Diving at the Crash site |
The Irish Adventure of Richard Kukura and Tommy Hulme and the fate of their Beaufighter JL710 |
Diving at the Crash site - Eddie Brogan' storyIn the late autumn of 2004 I rowed a boat from Nigel’s shore on Templeport Lake to St. Mogue’s Island. I had with me Willie Seaman. Willie an accomplished diver, and like myself interested in World War II memorabilia. Some eighteen years previous Willie had dived on the Beaufighter crash site, so we knew exactly where to go and what to expect. On Willie’s first dive that day he came up to report that the thick layer of matted vegetation on the lake floor that he experienced before, was still there, but we came prepared. I handed Willie down a garden edging tool. With this he cut hatches in the vegetation, this allowed him search in the mud and silt below. This is slow and tiring work under water. Over several dives that day Willie brought up Aircraft Radio parts Some high explosive 20mm Cannon round heads. A Bristol Hercules spark plug! More interestingly while probing the lake bed nearer the shore among the reed beds we struck something very hard several feet under the mud, when the probe was withdrawn a glug of oil came to the surface, this was engine oil. Not only could I see it but from the boat I could smell it. We both concluded there is an engine down there. As established at the meeting in Templeport Community Centre the aircraft nose dived in the lake beside the Island and on impact the huge fourteen cylinder Bristol Hercules engines would have sheared their mountings, continued on their way and lodged deep in the lake bed. Willie and I both agree that an engine could be surfaced. . . . This would require time and engineering and funding. Edward J Brogan 27/6/06 |