The Sunken Wreck Of The Worst Naval Collision Of WWII | Deep Wreck Mysteries | Timeline

this channel is part of the history hit Network [Music] Rams the British warship sent to protector three-quarters of the escort's crew lose their lives that what we saw where we're seeing hundreds of men dying right there in front of us now a team of underwater explorers looks for evidence from the sunken vessel to answer a 60 year old question who is to blame for the tragedy [Music] foreign the Queen Mary the most powerful liner in the world is racing towards Scotland transporting 10 000 Allied troops from North America to Europe alongside her is the British Cruiser Curacao there to defend a lawyer from Attack by German bombers suddenly traveling at 28 and a half knots the Queen Mary strikes the British warship foreign 338 men die the tragedy still haunts survivors today shouldn't have happened you got the water find enemy not to fight to fight other people now a dive team seeks more answers to the key question was This Disaster a tragic accident or terrible negligence the Rex location is 50 miles of the northwest coast of Ireland the Expedition vessel for Franklin carries the latest underwater search and scan equipment if any ship can investigate Curacao chic [Music] it's vital to document the worship before she deteriorates further the only images of the ship are old photos I think one can look for things which perhaps an individual diver can't see you can survey see if there's interesting bits of wreckage around to take a closer look at that that should be able to give us perhaps the best possible view of what is around the wreck site and what is the exact condition of her ex finally locates the wreck 122 meters 400 feet below and the team launches a scanner to examine the Expedition aims to shed light on the final moments of the tragedy to find facts to show which way the ships were steering the Mystery Begins as the Queen Mary leaves New York in September 1942. the 81 000 Tom liner is called up to rush reinforcements to war she swaps her bright paintwork for gray camouflage to transport entire divisions around the world the gis don't travel first class they're lucky to find a birth at all there was no room in the cabin we had a cabin for two there was 14 of us in there books three High to get from one to the other you'd have to move the barracks bags out of the way so you could push your way through so I other than when I slept there at night my time was practically all of it was spent outside it was not a pleasure for you in command of the Queen Mary is Merchant Navy Captain Cyril illingworth he and his crew of 900 are bringing 10 000 Americans to fight in Europe but first they must evade German submarines worldwide you boats have sunk over 600 000 tons of Allied Shipping the huge liner is a prime target for a torpedo Hitler offers a 150 000 bounty to any U-Boat Captain who sinks the Queen Mary the liner relies on the speed for protection a U-boats top speed underwater is five knots the Queen Mary can reach over 20 knots more the submarine was just too slow if you love history then you will love history hit our extensive library of documentary features everything from the ancient origins of our earliest ancestors to the daring mission to sink the bismar history hit has hundreds of exclusive documentaries with unrivaled access to the world's best historians we're committed to Bringing history fans award-winning documentaries and podcasts that you cannot find anywhere else sign up now for a free trial and timeline fans get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use the code timeline at checkout to maneuver into an into a suitable attacking position it would need a considerable amount of luck and almost Supernatural amount of luck for a submarine to deal with a high speed Target like one of these ocean lines threats to the fully laden Island come not only from the sea but from the air when she comes within range of German bombers [Music] ships of the royal Navy are sent out to escort her into port on October the 2nd 1942 one of them is the four and a half thousand ton armed Cruiser Curacao she is converted for air defense 12 Lookouts scan the skies for German aircraft cure Soul leads a convoy of six destroyers from London Dairy in Northern Ireland to meet the Queen Mary in command of the Convoy and curacaoa's Company of 439 men is Captain John boutwood he has 25 years experience at sea curacaoa was built to fight in 1916 during World War One she wasn't a new ship and ships deteriorate she was an old Hull and she had old engines she was re-equipped as far as her almond was concerned but one problem of using old old cars is that you know engines do deteriorate over time you can't get quite so much speed out of the ship as you might have done in the past so yes her age did tell against her in that regard today's Expedition is looks to the course the doom ship was steering before she was struck on board the Franklin the scanner reveals the first detailed images of curacaoa foreign the team can clearly Identify two complete sections the surprise is that bow is nearly half a mile from the stone the Expedition launches a remotely operated vehicle with a camera to capture the first element of process the team can make out crushed wreckage from the bow upside down on the C these early sightings are encouraging now preparations can be made to dive the vacuums to discover more [Music] encounters problems the sea is rapidly becoming rougher his top speed of three knots less than the claim Mary is not helping him maneuver close to guard him [Music] in curacaoa's engine Ken Huntley pushes the ship to maintain full speed which combat an against a strong swell as well it was quite choppy really in places that was the reason because it was Heavy Seas that was our Skipper and set the Destroyer Escort back before he even