Sea War Museum Jutland in Thyborøn, Denmark, has begun a cooperation with The Old Head of Kinsale Signal Tower – the Lusitania Museum in Kinsale on the south coast of Ireland. The two museums both have the same story on the program, the sinking of the passenger ship Lusitania on May 7, 1915.

It was torpedoed by the German submarine U 20 off The Old Head of Kinsale, and 1,200 people perished. The following year, the U 20 stranded at Vrist at the west coast of Jutland, and when all efforts to refloat the U-boat failed, it was blown up.

It was the first time in history that a passenger ship was sunk without warning, and as 128 of the victims were American citizens, it led to an outcry

in the United States. The American attitude towards Germany changed overnight, and thus the sinking of the Lusitania strongly contributed to the entry of the United States into World War I. The fact that Lusitania also carried large amounts of ammunition was kept as a secret and therefore had no influence on public opinion.

The cooperation began this week, when the Sea War Museum was visited by the director of the Lusitania Museum in Kinsale, Padraig Begley, and he was thrilled. “It was a great experience to see all the things that the museum in Thyborøn has from the U-boat that sunk the Lusitania. I've seen both the cunning tower and the gun from U 20 plus many other things, and I even had the opportunity to see through the periscope used by U 20 commander, Lieutenant Commander Walter Schwieger when he sank the Lusitania. It was a very special feeling,” Padraig Begley says.

The Kinsale Museum is housed in an old signal tower from the Napoleonic Wars. It opened prior to the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the large passenger ship, and since then the guests have flocked to. Padraig Begley can tell about 12-15,000 annual guests at a museum that is open seven days a week and is run exclusively by volunteers.

The Kinsale Museum is today the official owner of the wreck of Lusitania after the now 91-year-old American businessman Greg Bemis transferred ownership of the museum earlier this year.

Link to The Lusitania Museum HERE

Sea War Museum Jutland has in the Skagerrak north of Hirtshals found the British submarine “G 8” that disappeared in 1918. The wreck lies at a depth of 100 meters and is so corroded that it is possible to look into the submarine at several places.

“G 8” belonged to the 10th Flotilla and operated out of a base at the mouth of Tees in Yorkshire. Her last patrol began on 27 December 1917, when she left with a crew of 28. She had order to patrol the Kattegat and start the voyage back on 3 January 1918 in order to reach Tees on 6 January 1918. She did not show up and was officially declared missing on 14 January 1918.

It is not possible to say with certainty, what caused “G 8” to sink, but there are no signs of damage due to a mine explosion or the like. The depth rudders point strongly upwards, suggesting that the submarine was hit by some kind of accident, and that the commander in vain tried to sail the boat to the surface.

“G 8” lies with the bow pointing towards Tees, indicating that she was heading home, when she sank.

for more information

contact:

Sea War Museum Jutlands director:

Gert Normann Andersen

tlf. +45 2325 4011

mail: gna@jdcon.dk

The British TV production company Mallinson Sadler Productions, who also produce television programs for National Geographic, has made a fantastic new film for the museum, which explores the history of the museum, the Memorial Park for the Battle of Jutland and the Battle of Jutland.

The film has been edited by producer William Moult, and the recordings were made by Mallinson Sadler Productions in collaboration with Sea War Museum and JD-Contractor A / S.

The film is shown in Danish, German or English at the viewer's discretion. All texts are spoken by professional speakers.

Push-buttons are situated below the large screen allowing visitors can select the desired language.

The movie lasts 17 minutes, and when finished, another language version can be selected.

If the movie is playing without viewers, simply select your desired language version and the movie immediately starts in this.

Due to broadcasting rights on some recordings, the film cannot be broadcast on television, but only in the museum and in connection with our lectures.

The film will be shown daily in the Sea War Museum during opening hours from 10am to 4pm, - in the summer season until 5pm.

Enjoy the movie and its unique recordings.

The mystery about the biggest German shipwreck from WW2 in Danish waters finally solved

Animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjQmQaK5H2E

The Sea War Museum Jutland in Thyborøn has, on an expedition in Skagerrak found the wreck of the German troop ship M / S Pionier, which was sunk on 2 September 1940. The ship was on its way from Frederikshavn in Denmark to Frederiksstad in Norway with 823 men and women on board including the crew, when North of Skagen it was hit by a violent explosion and quickly began to sink.

