HMS Dasher
Looking out from Ardrossan Castle, across the rather unattractive roof tops of Ardrossan and its harbour, towards the misty mountains of Arran.
We have visited the sites of two maritime disasters in the last week, and sailed right over the top of another today, in the waters of the Firth of Clyde straight out there between Brodick and Ardrossan. On 27th March 1943, the Royal Navy escort aircraft carrier HMS Dasher was returning from conducting aircraft landing exercises when without any warning, she suddenly blew up. Of the crew of 528, only 149 survived. The exact cause of the explosion is not known, but is thought to have involved the aircraft fuel storage and perhaps the torpedoes and depth charges carried onboard. The explosion was so great that it blew the aircraft lift 60ft in the air and over the side of the ship. The flight deck was pealed back "like a sardine can lid" for half its length, and the carrier sank in just 8 minutes. A number of small vessels rushed to provide assistance, some heroically sailing into the blazing fuel oil that covered the sea and prevented so many from escaping.
The loss of HMS Dasher was largely hushed up at the time, because it was considered that the loss of 379 lives in home waters and so close to shore, would be bad for public morale. The local press were instructed not to report the incident and the dead were buried in a mass unmarked grave.
Some teak timbers from HMS Dasher, probably released from their watery grave by the corrosion of the steel that held them, washed up on the beach at Ardrossan in 1999.
HMS Dasher
Looking out from Ardrossan Castle, across the rather unattractive roof tops of Ardrossan and its harbour, towards the misty mountains of Arran.
We have visited the sites of two maritime disasters in the last week, and sailed right over the top of another today, in the waters of the Firth of Clyde straight out there between Brodick and Ardrossan. On 27th March 1943, the Royal Navy escort aircraft carrier HMS Dasher was returning from conducting aircraft landing exercises when without any warning, she suddenly blew up. Of the crew of 528, only 149 survived. The exact cause of the explosion is not known, but is thought to have involved the aircraft fuel storage and perhaps the torpedoes and depth charges carried onboard. The explosion was so great that it blew the aircraft lift 60ft in the air and over the side of the ship. The flight deck was pealed back "like a sardine can lid" for half its length, and the carrier sank in just 8 minutes. A number of small vessels rushed to provide assistance, some heroically sailing into the blazing fuel oil that covered the sea and prevented so many from escaping.
The loss of HMS Dasher was largely hushed up at the time, because it was considered that the loss of 379 lives in home waters and so close to shore, would be bad for public morale. The local press were instructed not to report the incident and the dead were buried in a mass unmarked grave.
Some teak timbers from HMS Dasher, probably released from their watery grave by the corrosion of the steel that held them, washed up on the beach at Ardrossan in 1999.