Death of the Droggy. OBITUARY for Rear Admiral Sir David Haslam, Royal Navy

Rear-Admiral Sir David Haslam

Rear-Admiral Sir David Haslam, who has died aged 86, was for 10 years Hydrographer of the Navy, responsible for the charts and nautical publications used by the Royal Navy, Merchant Navy and others worldwide.

As "Droggy", he commanded a fleet of a dozen survey ships while supervising, from his headquarters at Taunton, a staff of more than 1,000 civilians and retired hydrographers. These drew on the most recent information from the sea as well as an archive dating back to Captain Cook, maintaining 4,200 charts and 150 publications which are distributed by agents in 130 countries.

In Haslam's first few years chart sales earned some £3,300,000 and books a further £600,000, winning his office the Queen's Award for Export Achievement – a unique honour for a government department. But his success encouraged accountants to turn the Hydrographic Office into a self-funding, revenue-earning department which, unlike those of other navies, guarded its copyright jealously. As demand grew for ever more charts for yachtsmen and deeper draft ships, Haslam found himself fighting what were to become increasing demands for privatisation.

David William Haslam was born at Derby on June 26 1923 and educated at Bromsgrove School. He joined the Navy as a special entry in 1941 and spent two terms at Dartmouth before training at sea as a midshipman in the cruiser Birmingham, and the destroyers Quickmatch and Vivien. During Operation Ironclad, the British occupation of Madagascar, he was local control officer of a battery of three six-inch guns in the battleship Resolution.

Specialising in hydrography in 1944, he sounded the unexplored estuaries of Burma and Malaya from the survey ship White Bear (formerly Sir Thomas Lipton's steam yacht Iolanda) in preparation for the aborted Zipper landings.
When consulted 50 years later by the Burmese government about deep-water routes for tankers, he said that the charts which bore his signature were still the most up-to-date available, but cautioned that he had produced them for shallow-draft landing craft using a leadline at night behind Japanese lines.

In 1946 Haslam surveyed other routes in the South China Sea to ensure they were obstruction-free, and a year later commanded Survey Launch 325 in locating wartime wrecks in the North Sea for clearance by explosives. Over the next 30 years he served in or commanded the survey ships Scott, Dalrymple, Dampier, Vidal, Owen, Hecla, Hydra and the Australian Tallarook in the Great Barrier Reef, the Indian Ocean, the West Indies as well as the Pacific and North Atlantic. Often he spent weeks in small boats away from his parent ship and sleeping under canvas on shore.



His work was not without incident. In 1957 he was responsible for security at the meeting between Harold Macmillan and President Eisenhower on Bermuda. While commanding Owen seven years later he found evidence on the sea floor for the theory of continental drift. In 1964 he evacuated women and children from Zanzibar after a coup. In command of Hecla in 1969, he landed a party which hoisted the Union flag over Rockall to reinforce Britain's claim to the island and its surrounding seas.

Five years later he was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's medal for finding shorter sea routes through the previously uncharted seas off the Solomon Islands. He also discovered a series of coral pinnacles in the Persian Gulf, known as Haslam's Patches, and an underwater mountain north-west of the Seychelles, Haslam Seamount.

He was loaned to the Royal Australian Navy from 1947 to 1949, and returned 18 years later as its hydrographer to draw, print and collect more than 300 charts as well as to represent Australia at the International Hydrographic Conference in 1967. After retiring as Hydrographer of the Navy in 1985 Haslam was, for five years, president of the directing committee of the International Hydrographic Office based in Monaco. He was president of the English Schools Basketball Association, president of Derbyshire County Cricket Club and chairman of the international committee of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Although he never married, he had numerous nephews and nieces as well as 32 godchildren. He was devoted to Bromsgrove School, serving as chairman of governors from 1991 to 1996. Recently he took the salute at the CCF passing-out parade, a ceremony in which he had participated more than 70 years earlier.

As an admiral Haslam eschewed the trappings of high office, rejecting his official car to be driven to functions by his PA in her purple Mini or to travel second-class by train, when he might meet sailors and discover their concerns. He was an inveterate pipe smoker who always seemed to run out of tobacco at the start of any official visit, and his flag lieutenant was well advised to have acquired a tin of Three Nuns beforehand to forestall the inevitable crisis.



David Haslam was appointed OBE in 1964, CB in 1979 and KBE in 1984. He died on August 4 with his pipe in hand while watching sport on television.

