Maritime Scotland 1: The WW2 Midget Submarines of Aberlady Bay

The Mariner's Mirror Podcast

In the latest episode of The Mariner's Mirror Podcast we begin three episodes dedicated to the maritime history of Scotland. In this episode I speak with Ben Saunders, a senior marine archaeologist with Wessex Archaeology, based at their office in Edinburgh, and we talk about the hulks of two X-Craft on the shore at Aberlady Bay, East Lothian.

An innovative video has been created to accompany this podcast showing 3D photography of the wreck, overlaid with a 3D model of what the craft would have looked like.

The 3D survey is the result of an important project run by Wessex Archaeology. The Covid 19 pandemic put enormous strain on mental health and resulted in the cancellation of projects designed to support the wellbeing of isolated veterans. With funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, Wessex Archaeology ran a training and research project based around two WWII mini submarines in Aberlady Bay, East Lothian. The Aberlady X-Craft project, supported by Breaking Ground Heritage, provided hands-on survey training and produced a condition report of the wrecks; while also inspiring eight individually researched projects, five of which have been taken through to completion, and engaging over 30 veterans. The project is part of Wessex Archaeology’s longstanding work using heritage to support mental health and wellbeing.

Using 3d models of the wrecks completed through photogrammetric survey as inspiration, the project assisted the volunteers to develop their own research projects. These included the construction of scale models of an X-craft with training in artefact scanning/photogrammetry; research into the loss of HMS Glorious by a relative of one of the casualties, the use of X-Craft in the Far East, the medical conditions that affected submariners; and the assessment of the Fred Bown archive, one of the survivors from K17, a submarine lost in a training accident in 1917 (the Battle of May Island).

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