Robbers target ‘ocean war graves’
Canada not protecting sailors lost during war
Recent reports from Ireland that scuba-diving treasure hunters are pillaging the remains of a First World War shipwreck have brought new urgency to a campaign to designate Canada’s own sunken naval vessels “ocean war graves.”
Led by retired Merchant Navy Capt. Paul Bender, 90, the campaign has had little success over the last decade, except to show that when it comes to protecting the final resting places of wartime sailors, Canada is the odd country out.
But as sport diving becomes more advanced and less costly, nine wartime ships in Canadian waters — most sunk by German Uboats, others by accident — are increasingly vulnerable to grave robbers. Capt. Bender said he has even heard rumours of someone displaying a human skull on their mantlepiece after taking it from an allied shipwreck off the west coast of England.
“It’s gruesome,” he said. As Capt. Bender describes it, “the human remains of the sailors who were not able to escape into lifeboats or onto life rafts may be found not in segregated grave sites, but anywhere within the twisted wreckage of the ship in which they once served, perhaps scattered throughout the ship, perhaps huddled together in one or more compartments with no hope of escape because buckled bulkheads prevent the opening of watertight doors.”
“There is no headstone among the flowers for those who perish at sea,” he said.
War memorials sometimes say these sailors have no known graves, adds Capt. Bender. “Well, they certainly do, because I’ve got the latitude and longitude position of every one of the Royal Canadian Navy ships that were lost during the Second World War.”
“So they do have known graves. We know where they are.”
They are in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, for example, or off the Gaspé coast, or near Halifax, or on the Grand Banks. In all, including wrecks in British, French, Icelandic and international waters, Capt. Bender says Canada’s wartime ocean shipwrecks are the final resting place for more than 1,200 people.
“For all you and I know at the very moment that we’re talking there could be divers going down there and taking things from them,” he said. Designating these ships graves “would give the government the power to prosecute people who, without authority, attempt to retrieve artifacts from these ships.”
This past summer, for example, when naval researchers led by Paul Allen of Microsoft discovered the wreck of the USS Indianapolis in the Philippine Sea, they knew they were discovering an official war grave, protected by U.S. law from disturbance. That designation governed all aspects of their mission.
In response to Bender’s inquiries, France has confirmed that the wreck of Canada’s HMCS Athabaskan, which lies off the Brittany coast, is likewise protected from disturbance under French law, with offenders subject to imprisonment.
“We can’t do that in Canada because we don’t have any laws,” Bender said. “If the state doesn’t have any laws, there’s nothing that the state can do if people say ‘Well, to hell with you ... I’m gonna do what I want.’”
The U.K. maintains a list of protected and controlled wrecks under a 1986 law, which even includes enemy vessels, such as German U-boats. But the Second World War wrecks of three Canadian corvettes in British waters — HMCS Alberni, Trentonian and Regina — do not share the same protection.
“They’re all in the same place, friends and enemies. The enemies are protected, the friends are not,” Bender said.
Vice-Admiral Denis Rouleau, a retired naval commander and former ViceChief of the Defence Staff, has helped in the campaign by briefing the government, but “nobody really wanted to grab his torch.”
He said the three Canadian ships were almost added to Britain’s list last year based on Bender’s recommendation, but Britain wanted a formal government request. It got as far as the British defence attaché waiting for the nod from Global Affairs Canada, which never came.
“We never got any further than that,” Rouleau said. Bender was “stopped in his tracks.”
Shipwrecks in general are managed by Transport Canada. As to military wrecks, the Department of National Defence says it plays no role in heritage designation. Parks Canada does, and it administers wrecks within Canadian waters, as well as advising other departments about protecting and managing what a spokesperson called “heritage wrecks.”
There is, however, no Canadian heritage designation specific to “ocean war graves,” and the designations that exist for some wreck sites, such as the Elizabeth and Mary in the St. Lawrence, or others associated with the War of 1812, are “for commemorative purposes only,” according to Parks Canada.
IF THE STATE DOESN’T HAVE ANY LAWS, THERE’S NOTHING THAT THE STATE CAN DO IF PEOPLE SAY ‘WELL, TO HELL WITH YOU.’
Bender, 90, joined the Merchant Navy four days before his 16th birthday in 1944. Two weeks later, he was aboard a ship when it hit a mine, although it sunk with no loss of life. He later served on ships crossing the Atlantic, supplying the campaigns in Italy, Greece and the former Yugoslavia. After the war, he participated in the British naval blockade of Mandatory Palestine. He has a graduate degree in maritime law, and has served on a delegation to NATO. In 1971, he set up a ferry service between Prince Edward Island and the Magdalen Islands.
“There is no cost to have these ships declared as ocean war graves because they are already set up as burial sites,” he said. “You can’t maintain them. It’s just a matter of recognizing them in the same way as cemeteries.”
More than just a symbolic designation, he said a legal recognition of ocean war graves would “put the loss of sailors on the same plane as the loss of soldiers and airmen.”