picked up the Queen Mary the Destroyers are retest to give Advanced cover ahead an order with faithful consequences meanwhile the massive liner is making good time on her way to Scotland Allied to speed she has another way to throw off submarines her zigzag course on a number eight zigzag she steers straight for four minutes to the right for eight minutes to the left for another eight minutes then runs straight again for four minutes Queen Mary repeats this pattern all three thousand miles across the Atlantic let's make it hard for any submarine to aim at the gray ghost as she's now permission to altercourse 25 degrees Deport on heading Norma 3100 and offices of the watch 131 degrees have to change direction at the same time the trouble with zigzagging for any kind of escort is that at times the your your charge will be coming towards you and going away from you and clearly if you're trying to keep a close-in position you've got to be very careful about where the ship is going to turn next [Music] Queen Mary and her escort exact together Curacao is too slow her Captain decides his best course is to sail straight ahead [Music] thank you look the Queen Mary take a look there's great excitement on the deck of the Queen Mary when the ships come into sight to 10 a.m golden medley remembers I was in my cabin in my bunk with these other guys and feeling a little sea sickness so I was just lying down to keep things under control and one of our friends came in and said hey you guys you better come up on Deck said we picked up the whole British Navy as an escort and uh went up on the deck and and went to raila I understand there and and see the ships and uh we're just watching them that was interesting just to watch the ships because we never seen anything like that oh the Queen Mary continues six seconds pure self esteemed straight ahead she needs to keep up with the larger ship to provide effective anti-aircraft fire [Music] at 12 30. [Music] signals the Queen Mary s the ships are a few hundred yards apart with curacaoa slightly ahead of the queen butwood realizes his course is taking his vessel away from the liner one zero eight degrees change course to one zero five degrees [Music] change calls to 100 degrees one zero zero degrees these small adjustments swing curacaoa perilously close to the larger ship so close the Queen Mary's officer of the watch takes avoiding action she's a bit too close to me let me go and take a closer look no that's all right put your helmet midship Queen Mary and reassures his officer for the watch he makes this ship you don't need to worry about these fellows they're used to escorting she'll keep out of your way yes sir zero eight one degree sir on board Curacao her Captain is equally firm in his belief that he has right of way the two ships sailed so close to each other that the curacaoa cuts across the line as mighty bounds and the Queen Mary sails through curasoa's wake with only a few hundred yards between them both ships Miss colliding by less than a minute [Music] the best of Deliverance learn more of the events leading up to the Fatal Collision they are Keen to risk a deep dive did curacaoa steer a fatal cause towards the Queen Mary or was the lineup to blame only by searching the wreck will they discover more [Music] on the bridge of the Queen Mary the near miss with her escort ship the Royal Navy Cruiser curacaoa creates growing leaves but each Captain believes that in a close encounter his ship has right of way and the other must keep clear [Music] smaller and slow curacaoa needs to stay within a thousand yards of the first a giant to provide anti-aircraft cover furosoa is the only armed protection the Queen Mary has sending the escort destroyers ahead only increases the pressure on the Royal Navy Capital to stay close the huge liner continues to zigzag moving forward at 28 and a half knots the curacaoa is steaming Straight Ahead approaching 25 volts ships fail to signal each other to warn of any more changes of course there does seem to have been something of a Communications gap between Curacao and Queen Mary they don't seem to have sorted things out sufficiently the rules were that any ship overtaking another would give way to the ship that was being overtaken the overtaken ship had right away relying on the rules of the sea Curacao as Captain presumes his ship he's the one being overtaken his belief would have fatal results the bridge of the Queen Mary is focusing on sticking to her zigzag pattern at two in the afternoon she is sailing parallel to curacaoa a thousand yards apart can see the Queen Mary yet neither he ignore his Navigator appear to know on which leg of her zigzag pattern the Queen Mary is sailing the 81 000 ton liner now turns onto the right leg of her zigzag converging on her escort the Queen Mary is now heading directly towards kurosoa [Music] foreign at this vital moment Junior officer Wright is called to the chart room by the captain altercourse 131 degrees at 1404 he hands over the watch to officer Noel Robinson crucially he admits to tell Robinson just how near curacaoa is in fact she's closing rapidly [Music] Wright joins the Queen Mary's Captain who is estimating their time of arrival in Scotland once again right makes no mention how does a secure A sower is Robinson now has sole charge of the most powerful liner in the world rapidly approaching a smaller ship that shows no sign of moving out of the way Hot Pot sir with 15. at 12 minutes past two the gigantic Queen Mary smashes through curasoa [Music] foreign what time is it 212 sir what her name was she on 111 degrees sir [Music] is great it's already stop all engines [Music] now in a daring dive on the remains of the curacaoa the Expedition aims to shed new light on the warship's last moment at all when we go down it will just be easy yeah technical Dive by Dan Stevenson is joined by a team the