the state of the languages. From the accompanying graph you can see that of the 3 main celtic languages in the UK, Welsh is the best performer with steady growth and a size which is approaching 7500 articles with a depth ( a kind of quality indicator ) of 21. Gaelic and Irish have a similar performance, BUT Gaelige is about 400 articles bigger, WITH a much higher depth of 19 compared with 9 for Gaelic; it also has a more consistent growth rate. We can also look to the strongest Celtic language in size, Breton. Their wikipedia is definitely the biggest - approaching 12500 - reflecting their larger speaker base, although it has a similar depth to Gaelic.

What can we gather from these statistics? The Welsh and Irish languages have been officialy recognised in their respective countries longer. Gaelic has only recently recieved that recognition and only now is Gaelic-medium Education been offered widely. Those circumstances I believe have generated a literacy problem within the Gaelic language which I believe is indicated particularly in the depth of the Gaelic wikipedia.

The simultaneous growth of these wikipedias also give us the opportunity to foster ties betweens the languages. It is possible to traverse the articles from Irish to Gaelic if parallel articles exist; this allows us to compare without having to resort to English. It also allows those of us with the ability to translate between these versions and grow our multilingual skills.

I believe that the Celtic language wikipedias have a great potenial for representing their respective cultures online. As they grow in quality their results creep up the rankings of search engines providing a positive feedback loop of people looking for specific Celtic information on a topic and when finding these they can in turn link to them or even contribute to them strengthening its reputation.

When ever we write or publish online about a relatively unknown topic webwise we should realise that in a way we are teaching the search engines about that topic. There is a definite lack of Gaelic resources online currently and I feel that the open framework the wikipedias offer give us all a fantastic opportunity for teaching the world about our own language and culture.

Tha mi smaoineachadh an-drasta gu bheil an canan againn feumach air torr fiosrachaidh mhath air loidhne agus gu bheil seo na chothrom math a dheanamh. 'S urrainn dhuinn torr ionnsachadh bhon an doigh anns a bheil na Cumrish a cur failte air daoine le cananan eile. Bu chorr dhuinn an cothrom seo a ghabhail neart a thoirt don chanan againn.

The Rev Kimberley Bohan

The Reverand Kimberley Bohan is the Rector of the Scottish Episcopal Churches in Dunoon and Rothesay and is Priest in Charge of the congregation at Tighnabruaich.


Her blog can be found at http://wonderfulexchange.wordpress.com and it has drawn in not just members of her own congregations but also others from around the world. This is her posting from the 15th of February and is typical of her well delivered, thoughtful, moving sermons : most unlike the vast majority of such things in my experience which can often be defined by that old joke about Anglican preaching - cliches followed by non-sequitors.

In this sermon she addresses a vital issue for the Episcopal Church and does it in a way which draws in my support, certainly. I am grateful to her for allowing me to feature this as my first guest blog

Last Sunday was one of those days when God was busy during the sermon. I felt ill prepared, and was trying to preach across what seemed a tenuous link. The microphone was ringing in my ears, and I was so distracted that I nearly abandoned hope and cut to the end. But the congregation’s response was such that it was clear that they had heard what they needed to, regardless of what I may have said.

The request then came for me to try to make the sermon more widely available — which would normally be easy enough, but this sermon changed a fair bit in the telling. So, for those who asked, my attempt to recreate some of the sermon is below the fold. I’m not at all sure it will ‘work’, but there’s no harm in trying.

Epiphany 6: Luke 6.17-26

Usually, I’m thankful for our lectionary. It makes sure we don’t get stuck on our hobbyhorses, it means that we hear and thinking about the same texts as many other churches throughout the world. It is generally a good thing. But every one in a while, it lets us down. It takes a passage out of context, and if we are not careful, we end up missing the meaning. I think today is such a day. So I’m going to read for you again the gospel passage — as set in the lectionary, but with additional paragraphs on either side, that help to set the context:

[read Luke 6.12- 28]

As familiar as the beatitudes are, as often as I’ve read them, I’d never particularly noticed their context before — Luke’s context for them. Jesus goes up the mountain to pray. He spends all night with God — and at the end of the night, he calls his disciples to him. And he says — I want you, Simon, and you Andrew, and you — James, John, Batholomew… I want you to work with me. To bear witness to me. To share in what I am doing.

