Submerged wreck recalls depths of wartime heroism

Numerous bottles of iodine, cordite, bullets and other ammunition that were meant to assist Malta in its greatest hour of need during World War II ended up in Tunisian waters where they have lain for the past 65 years.

A substantial part of this cargo was on board the mv Glenorchy, which had formed part of the historic Sta Marija convoy. The massive wreck, which lies upright, is an excellent artefact recalling not only the heroics of the men who faced the wrath of the enemy to help Malta but also the tenacious character of the Maltese who withstood the deprivations of war.

Documenting the Glenorchy wreck adds another piece to the jigsaw puzzle that maps out the bloody sequence of World War II.

A team of Maltese and British divers recently shot footage of the Glenorchy. It is the resting place of eight of its crew, including its captain who was the last skipper to go down with his ship in the age old tradition of stoic sea dogs.

The footage will be screened during X'Qala' l-Bahar on TVM next Monday after the 8 p.m. news. The Glenorchy was sunk on August 13, 1942.

The programme's producer, professional deep sea diver Emi Farrugia, said the plan to film the Glenorchy had been brewing for several years.

The British team was led by Simon Bennett who is another old hand at searching for and diving on wrecks.

Although the sinking of the Glenorchy when it was torpedoed had been documented, it still needed a lot of preparation to pinpoint the wreck exactly and to proceed with the dive.

"A Tunisian fisherman known as the Mexican had been reporting the loss of fishing nets on a certain 'reef' which turned out to be the massive remains of the Glenorchy. "Our aim now is to gauge the interest by other divers who would like to experience the thrill of diving over such a historic monument," Mr Farrugia said.

The vessel's manufacturer's plate was one of the items that confirmed the wreck was the Glenorchy. It has now been passed on to the Tunisian authorities.

Pablo Micallef, the presenter of X'Qala' il-Bahar, said the first impression made by the Glenorchy is the enormous size of its hold as the ship towers about seven storeys above the sea bed. "For those who lived through WWII, the footage will recall the hardship they endured.

"For the younger generations it will, hopefully, show how hard it was for the island to be provided with food, fuel, spare parts and other supplies which had literally dried up," Mr Micallef said.

A flotilla of 15 merchant ships including the Glenorchy, in the company of a huge British naval escort - the convoy Operation Pedestal also known as the Sta Marija convoy - entered the Mediterranean on the night of August 10, 1942 on its way to Malta.

Only five of the merchant ships survived the onslaught of enemy action.

One of them, the Ohio, limped into Grand Harbour on August 14 to supply the desperate islanders with much-needed provisions. The arrival coincided with the feast of Sta Marija and took on a spiritual significance which is celebrated till this day.

Since 1999, Mr Farrugia has managed to film and document for the first time three other shipwrecks also belonging to Operation Pedestal, namely mv Dorset, mt Ohio and HMS Manchester.

JP Attard is assistant producer. X'Qala' l-Bahar is a Where's Everybody? production.

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