UK (15 Nov 2003) -- The daughters of a naval gunner who died 60 years ago when a German torpedo sank the merchant ship on which he served have issued a legal challenge to protect the wreck from souvenir hunters by declaring it a war grave. The luck of the SS Storaa ran out, late on the night of November 2 1943, after an earlier extraordinary escape. The ship was carrying a heavy cargo of spare parts for tanks when the torpedo hit it and sank like a stone, with 21 casualties out of 37 crew and passengers. Divers are now stripping the wreck, which lies in 100ft (30 metres) of water 10 miles off Hastings on the south coast, undeterred by the fact that human bones are visible on the deck. "This is just wrong," said Peter Marsden, an expert on shipwreck archaeology. "We are all reminded on Remembrance Sunday of the rows upon rows upon rows of crosses marking war graves on land, beautifully maintained. When an aircraft crash site is discovered, it is swiftly given protection. Only those lost in the war in merchant ships have no protection and no respect. Their personal possessions, which should be the property of their families, can be stripped with impunity." A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence confirmed that an application is being considered. The department was appealing "to divers and other sea users to respect the integrity of the wreck". Some of the souvenirs from the wreck brought to Dr Marsden, at the Shipwreck Heritage Centre in Hastings, are terrifying. "I have handled live ammunition which has been recovered from the wreck and brought to us. I have had to bring it to the naval bomb disposal unit to be made safe, before we could display the material." The SS Storaa sank with a British and volunteer Danish crew, including Petty Officer James Varndell, whose daughters Rosemary and Valerie are now leading the campaign to preserve the wreck. Dr Marsden first tried to have the wreck protected three years ago, but the Ministry of Defence rejected the request on the grounds that the ship was not working in support of "military service" when it sank. He and a team of legal experts have challenged that decision, invoking the Human Rights Act, as well as presenting evidence that the ship was on war service. The Storaa was originally a British steamship, which became Danish and then reverted to a British flag in the war. The ship's crew had already cheated death when she was impounded and scuttled, and the crew imprisoned, in Casablanca in 1940. The crew escaped deportation to a German concentration camp when the Allies liberated French North Africa, and they then refloated and refitted the ship and made it back to the UK in June 1943 - only to be sunk five months later. Dr Marsden has established that when the ship sank it was carrying 2,500 tons of tank parts from Southend to Cardiff, and was armed. Petty Officer Varndell was in the crew as a Royal Navy gunner, one of seven army and naval gunners on board. The telegram sent by the Admiralty to his widow, Amy Varndell, described him as "missing on war service", and his death certificate repeated this. Only 16 survived. The last known survivor, Henrik Bodken Knudsen, now in his late 80s and living in Denmark, strongly supports the move to protect the wreck, which is startlingly well preserved, with masts still partly standing. Two deck guns are intact, with spent shells on the deck. | | Partners in crime: Grave robbers Leigh Bishop and Brad Sheard. Following the lead of dive industry-endorsed shipwreck looters Bishop and Sheard, scuba diving thieves around the world are destroying wrecks for bragging rights, coffee table displays and internet auction profits that amount to a fraction of the revenue shipwrecks can generate as fully protected underwater museums. FROM THE EDITORS OF CDNN Scuba looters around the world aggressively compete for bragging rights, product endorsements and profits from the sales of stolen artifacts that are now on a par with those from smuggling humans and drugs. "The vast majority of the global scuba diving community opposes shipwreck looting and underwater grave robbing," said CDS President Evan T. Allard. "For scuba divers, every shipwreck is an underwater museum to be fully protected for our children, our grandchildren and all future generations of divers who will dive deeper and longer thanks to ongoing improvements in diving technology ," Allard added. "It is absolutely imperative that the global scuba diving community, archaeologists, coast guards, police and tax authorities act now to prevent Leigh Bishop, Brad Sheard, David Morton (of the Boston Sea Rovers) and other shipwreck looters from exploiting and destroying sunken ships for their personal coffee table displays, internet self-promotion schemes, commercial 'museum' profits and tax-evasion scams." CYBER DIVER ALERT | If you have information pertaining to the theft and/or sale of wreck artifacts, or desecration of underwater grave sites by Leigh Bishop, Brad Sheard, organized crime gangs or anyone else, please contact CDNN immediately and your information will be passed along to appropriate authorities. REPORT SCUBA LOOTER |
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