And then, from that heady night on the mountain — a night of prayer, and of calling — ‘He came down with them a stopped at a piece of level ground, where there was a large gathering…’ The people crowd around them, and power goes out from Jesus, so that many are healed. Then Jesus turns to the disciples and says: Blessed are you who are poor… yours is the kingdom. Blessed are you who are hungry now… Blessed are you who weep now…

The disciples are asked to follow Jesus, to offer themselves and to share in what he is doing — without reward, without recognition, without claiming power or authority for themselves.

The beatitudes are a lesson for the disciples, right at the start: this is what is asked of you. This is how you must live. And it must have come as a shock to the system.

Think about it — it had been a good night. They had been called. Chosen. They still would have been reeling from it. And then, they go down to the plane, and Jesus starts turning everything upside down. For the disciples, at this time, would still have been shaped by the expectations of their society. A society that said people deserved what they got. The poor deserved to be poor. The sick were being punished for their sins.

In Jesus’ day, poverty was not simply — or even primarily– about lack of material goods, but about social standing. It was a society that dealt in honour and shame. And it was a vicious circle– if you had nothing, you lacked honour. But if you lacked honour — if you were dubbed an outsider, or unclean– then you were cut off from the means to make a decent living. You could not find a place in the world.

And Jesus walks right into the midst of those who were rejected, those who were outcast and poor — and says ‘Blessed’. Blessed are you. Yours is the kingdom.

And the disciples had to learn what that meant. Their first steps in following Jesus took them into the midst of all that their society and religion told them was abhorrent — and they had to learn to say ‘Blessed’.

And that is how the church grew. Moving into new situations, and learning to pronounce God’s blessing.

But that wasn’t easy. If you think of New Testament Letters — they are filled with the struggles of learning to proclaim God’s blessing in unexpected places. Paul, through his own dramatic conversion, was led into the midst of the Gentiles, and found that God was there before him. Peter was taught in a vision to accept the things he had thought were unclean. But still there was struggle.

Paul and Peter pushed at a boundary — and the church said, ‘all right. We can see we have to let Gentiles in. We have to eat with them. But surely, if they are going to become proper Jews, proper Christians, they will have to change. They will need to be circumcised. They will need to live by our ways.’ And time and again, Paul said no. They are blessed. One can be Gentile and Holy. They do not have to become Jews.

And throughout the ages, the church has had to push at the boundaries, looking for blessing. Could it be that women were a blessing? blacks? gays? Boundary after boundary, looking for blessing. And sometimes the battle was fierce.

As it is today, in our own Communion.

Now, I’m going to take a sideways step here, to talk about what’s going on right now in our Anglican Communion. As most of you know, the Primates are meeting this week to talk about the future shape of our church. To decide what can be blessed, what can be included — and what, if anything, is full of woe, cursed.

And the battle is fierce.

On the face of it, there is the question of how the church responds to homosexuality. And specifically, whether there is room in the church for those parts of the communion who have pushed at the boundaries, and moved among gay people, and learned to say ‘Blessed’.

In 2003, the Episcopal Church in the United States elected an openly gay man with a partner to be bishop. Since then, they have elected a woman primate — who supported the bishop’s consecration, and who is clearly ‘liberal’ in her theology. And as she prepares to go to Tanzania, as the duly elected primate of The Episcopal Church, there are other primates, throughout the world, who are unwilling to recognize her. Some won’t recognize her, of course, because she’s a woman: they don’t believe that she is truly a priest, let alone a bishop, let alone a primate. But others won’t recognize her because they disagree with her. They don’t like her theology. She calls blessed what they would called cursed. And therefore, they refuse to sit at table with her. They don’t want to talk to her. And they won’t take communion if she is there — as a member of the congregation– since her very presence is seen to defile.

Now, I want to be clear here — I don’t like every decision that the American church has made. I’m not sure I would have voted for this particular primate if it had been mine to vote. But I do know this: she is the duly elected primate. She has been chosen by the church. She should be allowed to speak at the primates meeting. And it is madness to refuse to take communion because there is someone else present whose theology you don’t accept.

And even though I don’t agree with every decision the American Church has made, I would defend their right to have made them. If the church is to be true to itself, it must push at boundaries. It must be willing to go to unlikely places, and challenge cultural and religious taboos, and see what God is doing there. Even if sometimes it goes too far, or too fast, or gets it wrong — the church must go, and learn where it can say ‘blessed’.

I don’t know — no one knows — what will happen this week as the Primates gather. If primates are unable to share in communion, then the Communion is broken — whatever else is said or done.

But I do know this: if a split comes, and if we in Scotland are forced to choose, I would far rather be a part of a church that can push at boundaries– even get it wrong and start again– and pronounce Blessing — than to be a part of a church that is so sure of its own boundaries that it is quick to curse.