wind's going that way so I mean I can put the shot at somewhere in this region expecting the larger section to use the clues the team decides to dive first on the bow for Dan Stevenson and the others this is the climax of months of planning everybody gets very focused just before the dive start to concentrate on their kit run through the final instructions so it's going to be on that verse 8 so I hope but probably got a good catch there you skip the world give a briefing just before we jump in tell us which way he thinks the shot line is which way it's pointing in relation to the wreck we're in that area where there's no catches at 122 meters 400 feet diving is hazardous currents through the cold offshore Waters the divers know if something goes wrong at that depth is very difficult I've been asleep yeah yeah I didn't Panic at all strange enough unusual I suppose to think for outside disabled he should have panicked but I had a long time for that I don't think it was this terrific Bang everything went black and next thing I remember was I was over the other side of the afternoon standing at the foot of the ladder and there was somebody's legs in front of me the legs went up and I followed them up went from there onto one deck and then up another and I finished up into um a little workshop at the top everybody go in the galley ships cooked Paddy Houston feels the impact oh [Music] the chapel came up with me was there as well trying to open this door there wasn't room so I was sitting there with me legs down the hatchway of the bladder and the sea water was coming up round my legs the door for some reason flew open and we just more or less swam out the then sensitive documents that could Aid an enemy are jettisoned [Music] folks there was Paddy standing there which is a Cardwell his petrified so he couldn't swim come on yeah this is going down can't they can't swim come on do anything foreign foreign [Music] Dan and his team reflect on their attempt to probe events leading to those final moments it's always an apprehensive moment as you're waiting for the all clear to jump in they prepare for their mission with the intensity of astronauts everything has a special place for it to be clipped the clips have to be in the right orientation so you can tell just by touch which clip is for water it's quite a peaceful moment you think through the dive and just what you're going to do down there deep wrecks do not reveal their secrets easily but the divers are confident that even today kurosoa can tell them more their quest to find what final fatal cause she was steering is just beginning foreign over half a century after the Queen Mary sliced Curacao in two the deep sea divers descend to see if the point of impact yields Clues [Music] as they near their goal start to make out the front sections upturned Hull [Music] at 122 meters 400 feet they only have 12 minutes before they must begin their return to the surface a further four hours the front section is the larger of the two 300 feet from bail to break suddenly they see where the Queen Mary's Bell punched deep into the warship the divers are struck by the angle and the way the armor plates are folded back like paper [Music] foreign from the evidence of the wreck that I've seen and the angle of the slicing it would appear that in the event far from Queen Mary turning away from Curacao she was actually trying to avoid the cruiser by turning to port and in effect turning into her that in fact they were taking some mutually exclusive avoiding Maneuvers so they sailed into each other [Music] movies American troops on both we were all I think in a State of Shock and of course we ran over I think we all ran over to the other side and as we ran over there the bow was coming down and was settling old and medley also Witnesses the sinking he has a camera the men around to impress him to take a picture I happen to think about the camera that I had in my pocket which we weren't supposed to have but I had it down in my Overcoat ogi over coat pocket and I just instantly thought about taking a picture so I got it out and with the type of camera I had it took a little bit to open it and get it in the viewfinder it's an old old camera and by the end the ship was almost opposite and we were looking at the jagged end of it it was pointing away from us but there was a lot of steam boiling up a lot of smoke and things were falling off of the deck of the corsau and we heard later that there were probably death charges that were just falling off into the water olin's picture is the only one taken at the time it's a unique record of a tragic event men in the water also see their own Unforgettable images turned on my bike just in time to see the curacaoa or at least what was left of her about 50 foot of bow pointing vertically into the air there was still a figure scrambling over the Breakwater and just as she went under the whole bow exploded and threw a crowded shower of debris into the air we said afterwards this was probably the air inside being forced up as she went under curacaoa survivors find themselves in a fearsome swell many escaped death on the ship only to face it in the water [Music] foreign [Music] Mary Captain illingworth confronts a terrible decision he has orders not to stop under any circumstances sir color destroys what's happened the Queen Mary sails on [Music] he directs two of the Destroyers to turn around and mount a rescue but they are at least an hour away [Music] should he have stopped it would have been Madness for the Mary to stop because then she would have made herself and all those thousands of troops on board extremely vulnerable a liner stopped in the water picking up survivors eubert's dream the man who sank the Queen Mary can't you imagine it and it would in fact have been the Queen Mary's fault that she would have been sunk A Raging Sea is not the only