The Biggest of them all. Sinking of the Battleship YAMATO

By any measure, the Japanese Battleship YAMATO is a beautiful creation of man's dreadful hand. Created in war, meant for one purpose and one purpose alone; the sinking of enemy combatants and the killing of the enemy's men.

Yamato (大和), named after the ancient Japanese Yamato Province, was a battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.

Flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet, she was lead ship of the Yamato class. She and her sister ship, Musashi, were the largest and heaviest battleships ever constructed, displacing 72,800 tonnes at full load, and armed with nine 46 cm (18.1 inch) main guns.



Constructed from 1937 – 1940 and formally commissioned in late 1941, Yamato served as the flagship of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto throughout 1942, first sailing as part of the Combined Fleet during the Battle of Midway in June 1942. Throughout 1943, Yamato continually transferred between Truk, Kure and Brunei in response to American airstrikes on Japanese island bases. The only time Yamato fired her main guns at enemy targets was in October 1944, but was ordered to turn back after attacks by destroyers and aircraft of the "Taffy" light escort carrier task groups managed to sink three heavy cruisers during the Battle off Samar. Yamato was sunk in April 1945 during Operation Ten-Go.



Yamato was the lead ship of the Yamato class of heavy-battleships, designed by the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1937. The class of battleship was designed to be capable of engaging multiple enemy targets, as a method of compensating for Japan's incapability to industrially compete with the United States Navy.

With the vessels of the Yamato class displacing over 70,000 tons each, it was hoped that the firepower of the constructed battleships could offset American industrial power. The keel of Yamato was laid down at Kure Naval Arsenal on 4 November 1937, in a specially designed dockyard. Throughout construction, large canvases prevented observation of the construction from elsewhere in the Kure Dockyards. Due to the size of the vessel, upgraded gantry cranes—each capable of lifting 150 and 350 tonnes—had to be designed and built for use during construction.

Yamato was launched 8 August 1940, with Captain (later Vice Admiral) Miyazato Shutoku in command.

Armament

Yamato's main battery consisted of nine 18.1-inch 40 cm/45 Type 94 naval guns—the largest caliber of naval artillery ever fitted to a warship. Each gun was 21.13 metres (69.3 ft) long, weighed 147.3 metric tons (162.4 short tons), and was capable of firing high-explosive or armour-piercing shells 42.0 kilometres (26.1 mi).

Her secondary battery comprised twelve 6.1-inch (15 cm) guns mounted in four triple turrets (one forward, one aft, two midships), and twelve 5-inch (13 cm) guns in six double-turrets (three on each side amidships). In addition, Yamato carried twenty-four 1-inch (2.5 cm) anti-aircraft guns, primarily mounted amidships. When refitted in 1944, the secondary battery configuration was changed to six 6.1-inch (15 cm) guns, twenty-four 5-inch (13 cm) guns, and one hundred sixty-two 1-inch (2.5 cm) antiaircraft guns, in preparation for naval engagements in the South Pacific.

Yamato's magazines finally explode, sending the mighty Battleship to the bottom.


1944: Combat

On 16 January 1944, Yamato arrived at Kure for repairs, and was drydocked until 3 February 1944. While drydocked, Captain Nobuei Morishita—former Captain of the battleship Haruna—assumed command of Yamato. On 25 February, both Yamato and Musashi were reassigned from the 1st Battleship Division to the Second Fleet. Yamato was again drydocked for upgrades to her radar and antiaircraft systems throughout March 1944, with a final AA suite of one hundred sixty-two 1-inch (25 mm) antiaircraft guns and twenty-four 5-inch (13 cm) medium guns. The radar suite was also upgraded to include infrared identification systems, aircraft-search and gunnery-control radar systems.

Following a short transport mission to the South Pacific in April, Yamato departed for Lingga alongside Jisaburo Ozawa's Mobile Fleet. In early June 1944, Yamato and Musashi departed as troop transports for Biak, with the intention of reinforcing both the garrison and naval defenses of the island. When word reached Ozawa's headquarters of American carrier attacks on the Mariana Islands, the mission was aborted.

From 19–23 June 1944, Yamato escorted forces of Ozawa's Mobile Fleet during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, dubbed by American pilots as "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot". Japanese aircraft losses exceeded 400, while three aircraft carriers were lost to submarines and airstrikes. Yamato's only major engagement throughout the operation was mistakenly opening fire on returning Japanese aircraft. Following the battle, Yamato and the Mobile Fleet withdrew to Brunei to refuel and rearm.


