An important event

Day four was of some importance to us. We'd be getting to a place in the middle of the North Sea that had a particular significance.... 

It's a rather long story, but basically, Charlie and elder sister Jenny have recently been researching our family history and one aspect of particular interest has been the fate of our maternal Uncle Kenwyn who died during WW2. Hitherto we'd known little more than had been written on his wife Carol's grave (also killed in the war by a German bomb): that he was missing after a mission to Norway as the navigator of a Catalina (long range sea-plane). 

Recently though, thanks to Morten and Lindzee (who we're expecting to meet in Trondheim), Charlie discovered a great deal of detail about what happened to Uncle Kenwyn. In brief, his plane, Catalina AH566 of the Royal Canadian Air Force, with ten crew aboard, was shot down by a German BV138 seaplane just 250 miles or so from their home base at Sullom Voe after nearly completing a long reconnaisance mission. 

The German crew recorded where they'd shot down the Catalina and thanks to Morten's researches into German archives, and putting the relevant data online, we now know that Ken's Catalina crashed in the North Sea somewhere near latitude 63° 12' 30" N, longitude 04° 05' 00" E (note to Jenny, Liz & Sarah, not 83° as erroneously written in the essay). 

Earlier this year, Barbara happened to come across a Fred Olsen brochure and noticed that one particular cruise seemed to route the ship right across where Ken's plane had been shot down. So, she said "how would I like to go on that cruise"? 

In preparation we bought ten red roses - one for each member of the crew of AH566 that died on the 22nd October 1941 - and made up a commemoration card signed by myself and my three sisters, all Ken's oldest surviving relatives, to throw overboard at the relevant location. 

And so, thanks to great cooperation from the captain and crew of the Black Watch, at 07:30 on Friday the 10th August 2012, we were heading in a dead straight line, on a heading of 22° for the exact location that marks the centre of a rectangle given by the German crew as the place where they shot down Ken's plane.

In the above view of our GPS, the sinking ship marks the nominal crash site, the cross hairs are us aboard the Black Watch, the 'Crash site' box shows the distance we are from the site in nautical miles, the heading required and the time (hrs:mins) to get there at the present speed. Below that, the other box shows the speed, bearing  and current position of the Black Watch.

Eight minutes to go and less than two nautical miles from the site, Barbara prepares the bouquet and card ready for our little ceremony. We've rung reception as requested by them to confirm that.we'll soon be throwing the roses over the back of the boat.

A last check that the card's in place:

Then a look at the GPS to see where we are:

To Charlie's surprise, we find that the boat has changed course just before the exact point (note the bend in the blue line) so that instead of going directly over the point we miss it by 1/3rd of a nautical mile - no problem, as the location is very approximate anyway.

Barbara casts the commemorative bouquet over and it flutters down to the sea below:

In the video, the beeping noise in the background is the proximity alarm on the GPS, telling me that we're within one nautical mile of the centre of the 4.5 by 5 NM area where the Catalina went down.

And that's it. If our mum (Ken's younger sister) was still alive, she would have been been very pleased we're sure, and if we can find any relatives of the other crew members, hopefully they too will be pleased that their missing fathers, uncles, grandfathers, etc, have been remembered.

Back down in the cabin, we can see on the TV where the Black Watch is:

Excitement over, we confirm to reception that we've finished and thank the captain & crew for their help in navigating to the exact position requested. Then down to breakfast and other things.

Later in the morning, a demonstration by a senior chef of ice carving:

And Charlie goes for a swim in the big pool where the water is sloshing from side to side as the boat rocks gently in the North Sea swell - an interesting experience:

And that's it for today. Tomorrow we get to the Lofoten Islands and (to Barbara's delight) get onto dry land and see some of the sights.