The disaster cost 338 German lives and was the most serious loss suffered by the German forces in Denmark during the five-year long occupation. According to British information, it was a torpedo from the submarine HMS Sturgeon that sent Pioneer to the bottom of the sea, but at the time it was persistently denied by German propaganda. It argued that the ship hit a mine, became victim of sabotage or suffered a boiler explosion. The latter was actually unlikely, as Pionier was a motor ship with a large six-cylinder diesel engine.

After the war, the shipwreck has caused much conjecture, and the wreck of Pionier has long been one of the most sought after in Danish Waters. However, Danish and foreign divers have always searched in the wrong places. The Sea War Museum Jutland found Pionier 15 nautical miles from Skagen at the position 057° 58.368' N, 010° 51.551' E, which is considerably further east than previously assumed. The wreck lies at 177 meters of water, making it very difficult to access.

"Our scanning of the wreck supports the British reports. The aft part of the ship is missing, and everything indicates that the ship was torn apart by a torpedo. The aft part sank in all probability immediately, while the forward part drifted further east, before it sank. We did find the wreck in international waters, but so far east, that it is lying in the Swedish Exclusive Economic Zone," says Gert Normann Andersen, director of Sea War Museum Jutland.

M / S Pionier was a modern motor ship of 3285 gross tons, built as a refrigerated ship for the F. Laeisz shipping company in Hamburg in 1933. The first years it sailed bananas from Cameroon to Europe, but in 1940 it was seized by the German Kriegsmarine and put in service as a troop transport ship between Denmark and Norway.

On her last voyage, Pionier carried a mixed crowd of naval officers, air crew and nurses as well as a large contingent of German Gebirgsjägers (Light Mountain Infantry), who were on their way back from leave. The wind was force 7 to 8 with high seas, and as a fire broke out immediately after the explosion, heartbreaking scenes took place.

The ship quickly developed a list to port and the aft part sank, but due to the fire and large amounts of oil on the sea surface, accompanying and approaching ships could not get close. They had to resign with saving survivors from the water and from life rafts.

All the rescued were brought to Skagen and Frederikshavn, but 93 were never found. On 6 September 1940, 245 Germans were buried at Frederikshavn Cemetery in the war's largest mass grave in Denmark. Some of the missing had probably gone down with the wreck, which therefore must be considered a war grave.

HMS Sturgeon participated later in the pursuit of the Bismarck, and from 11 October 1943 to 14 September 1945, she was lent to the Dutch navy, where she served under the name "Zeehond".

for more information contact Gert Normann Andersen +45 2325 4011 or contact@seawarmuseum.dk

Shipwrecks in danger?

Will the North Sea wrecks last forever? North Sea shipwrecks won’t last forever

What happens to North Sea shipwrecks?

Dr. Rory Quinn and Dr. David Gregory visited Sea War Museum in connection with their ongoing collaboration investigating the deterioration of shipwrecks in the north sea. Rory is a marine geoscientist at Ulster University where he is a specialist in multibeam survey of shipwrecks. David is senior scientist at the National Museum of Denmark and specialises in the deterioration of archaeological materials underwater. Rory is helping interpret the multi beam data from the 450 shipwrecks sites surveyed by the museum and JD Contractors and generating and anlaysing these data in a GIS (Geographical Information System). The two year project, funded with support from the Danish Ministry of Culture, started in October 2017 and aims to correlate the current state of the shipwrecks with various physical and chemical parameters so as to model what factors control their preservation and deterioration. Presently the shipwrecks are being classified according to the surviving remains based on the multibeam surveys and these data are being added to the GIS project. In the coming months statistical models of how the harsh north sea environment has and is affecting the wrecks will be developed so that they can be more effectively managed in the future. In the Autumn David and Gert will be looking into how human activities, such as fishing and salvage, also impact these sites.

I am deeply humbled by the honour that you have given me today.  I am joining an extraordinary team of gifted individuals in a special place: Bitten, John Silver, Knud Jakobsen. Led by a man  - Gert Normann Andersen - whose extraordinary generosity, modesty and  commitment has given each one of us something very precious. A sense of direction and purpose.  

Gert Normann and I have not known each other that long. 4 years but we have built a special friendship on a shared passion.