Yamato hit by a bomb on 24 October 1944 during the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea; this hit did little damage, however.


From 22–25 October 1944, Yamato joined Admiral Takeo Kurita's Centre force in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval engagement in history. While en route, the force was attacked in Palawan Passage by the submarines USS Darter and Dace. With torpedoes, they sank Maya and Atago (Kurita's flagship), and damaged Takao. This forced Kurita to transfer his flag to Yamato. During the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea, Yamato was hit with three armour-piercing bombs from aircraft of the USS Essex. Her sister-ship Musashi sank after being hit with seventeen torpedoes and nineteen bombs. On the evening of 24 October, Kurita's Centre Force navigated the San Bernardino Strait, attacking a small force of escort carriers and destroyers shortly after dawn.

In the initial stages of the Battle off Samar, Yamato engaged enemy surface forces for the first and last time, confirming hits on an escort carrier, a destroyer, and a destroyer escort. After confirming primary battery hits on USS Gambier Bay, a spread of American torpedoes heading for Yamato were spotted; the battleship was forced to withdraw from the fighting, and was unable to rejoin the battle. The task force disengaged later after three heavy cruisers were sunk, and the entire force was only able to sink one escort carrier and three destroyers.

Following the engagement off Samar, Yamato and the remainder of Force A returned to Brunei. On 15 November 1944, the 1st Battleship Division was disbanded, and Yamato became the flagship of the Second Fleet. On 21 November, while transiting the East China Sea in a withdrawal to Kure Naval Base, Yamato's battlegroup was attacked by the submarine USS Sealion, with the battleship Kongo and several destroyers lost. Upon returning to Kure, Yamato was immediately drydocked for repairs and antiaircraft upgrades, with several older antiaircraft guns being replaced. On 25 November, Captain Aruga Kosaku was named commander of Yamato.



Please click here for a most atmospheric rendering of the story yet to unfold.

With the sinking of the Bismarck in the Atlantic, the strategic value of the once almighty naval battleship was called into question. With the sinking of the Yamato, the fate of this class of ship was sealed, and so too the previously unquestioned precepts of naval warfare. From Nelson to the Yamato, the ensign had been stretched to breaking point. New thinking was urgently needed. It came from the air.



1945: Final operations and sinking

On 1 January 1945, Yamato, Haruna and Nagato were all transferred to the newly reactivated 1st Battleship Division; Yamato left drydock two days later. When the 1st Battleship Division was deactivated once again on 10 February, Yamato was reassigned to the 1st Carrier Division. On 19 March 1945 Yamato came under heavy attack when American carrier aircraft from Enterprise, Yorktown and Intrepid raided the major naval base of Kure where she was docked. Damage to the battleship, however, was light, due in part to the base being defended by elite veteran Japanese fighter instructors flying Kawanishi N1K "Shiden" or "George" fighters

Led by the man who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor, Minoru Genda, the appearance of these fighters, which were equal or superior to the F6F Hellcat in performance, surprised the attackers, and several American planes were shot down. Heavy antiaircraft defensive fire and the heavy upper-deck armour plating on Yamato also prevented any significant damage to the vessel. On 29 March, Yamato took on a full stock of ammunition, in preparation for combat off Okinawa in Operation Ten-Go.



Operation Ten-Go was a deliberate suicide attack against American forces off Okinawa by Yamato and nine escorts, beginning on 6 April 1945. Embarking from Kure, Yamato was to beach herself near Okinawa, and act as an unsinkable gun-emplacement—bombarding American forces on Okinawa with her 18.1-inch heavy-guns.

Yamato carried only enough fuel to reach Okinawa, as the fuel stocks available were insufficient to provide enough fuel to reach Okinawa and return. While navigating the Bungo Strait, Yamato and her escorts were spotted by the American submarines Threadfin and Hackleback, both of which notified Task Force 58 of Yamato's position. At 12:32 on 7 April 1945, Yamato was attacked by a first wave of 280 aircraft from Task Force 58, taking three hits (two bombs, one torpedo).

By 14:00, two of Yamato's escorts had been sunk. Shortly afterward, a second strike of 100 aircraft attacked Yamato and her remaining escorts. At 14:23, having taken 10 torpedo and 7 bomb hits, Yamato's forward ammunition magazines detonated. The smoke from the explosion—over 4 miles (6.4 km) high—was seen 100 miles (160 km) away on Kyūshū. An estimated 2,498 of the 2,700 crew members on Yamato were lost, including Vice-Admiral Seiichi Itō, the fleet commander.

