AN INSULT TO THE HEROES OF JUTLAND
First Far East pirates plunder British shipwrecks – now MoS exposes…
THE war graves of British sailors who died in the Battle of Jutland – the biggest naval action of the First World War – have been plundered in breach of international law.
The shocking revelation comes just a week after The Mail on Sunday disclosed how Chinese pirates have looted at least ten British warships sunk in the Far East during the Second World War.
The l atest reports of l ooting involve wrecks of Royal Navy warships sunk i n 1916 in t he North Sea battle in which more than 6,000 British sailors died.
Former First Sea Lord Admiral Lord West last night condemned the practice as ‘reprehensible’.
And leading nautical archaeologist and Bournemouth University lecturer Dr Innes McCartney said: ‘Nearly all Battle of Jutland wrecks have suffered metal salvage – it’s an ongoing problem.’
Last week Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson demanded an immediate investigation into the looting of war wrecks and condemned those who did it, saying: ‘Those who lost their lives on board should be allowed to rest in peace.’
Implicated in the plundering is a Dutch-registered salvage vessel MV Friendship, which has raised metal and artefacts from HMS Queen Mary. The ship went down during the Battle of Jutland with the loss of 1,266 crew.
Photographs show artefacts from the British battlecruiser being displayed on Friendship’s foredeck, including a gun part bearing the monogram of the Queen Mary.
Other items taken by Friendship from the British fleet are on open display at the Wreck Museum in Terschelling, Holland – the home town of Friendship Offshore BV, the company that owns the salvage vessel.
The firm has never been prosecuted over allegations concerning the Jutland war graves, but last month a court found it guilty of plundering a wreck off the Isles of Scilly – the 4,300-ton merchant vessel SS Harrovian, sunk in April 1916 by a German U-boat.
The freighter had left New York for Le Havre carrying 980 tons of copper bars, worth £4.7 million at current prices.
Some of the copper was salvaged under a UK licence in the 1950s. However, the Friendship, fitted out with high- tech equipment, revisited the wreck in 2016 to plunder untouched cargo.
Although the Harrovian – which had no dead aboard as the U-boat captain allowed the crew to abandon ship – lies in international waters, it is still part of the UK’s Offshore Marine area. This means a licence is required to remove items from it. The Friendship was intercepted by a Royal Navy patrol vessel as it lifted £90,000 worth of copper and steel from the wreck.
After pleading guilty to unlicensed salvaging, the company was last month fined £6,000 at Newcastle Crown Court. It was also hit with £44,930 costs and a proceeds of crime confiscation order of £190,643. The skipper was fined £2,000.
Simon Smit, a director of Friendship Offshore BV, did not deny that it had also salvaged ships from the Battle of Jutland, but said: ‘It was a long time ago.’