This deep wreck mystery comes from World War II and will continue our theme of World War I and World War II documentaries for November. In this episode, we cover RMS Queen Mary’s ramming of HMS Curacoa, a light cruiser that was escorting Queen Mary. The run time for this episode is 51:53.
It is the height of World War II and the RMS Queen Mary has been converted into a troop ship. She is carrying US Troops to Europe to fight in the war. When she gets to the Irish Coast, she is met by the escort ships that will escort her through the Irish Seas. Unfortunately, Queen Mary rams one of her escort ships the Curacoa. The light cruiser sinks in six minutes and only ninety-nine sailors survived the shipwreck. What happened to cause this ramming? What will the wreck divers discover about the ramming? Who is to blame for this tragedy? It is October 2, 1942, and Queen Mary is racing toward Scotland. On her decks are thousands of American troops heading to Europe to fight in the war. The Queen Mary had been transformed from a luxury liner to a speedy troop transport. It would have been a crowded ride for the Americans who were on board. The Queen Mary is a particular target and Hitler puts a bounty on her for anyone who can sink her. However, the Queen Mary can reach a top speed of 20 knots, preventing the U-boats from reaching her to sink her. Royal Navy ships are sent to protect the Queen Mary as well. Fifty miles off the north coast of Ireland, divers are going to work on solving the mystery of the ramming. The Curacoa wreck is being battered by the sea and will take her secret with her if the divers do not dive and survey the wreck. They scan the wreck to find her and once they find the Curacoa they scan her. One part of the wreck is crushed. Is the liner to blame for the loss of the Curacoa? The divers look to find out. Once the Queen Mary reaches the Irish Sea and her escorts, they are encountering rough seas. Queen Mary has a zig-zag course. However, the escorts are having a tough go of keeping up with her due to the rough seas. The Curacoa is trying to keep close to its charge and due to the slowness of the cruiser, she steers ahead in a straight line. The Curacoa alerts the Queen Mary to the Curacoa’s position and changes course to try to keep close. However, the Curacoa is steering dangerously close to the Queen Mary. The watchman on the Queen Mary is concerned, but the captain assures him that the Curacoa will stay out of their way. However, this belief is shattered when Queen Mary rams the Curacoa. The Curacoa is sliced in half. There was a bang on both ships. The men on the Curacoa scrambled to get off their rapidly sinking ship. The Curacoa’s crew is ordered to abandon the ship. It is chaos on board the Curacoa and it takes six minutes for the light cruiser to sink. The Queen Mary has to move on otherwise she could be a target for u-boats in the area. The soldiers on the Queen Mary looked on in shock at what happened. However, there was one soldier that had a camera. Soldiers were not allowed to bring a camera with them but this one soldier did and he took a picture of the sinking Curacoa. It was funny to hear this soldier sheepishly admit that he had the camera in the first place. The divers arrive at the wreck and Eric Gove looks over the footage. It seems that Queen Mary was trying to avoid hitting Curacoa but managed to ram the ship instead. It was nice to see Eric Gove in this documentary. Why did the ramming happen? The divers will have to keep exploring the wreck. Will the Curacoa wreck reveal its secrets? Who is to blame for the Curacoa sinking? Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more. Overall this was a good episode and the recreations were excellent as well. The survivor’s stories were a special touch to this episode as well and it was great to see Eric Gove once again. I would put this on an independent study student’s list as well as a potential documentary to show to a history class.
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