The Bone Wreck. Sinking of the SS Armenian

The SS Armenian was built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast in 1895 and served with the Leyland Line until 1903. She spend a year chartered by the White Star Line and finished her life as a freighter. She was sunk by German Submarine of the Cornish coast in June of 1914


Search for the Bone Wreck

In June 1915, the SS Armenian, a large steamship managed by the White Star Line, the owners of the Titanic, heads into the Bristol Channel from the United States. She is carrying over 1400 mules destined for the Western Front. As the unarmed vessel nears the British coast, a German submarine spots the former liner and fires warning shots. To avoid capture, the Armenian makes a run for it. As the U-boat continually pounds her with shells, the captain orders the crew to abandon ship.

Once the remaining crew is safely off in lifeboats, the German U-boat fires a torpedo into the stern of the steamship. It only takes minutes for the Armenian to sink to the bottom of the Atlantic, with her unfortunate cargo of 1400 mules still on board. 29 American crewmembers also die, causing controversy as the United States have not yet officially entered the war.



More than 90 years later, the infamous White Star Line vessel has still not been found. Many have searched the waters off the coast of Cornwall, but the Armenian has proved to be elusive. Now, a new expedition of international divers is hunting for the ship known as the Bone Wreck. Using state-of-the-art dive and survey equipment, the team aims to be the first to find this long-lost vessel.

Underwater surveys have revealed several possibilities, and the divers’ first objective is to go down to two large wrecks near the point the captain of the Armenian noted as the location where he believed the ship went down. But even though one of those wrecks is full of bones, neither proves to be the Armenian. The expedition is forced to follow other lines of enquiry in order to locate the missing ship.

Unexpectedly, German archives reveal the actual log from the German U-boat that sank the mule transport. The German commander’s coordinates are at least 20 miles from where the ship was reported to have sunk and where the team has been searching. The final resting place of the Armenian has been found, with her sad cargo of thousands of mule bones aboard.

The sinking of the Ferry ILINDEN

Drownings in Lake Ohrid in Southwest Macedonia whilst ferrying tourists to an Orthodox Monastery.

Mined off the Donegal Coast, the sinking of HMS Audacious

HMS Audacious was a King George V-class battleship of the Royal Navy.
The vessel did not survive its first conflict, being sunk by a naval mine off the northern coast of Donegal in Ireland in 1914.



At the beginning of World War I Audacious was part of the Second Battle Squadron of the British Grand Fleet. On 27 October 1914 the Second Battle Squadron, consisting of the 'super-dreadnoughts' HMS King George V, HMS Ajax, HMS Centurion, Audacious, HMS Monarch, HMS Thunderer and HMS Orion, left Lough Swilly to conduct gunnery exercises at Loch na Keal.

In a middle of a turn at 08:05 Audacious ran upon a mine laid by the German auxiliary mine-layer Berlin. The port engine room was flooded immediately, and Audacious began to list heavily and settle by the stern. Captain Cecil F. Dampier, thinking that the ship had been attacked by a submarine, hoisted the submarine warning and the rest of the squadorn steamed away from possible danger. Audacious, though unmanageable, was still capable of making 9 knots (17 km/h) on her starboard engine. Dampier believed that he had a chance of making the 25 miles (40 km) to land and beach the ship.

The light cruiser Liverpool stood by, while Audacious broadcast distress signals by wireless. The Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet, Sir John Jellicoe ordered every available destroyer and tug out to assist, but did not dare send out battleships to tow Audacious in because of the apparent submarine threat. Meanwhile the White Star liner Olympic arrived on the scene.





At 10:50, with flooding worsening in the starboard engine room, Audacious stopped. Dampier brought the head of the ship round to sea and ordered all non-essential crew off. Boats from Liverpool and Olympic assisted until all but 250 men were taken off. At 13:30 the captain of Olympic, Commodore Haddock, suggested that his ship attempt to take Audacious in tow. Dampier agreed and with the assistance of the destroyer Fury a tow line was passed within half an hour. The ships began moving toward Lough Swilly, but Audacious was so unmanageable that the tow line parted. Liverpool and the collier Thornhill attempted to take the battleship in tow, but to no avail. In the mean time, at 13:08 a message had arrived from the coastguard station at Mulroy that the steamer Manchester Commerce had been mined in the same area the day before.

