HMS Reclaim- Deep Diving Vessel

Reclaim was originally intended to be a King Salvor Class Ocean Salvage Vessel named Salverdent. However she was completed as a deep diving and submarine rescue vessel.

Reclaim displaced 1,360 tons and measured 66 metres in length, 12 metres in breadth and 5 metres in draught. She had a speed of 12 knots and a complement of 92, including a team of 12 divers. By far her most distinctive feature her sails. Reclaim was the Royal Navy's only vessel capable of deep diving. For the detection of wrecks she carried underwater television, sonar and echosounding equipment and she was also fitted for submarine rescue work.

Upon completion Reclaim was employed as a diving tender attached to HMS Vernon, Portsmouth. On June 14th 1951 Reclaim discovered the wreck of the submarine Affray, lost since April 17th, using her new underwater television equipment. Over a three month period Reclaim's divers investigated the site and on July 1st, Affray's schnorkal mast was recovered from the seabed. This had snapped at the base due to a structural weakness and provided important evidence regarding the cause of the tragedy. However further attempts to study the Affray and determine the cause of her loss were abandoned when a radioactive isotope being used to take X-ray photographs of the hull was dropped and diving declared unsafe.

Incidentally, one of Reclaim's divers working on the Affray was Buster Crabb, who in 1956 disappeared in Portsmouth Harbour whilst examining the hull of a Russian cruiser making a courtesy visit. His headless, handless body was found 14 months later off Pilsey Island in Chichester Harbour.

In 1960 Reclaim was assigned to HMS Lochinvar, Port Edgar for service as a Mine Counter Measures Support Ship and Diving Trials Ship. Between January and May 1961 she undertook diving trials in the Canary Isles. She was later relieved as Mine Counter Measures Support Ship by the minelayer Abdiel, and this enabled her to concentrate on her deep diving role.

In 1968 Reclaim's divers studied the wreck of the Air Lingus Viscount Airliner, the St. Phelim, which had crashed into the Irish Sea off Tuskar Rock on March 24th 1968. Over 26 days they made 91 dives in depths of 250ft and recovered a third of the wreckage. However when Reclaim tried to raise the fusilage she did so using straps instead of nets, and as the wreckage reached the surface it broke apart and plunged back into the sea.

Reclaim attended the 1977 Silver Jubilee Fleet Review off Spithead, by which time she was approaching thirty years in age. In November 1979 Reclaim, then the oldest ship in the Navy, paid off. She was to be replaced by the new Seabed Operations Vessel named Challenger, but whilst Challenger was under construction a commercial vessel, the Seaforth Champion, was chartered. On May 11th 1982 Reclaim left Portsmouth under tow bound for Belgium. She arrived at Bruges on May 15th and was subsequently broken up.

Ship Details

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© Written and researched by Jeremy Olver. First uploaded February 17th 2001. Updated February 17th 2001. Disclaimer.