Torpedoed April 6th, 1942
7138
Gross Tons
441
feet Length, 59 feet Beam, 33feet Deep
Owner:
British Tanker Company of London
Builder: Palmer's Company, Ltd., Newcastle, England
Depth
110 feet
The British Splendour was carrying fifty-three men and a valuable cargo of 10,000 tons of gasoline destined for the British Isles via Halifax, NS when she was torpedoed on April 6th, 1942. She had departed Houston, Texas on March 30th, 1942 and was to meet an Eastbound Atlantic convoy in the neighborhood of Halifax. The Captain of the vessel was well aware of the dangers German U-boats posed in the Hatteras area and he had intended to pass Hatteras during daylight, but that did not occur. Shortly after 2200 hours a "buzz like an airplane motor" was heard onboard the Tanker. About ten minutes later, at 2215, a torpedo struck on the port side below the waterline, just aft of the engine room. The explosion blew off almost all of the aft superstructure and the engine room skylights. The lives of twelve men were taken in this brief instant.
The life of the Splendour was also over. She immediately began to go down by the stern and would eventually capsize. The sinking vessel remained afloat long enough for the radioman to get off a distress message and the remaining crew of forty-one to launch three lifeboats and one raft into which they fled the sinking ship. The surviving crew were picked up by the British Armed Trawler HMS St. Zeno which had been escorting the Tanker at the time of the attack. Immediately after the attack, the St Zeno launched a search for the U-boat but it was not successful. It returned to the area of the dying Tanker and picked up the first survivors within 45 minutes and had collected them all within two hours. There were no serious injuries to the survivors and they were eventually landed at the Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia, on April 7th.
It was Oberleutnant
zur See Erich Topp, of the U-552, who had torpedoed the tanker and sent her to
the bottom. Oberleutnant Topp was a holder of the Ritterkreuz medal
and already considered an "ace" for his actions against
the British convoys in the North Atlantic and his previous cruises to the
American coast off Newfoundland. He and the crew of the U-552 had just
recently sunk two vessels since arriving off the American
Coast. The British Splendour was his third and a total of six were lost
to this U-boat commander. The U-552 (a type VII-C) survived the war and was
scuttled at Wilhelmshaven, Germany, on May 2, 1945 (Lube in command).
Diving The Splendour
The British Splendour had been built in 1931
and was considered a very modern design being powered by two large diesel engines.
She was also very big for the times, 441.2 feet long and had a beam of over 59 feet.
Size went against her as the U-boats specifically targeted the large tankers and
now she is upside down in 110 feet of water off Ocracoke
island, many miles south of where the attack that sank her is reported to have
occurred. The
wreck was positively identified in 1983 by the recovery of the engine builder's
plaque by diver Dave Bluett, of Virginia. The tanker sits in an area of
hard sand bottom and usually has clear
water over her resulting in normally good to excellent visibility. The bow and stern
sections are relatively intact with the amidships section, which contained
the tanks and pumping gear, somewhat collapsed and fairly flat to the sea
bottom. The stern, even though upside down, is generally the better dive due to the much greater relief rising
to 70 feet and the presence of more artifacts there. The area hit by the torpedo
is easily seen on the side of the engine room and the crankshaft
of one of the engines easily identified laying just outside the hull. The
stern section is fairly easy to penetrate and swim completely through. However, extreme caution must be exercised as several pieces of machinery
have fallen from the overhead and the stern is beginning to show signs of
collapse.
In the summer of 2000, a large crack opened up in the hull plating of the upside down stern, creating a split completely across the hull. This has continued to split the hull open and the crack is now about 10' wide allowing entry into the hull in both directions from the split. Additional plating has been peeled back from the hull exposing the frames, webs and brackets that supported the outer shell. Several of the overhanging hull plates on the forward end of the stern section have also recently fallen. Over the winter of 2004, a section of the side of the hull tore away in a small chunk and one of the large electric motors that was previously inside the engine room is now laying just outside the hull. The forces of the sea are always at work and it changes these wreck sites constantly.
The wreck usually holds large numbers of fish even though it is heavily fished by the Ocracoke bottom boats who's anglers leave a great deal of mono fishing line on the bottom. The inside of the engine room provides a great habitat for a large number of creatures and I have seen very large jewfish (300#+) lurking in the stern section as well as sharks and other large fish. There are also many eels and large numbers of bait fish inside as well. Outside, lemon sharks, large rays and turtles are seen here often.
The
British Splendour is consistently a great Hatteras area dive for either
the novice or experienced diver.
More U/W photos of the Splendour can be found on Paul Hudy's web page about the wreck.
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