Next week the Lancastria Association of Scotland will hand in a petition
to Downing Street in an effort to have the victims of the UK's worst
maritime tragedy properly remembered and their final resting place
protected.
The petition reads as follows:
"We, the undersigned, call on the British Government through the
offices of the Prime Minister to designate the wreck of the troopship
Lancastria an official maritime site/war grave by means of the Protection
of Military Remains Act 1986 or by the introduction of a Statutory
Instrument which would allow the site to be formally designated by the
British Government in recognition of the sacrifice of an estimated 4000
lives, mostly troops of the British Expeditionary Force, who were lost on
17th June 1940. This petition, which has attracted signatures from across
the world, calls on the Government to finally and formally acknowledge the
loss made and to bring about official designation for the wreck of
Lancastria."
Incredible as it may seem, the wreck of the LANCASTRIA is not protected
as, or formally recognised as, a war grave by the UK. For years the
Association has tried to bring to the forefront the need to have the
vessel declared an official war grave. They also wish to have a memorial
erected to mark what was the single biggest loss of life at sea in the
Second World War.
Why has the loss of the LANCASTRIA and her thousands of victims never been
properly recognised by the British Government? To answer that we need to
go back to the era in which they perished.
Losses on this scale were very often, if not nearly always, hushed up. At
the least, the scale of loss was held back. Morale was everything to the
UK, fighting what at times must have seemed a never ending war to defeat
the forces of Nazism. In the case of the LANCASTRIA a total ban was
imposed by Britain's wartime leader.
The Association says in its website:
- On learning of the disaster late on the
17th of June Winston Churchill banned all news coverage of it for fear
it would damage public morale further, following the capitulation of
France which also occurred that day. Churchill later claimed he simply
forgot to lift the ban. An American newspaper was the first to publish
details of the loss of Lancastria late in July 1940.
To this day it would appear, the British government does not
whole-heartedly accept the loss nor the need for formal recognition
through war grave designation. The French government threw a 200 metre
exclusion zone around the vessel in 2006 to protect it from divers and
looting. The Association says that the UK government claimed credit for
this development despite papers obtained under Freedom of Information
revealing "their growing annoyance with the issue".
The Association hopes that as a result of their petition and efforts, the
UK government will at last afford the dignity and respect that LANCASTRIA
and her thousands of victims deserve. So far they have made great progress
with the Scottish government, and in 2005 MSPs from Scotland’s 6 political
parties signed a specially made book of condolence in memory of the
victims. Two parliamentary motions in the name of Christine Grahame MSP
aimed at highlighting the sacrifice also received cross party support.
The Association also wants a memorial to be erected in the grounds of the
Golden Jubilee Hospital at Dalmuir, Clydebank. On this site once stood the
mighty shipyard of Wm Beardmore, the shipbuilders who built the liner back
in 1919 for the Anchor Line of Glasgow.
A brief history of the LANCASTRIA
She was built, as stated above, in Dalmuir, near Clydebank in the then
modern shipyard of Wm Beardmore, part of a huge empire of industries that
included shipbuilding, armaments, vehicles and aircraft manufacture. Her
original name was TYRRHENIA, and was laid down for the Anchor Line, a
respected and venerable Glasgow shipping company. By this time time Anchor
was owned by Cunard and many of the vessels built for each company would
work for either or both of them. TYRRHENIA began life as a Cunarder as her
ownership was transferred to the Cunard books as she was building.
By all accounts her early years were not remarkable. It is said that her
name was changed to LANCASTRIA two years after she went into service
because American's had difficulty getting their tongues round her original
name. That may be true, but another story is that she had earned the nickname
'Soup Tureen' - which was hardly flattering.
She did not last long as a liner, Cunard deciding after only two voyages
that she would be better suited in the cruise market, and so after a refit
in 1924 and gaining her new name she began the role that by and large she
maintained up until the outbreak of war in 1939 and by 1940 she had yet
another new
role - troopship.
On the morning of 17th June 1940 she found herself off the coast
of France, waiting at anchor to board troops, the remnants of the British
Expeditionary force. Dunkirk had happened two weeks prior to this. You can
read a full account of the boarding at the Association's website, but to
cut the story short, she had to load as many men as could struggle aboard
her. How many is unclear, some estimates say as high as 9000, and it may
have been, but whatever the number, it was well in excess of her accepted
maximum of 3000. By the afternoon the ship was swarming with men packed
on her decks, holds and cabins, and then the German aircraft came in.
The attack was swift, the effects devastating. Within minutes LANCASTRIA
was ablaze in parts and sinking. Men scrambled for boats, for the water,
or clung to her hull as she slowly turned, dying in the sea. Harrowing
pictures of the foundering vessel show men spiked over the great
undersides like starlings. Knowing their time was up, the men began
to sing defiantly as they clung to the ship, its propellers now exposed.
And as the ship rolled, the song they sang was 'Roll Out The Barrel'...
For details of the Association and for further information on RMS
LANCASTRIA, see the Association's
website. |