At 16:60 Malin Head reported that the sailing vessel Cardiff had also been mined the previous night. Upon learning this, at 17:00 Jellicoe ordered the pre-dreadnought battleship Exmouth out to attempt to tow Audacious in. In case the ship was saved he also requested an officer from the Construction Department at the Admiralty in anticipation of major repairs.

Vice-Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, commander of the First Battle Squadron, arrived on the scene in the boarding vessel Cambria and took over the rescue operation. With dark approaching, Bayly, Dampier and the remaining men on Audacious were taken off at 19:15. At 21:00 Audacious capsized and exploded, sending débris into the air. A piece of armour plate fell on and killed a petty officer on Liverpool, which was 800 yards (730 m) distant. This was the only casualty in connection with the sinking.



Jellicoe immediately proposed that the sinking be kept a secret, which the Board of Admiralty and the British Cabinet agreed to, an act open to ridicule later on. For the rest of the war Audacious' name remained on all public lists of ship movements and activities. Many Americans on board Olympic were beyond British jurisdiction and discussed the sinking. Many photos had been taken and even one moving film. By 19 November the loss of the ship was accepted in Germany. Jellicoe's opposing number in Germany, Reinhard Scheer, wrote after the war: "In the case of the Audacious we can but approve the English attitude of not revealing a weakness to the enemy, because accurate information about the other side's strength has a decisive effect on the decisions taken.

Just give me a ship; a tall, tall ship, and a star to steer her by.

For about seventy years, from 1830, clipper ships were the racehorses of the sea. Sail has given way to steam and all the technological enhancements that have followed, but there is nothing at all more glorious than the sight of one of these magnificent vessels in full sail upon a shining ocean.

Fire at Sea. The sinking of Achille Lauro

In 1964, she was sold to the Flotta Lauro Line, or Star Lauro, (now MSC Cruises) and renamed the Achille Lauro (after the company owner). Extensively rebuilt and modernized after an August 1965 onboard explosion, the Achille Lauro entered service in 1966 carrying passengers to Sydney, Australia. The ship played a role in evacuating the families of British servicemen caught up in the Six Day War, arriving in Cairo on June 1, 1967.

The Achille Lauro was converted to a cruise ship in early 1972, during which time she suffered a disastrous fire. A 1975 collision with the cargo ship Youseff resulted in the sinking of the latter, and another onboard fire in 1981 took her out of service for a time. She was laid up in Tenerife when the Lauro Lines went bankrupt in 1982. The Chandris Line took possession of her in 1985, shortly before the hijacking.

1985 hijacking

On October 7, 1985, four men representing the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) took control of the liner off Egypt as she was sailing from Alexandria to Port Said.

The hijackers had been surprised by a crew member and acted prematurely. Holding the passengers and crew hostage, they directed the vessel to sail to Tartus, Syria, and demanded the release of 50 Palestinians then in Israeli prisons. After being refused permission to dock at Tartus, the hijackers murdered wheelchair-bound American passenger Leon Klinghoffer and threw his body overboard. The ship headed back towards Port Said, and after two days of negotiations, the hijackers agreed to abandon the liner in exchange for safe conduct and were flown towards Tunisia aboard an Egyptian commercial airliner.

United States President Ronald Reagan ordered that the plane be intercepted by F-14A Tomcats from the VF-74 "BeDevilers" and the VF-103 "Sluggers" of Airwing 17, based on the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, on October 10 and directed to land at Naval Air Station Sigonella, a N.A.T.O. base in Sicily, where the hijackers were arrested by the Italians after a disagreement between American and Italian authorities.




The other passengers on the plane (possibly including the hijackers' leader, Abu Abbas) were allowed to continue on to their destination, despite protests by the United States. Egypt demanded an apology from the U.S. for forcing the airplane off course.

Disagreement between Italy and U.S.

Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi claimed Italian territorial rights over the NATO base and Italian Air Force and Carabinieri lined up facing the American Navy SEALs which had arrived with two C-141's. Other Carabinieri were sent from Catania to reinforce the Italians. It was the gravest diplomatic crisis between Italy and United States and was resolved five hours later.

The ship continued in service; she was reflagged in 1987 when the Lauro Line was taken over by the Mediterranean Shipping Company to become StarLauro. On November 30, 1994, she caught fire off the coast of Somalia while enroute to South Africa. Abandoned, the vessel sank on December 2.

Click here for a brief video of the shocking fire that sank the Lauro.