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NEW TEK CONFERENCE IN THE UK
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Talks & Presentations
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story of the greatest gold salvage from a sunken vessel
in history.
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| On June 22nd 2001 a team of British
divers discovered the famous lost shipwreck 'Flying Enterprise'
as they swam the decks for the first time they in turn wrote
the final chapter in the history books of a famous shipwreck
story. The wreck now lies resting on her port side in a depth
of 280ft on the seabed of the western approaches to the English
Channel, her last 14 days afloat and the dramatic attempt to
save the ship almost 50 years before her discovery, made her
a house hold name across the world. |
The navigation bar at the top of each
most extensive look into the story of
the ship, her discovery as well as a
government and the FBI were so
to this day. The navigation bar will
of the wreck as she lies today and
cuttings from 1952. The depth of the
more experienced diver although the
shipwreck dives in British waters if
Our discovery of the wreck brings to
laid almost forgotten over the last 50 |
 |
page will guide you through perhaps the
the ship, her captain, the fight to save
look into her secret cargo which the US
intent to cover up at the time! and still
also guide you through pages of images
also expedition images and news
wreck means that it is a dive for the
wreck is fast becoming one of the classic
not the wreck dive in British waters.
light much interest in the ship which has
years, a recent National Geographic film |
has brought the story to a new generation and
the legendary Captain Kurt Carlsen and his famous ship continues
to live on. I first heard of the 'Flying Enterprise' back in
the early days of technical diving, in the days when not even
hardened wreckers ventured a few miles offshore. I was with
Melvin Richard Tom's a skipper from Looe, England, perhaps better
known to many as 'Mally'! As we looked out to sea from the Cornish
coastline Mally told me of this classic story. " If you're
into deep wreckin go look for the Flying Enterprise," he
said. Mally was only 7 years of age when the Flying Enterprise
was lost although he still remembers it to this day.
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I was even more intrigued to hear
of such a classic shipwreck story from someone who actually
remembered it as it happened. My curiosity and enthusiasm to
discover the whereabouts of this famous ship paid dividends
some years later as I became the proud man to be the first to
swim along the decks and see her with my own eyes. On route
back from an expedition to dive the famous Egypt
gold Shipwreck, my friend Chris Hutchison and I were determined
to discover yet another famous shipwreck. I hope you enjoy these
pages as much as I have enjoyed being part of the history of
this continuing, unfolding story. Leigh Bishop
2004
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Above Right;
Carlsen became so famous he even had beer named after him.
A cover of the Daily Graphic which along with
many other world wide news papers ran with the story of the
sinking ship for almost two weeks.
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Perhaps the first stunning impact of the Flying
Enterprise's plight was thrust home on the British public by
a huge picture taking up more than half of the front page, in
the Daily Express. It was soon slammed home to millions of readers
world wide as they dealt with their breakfasts, or swung in
trains and buses each morning;
"Here was a ship, a heroic ship and on her is a heroic
man."
It was the beginning of a story, which never shrunk in size
up to its last minutes. |
The world loves a fighter but Carlsen's
time was up on the 10th day of January 1952 Flying Enterprise
foundered Carlsen and Mr Ken Dancy
walked horizontally along the submerging funnel stack and leapt
into the sea. By one of those curious ironic twists that life
holds for all of us Turmoil's captain and crew, Mr Dancy and
Captain Carlsen were not to see the final plunge of the ship
for which they had fought so long and so resolutely. Turmoil
altered course for Falmouth with the destroyer standing by.
Fifty minutes later came the signal "Flying Enterprise
had gone down" the small charade of on-looking vessels
sounding their whistles in admiration of a brave battle. (use
the navigation bar to read more) |
Telegraph inside the bridge of the wreck at
230ft depth ©Leigh Bishop |
Above Left; A carly lifefloat from
the famous Flying Enterprise
Above middle; Captain Carlsen's wind breaker &
life jacket.
Above right; Close up of the tag on the life jacket
Pictures courtesy of Innes McCartney taken in the
Wink Inn English Pub.
Follow the sub-menus above for lots more or check
out
Ron Mapplebeck's
original Enterprise pages
More about technical diving click
here >>
Learn how to become a technical diver with the best training click
here >>
About Deep Blue diving technical diving instructors click
here >>
More about technical diving instructor Richard Stevenson click
here >>
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CDNN
news site EXPOSED as thieves
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TITANIC
Two and a half miles below the Atlantic Ocean lies the most
famous of shipwrecks RMS Titanic. DeepImage now brings you the
2003 scientific expedition to the site.
Read
the full story here
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