It was 1940, the Battle of Dunkirk was raging. Led by the French and British armies against the German army, » Operation Dynamo » (its code name) took place from May 21 to June 4. It aimed to evacuate around 340,000 British, French, and Belgian soldiers besieged at Dunkirk by Wehrmacht forces to England.
On June 1, 1940, at 3:30 AM, the crew of the tugboat Saint-Fagan and the 3 barges it was towing (the Doris, the Lady Rosebery and the Pudge), coming from Dover, were searching for a suitable spot to beach their boat on the coast for the resupply of besieged troops waiting. At that same hour, a bomb dropped by the German air force hit the tugboat, which almost instantly disappeared beneath the waves, taking with it two of the barges it was conveying, the Doris and the Lady Rosebery. The third barge, the Pudge survived and rescued the survivors…
76 years later, in 2016… During the second week of September, the shipwreck section of the diving club Dunkerque plongée began archaeological research off the eastern port of Dunkirk opposite Malo-Les-Bains. The main mission is to locate two English flat-bottom wooden boats, the famous barges Doris et Lady Rosebery. After requesting an archaeological survey operation with a magnetometer from the Department of Underwater and Submarine Archaeological Research (DRASSM), the green light was given. » It’s a first in Dunkirk » notes Bruno Pruvost, a member of the Dunkirk diving club and passionate about underwater archaeology. This mission is conducted in partnership with André Lorin (specialist in underwater magnetometry and national instructor in Archaeology of the FFESSM) accompanied by Bertrand Splingart (researcher at the University of the Côte d’Opale (ULCO)). A powerful tool for detecting the presence of ferrous elements (engine, anchor, cannon…), the magnetometer is coupled with a GPS for geolocation. After many immersions of the device, the data have been analyzed, and many « objects » have been detected in the study area.
Next step, dive into the areas where objects have been detected (after authorization from the DRASSM) and perhaps identify these two barges accompanied by other treasures…
The cover image is by M. Demeure from La Voix du Nord.
Morgane CONSTANTIN
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