0:00
13 men died when this ship was smashed
0:03
in the dark. And for over a hundred
0:06
years, nobody has had any idea where it
0:11
Our target for the dive is a wreck lying
0:14
in 85 m. It's about the right size and
0:18
is split into two, so it looks really
0:21
promising. We're hoping to get the
0:24
evidence that will allow us to prove
0:26
beyond reasonable doubt that we have
0:28
found the SS Express. To do that, we
0:31
need to find three critical clues. The
0:35
first is a distinctive two-cylinder
0:38
compound engine. We're also after hard
0:41
evidence of her cargo and the
0:44
catastrophic break where the hole was
0:47
quite literally chopped into.
0:50
If we find them, we can say that we've
0:53
solved a shipwreck mystery that's been
0:55
around for over a hundred years. But
0:58
more importantly, we also provide
1:01
closure to the local community. Because
1:04
these weren't just anonymous sailors.
1:07
These were members of that community.
1:09
They were brothers and fathers and sons.
1:14
So why was it so hard to find? In order
1:18
to understand that, we have to go back
1:22
This was wartime, the first world war.
1:25
The North Sea and the area around the
1:28
Orcne was a front line. There was
1:31
convoys and supply ships and naval
1:34
vessels and submarines.
1:37
There was no navigation lights. All
1:39
there were were blacked out ships and a
1:43
whole lot of metal moving through the
1:45
same narrow dangerous water. The SS
1:50
Express was a slow cargo steamer. The
1:53
ship that hit it, HMS Grenville, was an
1:57
Mclass destroyer, fast, narrow, built to
2:02
cut through water at high speed. The
2:05
Express was on its regular cargo route
2:08
from Leath near Edinburgh in Scotland to
2:11
Kirkwall when just 12 miles short of her
2:14
destination, she encountered the
2:16
Ganville. And the physics mean if a,000
2:21
ton destroyer hits a 350 ton small steam
2:26
ship, that isn't just another bump. It
2:29
didn't just damage her, it chopped her
2:32
in two. In 1918, there was no GPS and no
2:37
time really to figure out exactly where
2:40
they were. The war moved on and the
2:43
wreck of the SS Express simply vanished
