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Last Saturday 60 members of the Submariners Association Scottish Branch came to Lochranza to pay homage at the war grave of HMS Vandal.
They were marking the 10th anniversary of the unveiling of a memorial cairn at Lochranza by Flag Officer Submarines Sir James Perowne KBE.
Sir James, formerly admiral, was leading the company of submariners as the tender Oronsay tied up at Lochranza pier at midday on Saturday.
HMS Vandal was a Royal Navy U class submarine which probably had the shortest career of any Navy submarine after her launch from Barrow-in-Furness on 23 November 1942.
Under the command of Lieutenant James Bridger she was lost whilst carrying out an exercise in the Kilbrannan Sound following commissioning. The submarine was last seen leaving her anchorage on 24 February 1943 at Lochranza.
An inquiry at the time of her loss concluded that she had sunk during a deep dive she was scheduled to perform later that day north of Inchmarnock.
In reality she never got near Inchmarnock. At the time of the loss a spotter plane reported a large slick of oil two miles north of Arran but the authorities dismissed this.
At the time prime minister Winston Churchill demanded a full report on the loss of the Vandal and asked if the submarine had been recovered. The reply from Flag Officer Submarines repeated the mistaken assumption that the Vandal lay in deep waters off Inchmarnock where salvage would be impossible.
In 1994 the Scottish Branch of the Submariners Association finally persuaded the Navy to search the area north of Arran where a number of trawlers had reported their nets being snagged by an underwater object.
Divers located the vessel lying in pitch darkness on a muddy slope 100 metres down with a 35 degree list to port just two miles north of Lochranza. Her 12 pounder forward gun remains covered with a trawler’s net and all 37 officers and men are still on board. The brass letters VANDAL are clearly visible in underwater photographs taken by Leigh Bishop.
It was recognised by the Royal Navy as an official war grave and the Submariners Association duly arranged for the erection of a memorial on Lochranza pier.
Every year since 1997 a contingent of submariners has travelled to Lochranza to pay their respects to the 37 souls still entombed in the submarine.