Hazard survivors endure because when she cuts through us she opened up the tanks and those on the sternship Parts she probably waste the ship by jumping in the oil you couldn't recognize anybody or for the oil they took gauges to get rid of that as well it was in your eyes up your nose and in your ears and it was muddy blooming cold as well while on my head all I had on in the entry it was a pair of pants and a boiler suit you know gradually the numbers in the water got less and less and less and there's no Panic never never a sign of panic if people had had enough they just threw their arms in the air and went under [Music] the troops on the Queen Mary had barely taking the horror you you couldn't realize the shearseness of a bunch of men dying right there in front of you we couldn't see them but we knew they had a big crew on there didn't know how many at the time and you knew these guys were dying you're seeing several hundred people that were dying almost instantly right in front of your eyes kurosoa is demolished by the larger ship yet for all her 81 000 tons the Queen Mary does not Escape unscathed we need damage control ports for our own ship order dead slow yes sir that's low that's so sir and Queen Mary my god there was uh I think about 20 or 30 feet of the Queen Mary that was completely ripped and thrown around so the water was going into the Queen Mary and they had to make sure that they had all of the jewelry clothes and things like that the hole was big enough that a small Harbor boat went through it so it wasn't a smaller dish the damage to her bows slows her to 10 knots her urgent task is to deliver a human cargo to Scotland but she is now vulnerable as repairs get underway Captain illingworth breaks radio silence to Signal the British admiralty HMS curacaoa rammed and sunk by Queen Mary Queen Mary damaged for it sends shockwaves to all who read it in minutes the Queen Mary's Captain signals a destroyer returning to pick up survivors he States puruso attempted to cross my bounds when Collision occurred within an hour later he adds his conclusion kurosoa put her Helm wrong way captain of the Queen Mary blames her escort is he right it is a question that will remain unanswered for years to come 50 miles off the North Coast of Ireland an expedition is poised to find out the last details from the wreck site of the curacaoa divers make their way down 400 feet 122 meters this time they're investigating the back of the ship as they make their way along its 150 foot length they are astonished to see a ship still at action stations [Music] but 60 years old gun barrels reaching for the sky play host to Nature [Music] [Music] [Laughter] the upright rear section reveals immense damage Jagged steel rears up from the sea floor in the end neither armor nor armaments offered any defense against the friendly ship that splitter in two was the Queen Mary's Captain right to accuse kurosoa of failing to get out of the way just two days after the disaster the Royal Navy sets up a board of inquiry the captain of curacaoa and 100 of the ship's company survive both captains described their course and speed [Music] the naval inquiry quickly finds the Queen Mary is the direct cause of the accident by altering course towards Kurosawa with no warning the huge liner creates the dangerous situation the naval inquiry also finds curacaoa fails to grasp what will occur the cruiser does not take drastic avoiding action the matter will not end there although nothing can change the tragic outcome [Music] over 300 families lose loved ones but survivors are forbidden to speak about the incident to prevent Discovery by the Germans the sinking of curacaoa is covered up first rule of disclosure in Warfare is only disclose what the enemy knows about because clearly the Germans know if they've sunkerson if however an accident has occurred far away from the enemy's prying eyes what's the point of admitting to a loss especially a loss in rather embarrassing circumstances withholding the details of a sinking is family members and those who survive the relatives of men lost on Kurosawa were notified of their deaths but given no other information [Music] only two of the curacaoa's 27 officers survived her Captain and the ship's air defense officer Patrick Holmes died in 2002 but his son Marcus recalls that the event affected his father deeply he was the last person out of the air defense position he made sure that they were safely down and out of that position and and abandoning ship my father was told not to discuss the accident at all uh he remembers the day after the accident just walking around the streets of Londonderry in a complete days I suppose half realizing he'd lost all his friends you know 25 of the 27 officers had been killed the dive Expedition is Keen to find the air defense office's position they searched for his compass in case it displays its last bearing Bowl lies empty on the seabed and the voice pipe that Patrick Holmes used to shout warnings hangs mute [Music] the men stationed here seemed to see chance to escape below others were not so lucky certain Lieutenant Douglas Norton was in his bunk he's one of the officers who lost his life his sister Jean black forgotten how about his death we were all asleep and there was a knock at the front door and I got up and answered it and it was the boy with the telegram on a bicycle at 11 o'clock at night and I didn't know whether to go and give it you know wake my mother or wait till the morning but then she called out and said who is it and I went in and I just handed it to her and it was terrible it really was she never got over my mother never it wasn't until after the war that we did know the full details when the war ends the loss of curacaoa becomes public a court battle breaks out the Queen Mary's owners Cunard white star limited disagreed with the admiralty's finding