My story of the loss of HMS Olympus (February 22) generated considerable interest as evinced by the many persons who have been in touch with me. So I would like to expand on a few points.
In the introduction to the story I mentioned that a company, Dive-Tech, had originally found the wreck on May 7, 2008. It issued a lengthy statement but failed to publicise fully the fact that, on a second dive in clearer conditions less than a week later , they noticed aspects of the wreck that made them doubt it was Olympus. They gave a bearing which, in fact, varies altogether from the spot where Olympus was located by the Aurora Trust, which clearly identified the wreck.
It is to the credit of this archaeological team that they kept in touch with the authorities in Malta and the United Kingdom once they were able to confirm the position of Olympus now designated an underwater grave, which must not be disturbed.
I based my story on the original accounts of two submariners, that of Chief ERA W.G. Wright (P39), which he typed with minor corrections in his handwriting and which later appeared in the book Beneath the Waves, and by Sto. P.O. Frank Matthews, who served in P36, which is handwritten, dated July 1996.
My friend, Vincent Zahra remembers that as a young dockyard boy of 15 in the electrical engineering department, afloat section, he worked on Olympus before she sailed from Dockyard Creek on the morning of May 8, 1942.
I have been in touch some years back with relatives of those who died, including those who have been out here to drop wreaths on the spot where she was believed to have sunk, the Armed Forces of Malta providing patrol boats for this. This was at a spot some six miles from the Grand Harbour breakwater.
My story was based, beside personal accounts, on information from the Admiralty, including the casualty list that gave an incorrect total of sailors as it included one name repeated twice.
George Malcolmson, the archivist at the RN Submarine Museum and I appeared to agree on the correct figures of those who drowned and those who were saved as given in my story, updating totals that have appeared previously in books and write-ups.
On this score, I would like to correct the figure I gave of the bodies recovered, which inadvertently was given as five when in fact it was six as named in the common grave plot F 102 at Capuchin’s naval cemetery at Kalkara. These were Ldg. Cook Frederick G. Wilson, ERA Frederick G. Talbott, Ldg. Tel. William H. Marchant, Sto. George Garston, Sto. William T.Davis, all from Olympus and Writer Richard Thorpe, recorded as from Olympus when in fact he was from Penelope.
There were 11 (not nine, as elsewhere reported) survivors, the names identified as recently as 2007 by George Malcolmson: Ord. Tel. R.A.Gardner, Ldg.Sto. A.W.Turner, A/B H.A. Rawlings, all from Olympus; P/O J. Hopemour, Chief ERA W.S. Wright, Ldg. Sto. A. Hiscock, P/O J.H. Semour, P/O F.G. Selby and A/B J.W. Laybourne, all from P39; and Ldg.Sto. S. Farley and Ldg.Sto. S. Jones.
Perhaps some RN submarine association might unveil a memorial tablet at the Upper Barrakka or Manoel Island or St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral or the Maritime Museum.