T R Thompson Ship's Bell

A photo of the ship's bell recovered by Bromley BSAC

Welcome to DIVER readers !

A big welcome to you if you have navigated here as a result of the "Between the Winds" article by John Liddiard published in DIVER magazine (May 2006, pp84-89). It was a great shame that the weather prevented John diving the TRT.

As you will see this blog is devoted to collating information on the TRT. If you can contribute to the work please let me know by adding a comment to this post.

Take time to look through the blog, there is quite a lot material and much of the easily found on the www stuff has been found (but I'm sure not all of it!). Ideally we like info on the TRT itself even if this indirect, pictures of the ship are always welcome, either before or after she sank.

If you have a lot of information to share add your email to the comment. All comments are brought promptly to my attention , I will contact you and if need be edit comments.

Hope you enjoy the information and that you can contribute.

Chris-P

Inscription on the Head stone - Fireman S Ali

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission have kindly provided a translation of the inscriptions on the head stone to Fireman Ali's grave :-

Top :
“IN THE NAME OF ALMIGHTY ALLAH MOST KIND (OR BENEFICENT) MOST MERCIFUL”.

Below:
“WE BELONG TO THE ALMIGHTLY ALLAH AND WE HAVE TO RETURN TO HIM”.

Grateful thanks to the CWGC for their assitance . The CWGC also confirm that it is their belief that Ali's grave is the only known grave for those who lost their life in the sinking of the TRT.

Chris-P

How the Survivors were Rescued ?

Avid blog follower, Jim H has been surfing the www again and found this little gem (well, extract from DIVE Magazine of 4/1/2003, written by Simon Volpe) :-

The TR Thompson sank so quickly that 33 of the crew were killed outright. There was a tremendous explosion and the next thing that the three survivors could recall was that they were in the water. Those on a nearby trawler heard the blast and headed it to the debris field and found the three men. The sinking occurred at 3.50am, which is probably why most of the crew perished. Many would have been trapped below, as the ship fell to the sea floor.

Check the site yourself on :-

http://www.divemagazine.co.uk/news/article.asp?UAN=2210&v=5&sp=332140698295342633356

All we need now is details of the nearby trawler, it's crew and what happened to the survivors. We could ask Simon Volpe I suppose but sometimes journalists are relucatnt to reveal the sources!

T R Thopmson Dive 5th Feb 2006 ~ Not by us!

This little story taken from the Yorkshire Divers website from "Tom" :-

Few of us went out on Spartacat today, planning to do the TR Thompson. Vis didn't look great at the surface (coffee coloured water) and it only got worse as we descended. Hopes that it was just a surface layer and would clear as we got deeper were dashed around halfway down the line, when we met Alan (Getafix) coming back up. Not a good sign. Eventually hit bottom at 29m, in about 15cm of vis (seriously). Only stayed long enough to locate Matt and (using touch signals) indicate we should go back up.

Hmmm, gallant effort "Tom", especially in 5 Deg C of water. Do let us know when you do see something ... that said the Yorkshire Divers article went on to say that there was a net on the wreck , so do keep an eye open and take care!

T R T ~ Memorials : Fireman S ALI ~ Inscription

A close up of the inscription on the grave stone of Fireman S Ali. I hope that we will be able to get it translated in due course.

T R T ~ Memorials : Grave of Fireman S. ALI

As far as this project research is concerned, the grave of Fireman S Ali a member of the T R Thompson crew is the first grave to be located. As far as I can establish at this time Ali's grave is the only known grave for a victim of the sinking of the T R Thompson. The grave is situated in St James' Cemetery, Old Charlton Road, Dover, Kent.

T R T ~ Memorials : Portsmouth Naval Memorial

On 10th June 2004 I posted a list of locations for T R Thompson memorials with a view to getting them photographed. With this posting is the Portsmouth Naval Memorial which is a huge monument with many thousdnads of names inscribed upon it. Sadly I was unable to find a reference to the T R Thompson or her crew but I presume it must be there - perhaps some more enquiries to locate the inscription.

Dolphins on the T R T

Way back on August Bank Holiday (29th Aug 2005) Dolphins were spotted on the wreck of the TRT , this was something special as dolphins are rarely seen of the Sussex coast at all. The local paper, the ARGUS reported the sighting.

TRT Bollards

TRT Steering Quadrant

TRT Steering Quadrant

T R T Anchor

This photo of the TRT's anchor was taken by Matt Waterson on a recent TRT dive ! It's the first photo of the wreck that has been added to the blog for a long time , I hope more will follow! The plan was to create an extensive photo record!

TRT Dives

You wait for ages then all of a sudden two come along! Well that's how it was on Bank Holiday Monday (29/8/05) when TWO dives were made on the TRT! After all the false starts / near misses some dives have been done! Whey hey - hang out the bunting! And if that was not enough the divers reported DOLPHINS on the site / wreck (I kid you not!) The sighting has been reported to the Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society and should (we hope appear at some stage on their website :-

http://www.wdcs.org/sightings

A full report from the dives is awaited!

Anyone seen the TRT?

The TRT dive planned for Sun 21st August was redirected to the Clodmore - with this number of cancelled TRT dives it is time to recognise the wreck is a 'Ghost Ship' , that is , a wreck about which there is much speculation but very few , if any, corroborated sightings! When a wreck becomes a 'Ghost Ship' and there are so little first hand obseravtions you have to start questioning whether or not it exits at all! If anybody wishes to prove me wrong I'd be happy to receive a dive report on the TRT!

Two TRT Dives on the Cards!

Two dives on the TRT are planned for 21st and 29th August - if these take palce (!!) they should be very good - this is the best time of the year for viz! Hopefully someone will tell us something new about the wreck and maybe sketch it or photo it! Oink , Oink - look out low flying porcine!

Dive Plans

The TRT dive planned for the evening of Saturday 6th August was cancelled due to insufficient numbers of divers on the booking list - the TRT is surely jinxed!

Two more dates are planned :-

Sunday 21st August , meet at 1130hrs, and

Monday 29th August (BH) , meet ar 1215hrs

Get your place booked!

Third Dive Plan Cancelled!

It's a roll over! There , once again, were no winners on the TRT dive planned for 31st July 'cos for the third time in succession the dive was cancelled! We are running very low on excuses and so had to spend some time thinking up this one:-

The reason it was cancelled was because all our boat skippers were unavailable, the Skipper who had been pencilled-in to take the boat out was delayed on his return flight to the UK from the Red Sea and as a result could not take the boat out.

We are now opening a book on the fourth attempt - it's a bit like an accumulator, get your bets in - someone , one day is going to win big time!

Another TRT Dive Cancelled!

The TRT project dive planned for Sat 2 July was cancelled due to strong SW winds! The project team are now proposing a TRT dive on Sun 31st July , meeting at 12 midday. Third time lucky ?

TRT Dive Cancelled!

Everything was set for the "Wreck Tour" , dive team ready , boat ready but unfortunately no one had remembered to sort the weather out! Force 5 winds, low surface vis, rain and recent poor underwater vis sealed the fate of the dive - cancelled! John Liddiard used the freed-up time well by providing the dive team with insights of work & techniques along with some helpful tips on identifying steam ship faetures. Another date will be planned!