Discovering Ireland's hidden shipwrecks
- On 16/09/2024
- In Wreck Diving
- 0 comments
By Neil Michael - Irish Examiner
When you see them for the first time, you literally stop in your tracks. And your reaction is just to go ‘wow’.
It’s like seeing something completely out of place.
It’s like as if you looked out your window in the morning and saw aliens standing in your driveway. This is how Stewart Andrews felt the first time he saw Sherman tanks on the ocean floor, off the Donegal coast.
The deep sea diver reckons there are about nine of them resting there.
The 27-plus tonne steel hulks, some on their sides, others flat on their tracks, peer out at different angles with their 76mm guns from a cold 66-meter deep watery darkness.
That murky darkness has surrounded them since they spilled out of the SS Empire Heritage when the tanker hit the ocean floor about 30km off Malin Head after being torpedoed twice by a German U-Boat at around 6am on September 8, 1944.
Stuck in time at the depth it sank to, the debris that litters the resting place of the 155-metre ship includes reminders of the 111 souls, including crew, gunners, and passengers, who died.
Stewart, who has been deep sea diving for more than 37 years, adds: “It's fascinating to look around the Shermans, because they're totally intact.
“I think they've still all got their guns connected to them. They're all very impressive.
“You wouldn’t try and interfere with them, but even if you wanted to try and look inside, you can’t.
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