By: Papa Lima - 15th February 2006 at 07:42
Fairey Fulmar II N1854
Here she is folks, in all her glory!
By: JDK - 15th February 2006 at 04:45
Interesting to read who the backer was. I wonder if he fancies any of those Fulmars? The Swordfish looked a mess but the two or three Fulmars shown seemed to be in pretty good shape. Obviously the salt water will have done untold damage to them but maybe something can be saved from the wrecks to help make another Fulmar for somebody with sufficient will and finances.
I’d like to believe someone would recover and restore another Fulmar, but it’s not likely.
For all those lusting after these rare aircraft the Ark was carrying, the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton have the last Fulmar (an historic airframe as the prototype of the Mk.I and Mk.II, and flown by Fairey’s for many years) and a reconstructed Albacore on display, as well as a refurbished Barracuda chunk – the largest piece on display. The hordes charge past these for ‘the Seafire’ and that is a sad measure of people’s discernment. Many thanks to the FAAM for having a much more inclusive approach than some of their audience would allow.
By: paulmcmillan - 14th February 2006 at 14:05
I think it was his Yacht, wasn’t it called Octupus in the program?
See the siet above for full details of its ‘kit’
By: EN830 - 14th February 2006 at 13:37
I’m with david – the dive boat looked like a luxury yacht – great programme and unusual to be prime time – long time coming though i think they said the dive was in 2004?TT
It could well be Paul Allens own private yacht. An acquaintance of mine had dealings with Paul a few years ago, a result of which he sold him some works of art. A number of meetings were conducted on Paul’s yacht, the description of which included submersibles of various kinds.
By: paulmcmillan - 14th February 2006 at 13:11
Start with pots (plus quite a lot more) of money.
Paul Allen.
I wondered about that when I saw the reference to “Vulcan something” as the co-producers
By: Stuart - 13th February 2006 at 23:41
Interesting to read who the backer was. I wonder if he fancies any of those Fulmars? The Swordfish looked a mess but the two or three Fulmars shown seemed to be in pretty good shape. Obviously the salt water will have done untold damage to them but maybe something can be saved from the wrecks to help make another Fulmar for somebody with sufficient will and finances.
By: TEXANTOMCAT - 13th February 2006 at 17:32
I’m with david – the dive boat looked like a luxury yacht – great programme and unusual to be prime time – long time coming though i think they said the dive was in 2004?
TT
By: Pete Truman - 13th February 2006 at 17:29
One thing we didn’t see was the bridge and superstructure, I presume that it must have fallen off too. If there was a great big hole where the bow had been I thought it would have been fairly easy to steer in the submersible and look in the hangar, but I’m no expert on steering these things.
By: Bruce - 13th February 2006 at 17:13
Yes, indeed, I was surprised about it!
By: dhfan - 13th February 2006 at 16:49
Start with pots (plus quite a lot more) of money.
Paul Allen.
By: JDK - 13th February 2006 at 13:21
It was interesting that the Swordfish Pilot was very complementary about the aircraft. They could have pointed out that despite it outdated look, it actually outlasted it successor.
Partly because its successor was actually worse. FAA aircrew were the the most badly served aviators of W.W.II by their country’s production.
By: David Burke - 13th February 2006 at 13:15
What interested me was the dive ship which looked somewhat better than the average
converted deep sea trawler! There is either money in finding wrecks like that or someone fancied finding her for the hell of it!
By: DaveF68 - 13th February 2006 at 13:10
3000 ft is shallow compared with the deep oceans. I’d guess the Fulmars were in the forward part of the hanger and fell out when the bow ripped off as she sank.
The fish looked like an angler fish
By: andrewman - 13th February 2006 at 13:01
Well it was certainly an interesting program, nice one BBC 🙂
By: Nosedive - 13th February 2006 at 10:59
It was interesting that the Swordfish Pilot was very complementary about the aircraft. They could have pointed out that despite it outdated look, it actually outlasted it sucessor.
By: Shorty01 - 13th February 2006 at 10:53
Go on then, who did finance it ?
By: Bruce - 13th February 2006 at 09:01
Well done the BBC.
Indeed, but who financed it? You may be interested in the answer….
By: Flanker_man - 13th February 2006 at 07:51
Superb documentary with lots of archive footage. Shame nothing worth recovering from the aircraft.
I enjoyed it – but I hadn’t realised that the Ark Royal had ‘changed the face of naval warfare’ !!! :rolleyes:
I do wish they wouldn’t use such hyperbole.
Ken
By: dhfan - 13th February 2006 at 07:33
Excellent programmes – both of them. The one on BBC4 afterwards was similar but not the same.
I thought the Med was supposed to be shallow. 3,000ft isn’t shallow.
By: brewerjerry - 13th February 2006 at 07:17
war grave
Hi
If everyone got off she should not be classified as a war grave,
This classification disrespects the sites which actually are war graves, and still have bodies on board ….
By the whole definition ‘ grave ‘ if there are none it can’t be one, it wouldn’t stand up in a court.
Never the less a good program ,thanks for making us all aware.
Cheers
Jery
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February 10, 2006 at 5:40 pm