Firstly, Richard Whalley has been pulling strings and negotiating for us to go and visit S130 in Plymouth. This is one of the Schnellboots that took part in the attacks on the LST convoy on that night in April 1944. It would be great to go and see her now, in her restored state. It will add another dimension to the project, and add in to the story. I'm very excited to make this trip and to report back on what we find.
I've given a few talks on the project, the highlight was to be asked to present at EuroTek 2012. This prestigious conference attracts some of the most renowned technical divers in the world, and the opportunity to speak could not be missed. I didn't get the main hall, but my room was full, which is always a good sign, and I estimate around 70-80 people were there. Lots of good questions were asked, and a couple of interesting points came up that might be worth investigating further. Firstly, the Exercise Tiger may have been renamed at some point before, during or after the events. This means that there might be more information out there to find. I'm trying to find out the alternative name so that we can increase the scope of our research. The other interesting snippet was that the LST's were captained by the Royal Navy, not the Americans. Therefore there were likely British losses as well, and there will also be UK based records, of which we were previously unaware.
Finally, I've managed to draw our sketch maps into a more pleasing format. Essentially, I've learned to colour-in using Adobe Illustrator. Below are the four sketches that we have now produced of these two shipwrecks.
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