that they are to blame for the Collision the highest court in the left the house of Lords in London finally here's the case both captains give evidence again the courts find both ships guilty of some negligence both failed to take appropriate action when danger arose communication between officers of the watch on the Queen Mary was deemed unsatisfactory as is the failure to inform the captain of the imminent risk of collision curaca is criticized for not recognizing in the exceptional circumstances her duty to give way to the larger less maneuverable ship foreign s one-third of the blame to the Queen Mary two-thirds of the fault to the to the Royal Navy ship Curacao you never had if could shame a ship have prevailed it wouldn't have happened [Music] maybe if you think about it it is disastrous 300 odd men going being lost in five minutes people weren't paying attention on either side of it comes to it they both couldn't actually moved away and Social Security is on a steady bearing getting underfoot Waterway but she had no reserver speed that the crew Mary did to the waste terrible waste of men's lives took six years to find a legally binding decision on who was to blame for the the court could only rely on fallible memories of a disputed sequence of events yet at the time no one had physical evidence from the wreck itself the dive team are now searching for curacaoa's steering mechanism curacaoa really put her Helm the wrong way or did she keep to her course they have just 12 minutes at the wreck site to search for the rudder after 60 years what shape will it be in divers continue the hunt for new evidence from the wreck of the British warship curacaoa they head to the rear to locate the critical part the rudder [Music] on their way they discover anti-aircraft guns [Music] foreign stands by and even rounds of shells for her weapons to be effective against German aircraft the curacaoa needed to be within half a mile of the Queen Mary on this day both ships came just too close at the last minute as the dive team are on the verge of abandoning their search Dan Stevenson glimpses the rudder it's hidden under netting but it's intact and its direction is plain clearly see that Rudder is straight ahead when this ship was hit she was going in a straight line she wasn't altering to left or to the right the evidence from the wreck is clear it confirms recent testimony from a curacaoa survivor stationed high up in the air defense position Patrick Holmes who later wrote a book about the incident States our wake was perfectly straight to the best of my memory whatever Helm orders were given seemed to have little effect curacaoa did not steer into Queen Mary she maintained her course straight ahead had both ships taken avoiding action earlier 338 men might have been saved in the end responsibility lay with the two captains a and both men bore a heavy burden for the rest of their lives [Music] six to six years old survivors of the Collision meet on curacaoa's sister ship HMS Caroline now birthed in Belfast Northern Ireland it's a time to share memories he was there the phone credit there engineering bulkhead and the cup throws it out yeah I go in that bulk right there yeah and he was it was just that much away from yeah that was the Queen Mary if you'd have been on this side of the bulkhead then you probably would have got it would have probably sliced me in half yeah yeah I'd already always said to my mum because she used to worry herself stiff and I went away I said don't worry I'm coming home don't matter what it is true to me word I came home but I want to give you guys a picture I brought you one each eats well I'll give you yours right now that your ship uh just a few minutes after you it was hit it hadn't even started going down at that time and this was taken from the deck of the Queen Mary I I had always thought that we could see that this is a crow's nest it's really been a pleasure meeting these fellas because all down through these years for the past almost 66 years I've wondered about people I've wondered about the survivors I've wondered about the so many of the people that went down on the ship and I had no faces to look at I had nothing to really zero in on except the ship itself and a lot of smoke and confusion and everything and meeting these two survivors hearing their stories how they survived where they were when their ship was hit and all of these things it's given me something to grasp I guess some people say giving me some closure I think all these years I've needed somebody to talk to that was on that ship by the end of her War service the Cunard line of Queen Mary had traveled over 600 000 miles and transported 800 000 troops around the world although she was a prize Target sought by the combined forces of Germany Italy and Japan she never return the gray ghost evaded her enemies for all of her wartime service [Applause] immobilized at Southampton England in 1946 but carried on sailing many Americans had married overseas during the war and that year the Queen Mary transported 60 000 women and children to their new homes in the United States for the next 20 years she and her sister ship the Queen Elizabeth remained the Undisputed mollusks of the North Atlantic Passage today the wreck of curacaoa is a protected site designated an official War grave and will not be disturbed she lies as a poignant reminder of human error fixed beliefs in rights led to a terrible wrong [Music]

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 307,432

Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, sunken wrecks, shipwrecks, ship disasters, sunken warships, world war naval ships, ww1 documentary, naval disasters, timeline, timeline world history, timeline world history documentaries, timeline channel

Id: 222W4rf5lpw

Length: 51min 53sec (3113 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 19 2022