How those who died at Jutland  - or in any conflict – shouldn’t be overshadowed with messages of glory and sacrifice. This is too often the case in national commemorations. The museum is here to tell stories, to make one stop and think, to reflect a little and to try to get a closer to the truth of conflict: the horror of world war.  

Every moment of this friendship with Gert, with Thyborøn, with his team, has been very special for me. We have shared our knowledge, helped each other and worked as a team.  It has been an extraordinary and very privileged journey for me.

I would never have been able to write about the Jutland wrecks or the remaining wrecks in Scapa Flow without having seen them. Or to have been able to have been part of the documentary films.

Each time I come to this museum it is also like visiting old friends. There are many objects here that are very personal:

• The Union Jack which up until yesterday was on the wall opposite the E.50 conning tower.  It was this flag which my grandfather covered his mother’s coffin when she died in 1916 and he wasn’t able to leave the Fleet. It was replaced yesterday with Iron Duke’s white ensign, her battle flag, which I will be taking back to its home on the Isle of White in a month.  
• When I see his watches, I think of my grandfather quietly working out what to do in the midst of the chaos of battle. Gert and I had them with us when he invited me to join the expedition in 2015.  
• A very special gift to the family by a man who spent three years of his life lovingly making it is the ship’s model of the Iron Duke. Ron wasn’t rich, he was a bricklayer, a man who built houses. He sadly died of cancer and never saw his model here but his widow and I talk each month.
• When the Iron Duke was loaned to the German Naval Museum, Stefan Huck, the museum Director and I then drove here with a model of Lutzow in the back of the van, arriving in the dark, in the rain, working with Gert that night before we left in the morning. I hope that moments like these will also lead to more sharing and co-operation between the principal European naval museums. The story is all the better for sharing our resources and knowledge.

The last four years have been very full of these kinds of memories. Helping digitize photos, translating Knud’s audio guide, using different language versions of the Jutland animation to help German visitors. It has been the greatest pleasure to work with, and learn from, the men and women of the team, J/D Contractor, the Sea War museum. I could spend hours on the bridge of the Vina listening to Mons’ explanations of how multi-beam works and what it helps us now see.

Whatever I can do to bring value and connections to help this wonderful museum, I will do. This is a great honour. I am under no illusion that the tasks ahead are not small. That’s the pleasure of working with people of passion and vision. I am excited about the challenge and look forward to being part of this great team.

Thank you.

Sea War Museum Jutland marks the Armistice Day by introducing a new type of lists in the museum's exhibition. At each history told in the museum, a small booklet with the names of the perished from each ship will be at the visitors’ disposal.

11 November, 1918

11 November is commemorated in many countries to remember the many millions of dead and wounded of World War I. On November 11, 1918, the Armistice was signed with a promise of early peace talks. The hostilities ended at the 11th hour on the 11th day in the 11th month.

A two-year project with support from the Danish Ministry of Culture will search to determine how fast shipwrecks deteriorate in the North Sea

Text and photo by Knud Jakobsen

Senior researcher David Gregory of the Danish National Museum's Conservation and Science Department has in collaboration with Sea War Museum Jutland in Thyborøn launched an extensive research project, which might have a decisive influence on the future conservation of the cultural heritage in the North Sea and other vulnerable waters. In cooperation with the museum in Thyborøn and Dr. Rory Quinn of Ulster University he is going to investigate how fast shipwrecks deteriorate in the North Sea.

For decades, it has been regarded as a sound policy to protect historically valuable shipwrecks in situ, i. e. on the seabed, and prohibit all intervention from the view that they thus will be available to future generations. Experience from the Baltic Sea and other protected areas have supported this position, but in the North Sea, the situation is quite different.

"Our latest studies show that a wreck in the North Sea in a worst cases scenario can deteriorate and disappear in just 30 years. Everything indicates that there is an urgent need for a more nuanced view than hitherto. In the future it will be necessary to take the conditions on the spot in consideration," David Gregory says.

He has received DKK 763,000 (102.500 €) from the Research Committee of the Ministry of Culture for his new project, and through affiliation to Sea War Museum Jutland, he has gained access to the largest database over wrecks in the North Sea. It has been created by the founder and director of the Sea War Museum, Gert Normann Andersen, who himself has dived on many of the wrecks.

for more info look HERE