Episode 11 Inside Out

Monaco 's received a temporary extension of its licence. And I want

BBC News, Inside Added. Hello, and welcome to a special

edition of Inside Out. Tonight, the story of the search

for the Darlwyne, a pleasure boat which sank off

the coast of Cornwall 50 years ago. All 31 people on board

the Darlwyne perished, It remains one of

the biggest peacetime disasters in British waters,

and one of the biggest mysteries. My mother said it should never

have happened. This summer, Inside Out

and a team of divers set out Could the wreck and its location

tell us more about what happened one We're looking for a needle in

a haystack, because we are no longer we are looking for evidence

that a wreck was there. Diving in treacherous

waters, we sought the It needs to be found

for closure for the families. I'm Jemma Woodman, and welcome to

Inside Out South West This is Mylor on the Fal

Estuary in Cornwall. Today, this is a haven for the local

boating fraternity. A place where sailors of all kind

gather to explore the coastline But in 1966, Mylor was the focus

of one of Britain's And it happened the day after one

of the country's biggest triumphs. COMMENTATOR: Some people

are on the pitch. Many people were celebrating

England's World Cup victory when the Darlwynne left

for a day trip to Fowey. As an inquiry would later show,

she was in poor shape. Her steering was erratic and there

were issues with stability. She wasn't fit to carry 12

passengers, never mind 29 on board. The authorities knew nothing

about the fact it was operating That boat should never

have gone to see. The skipper ignored warnings

of a strong south-westerly The alarm was raised

late that evening. With a storm raging and an apparent

breakdown in communication between coastguards,

the air and sea search didn't begin until first

light, more than nine hours later. In the coming days, from various

locations along the coast, 12 bodies, small pieces of wreckage

and the Darlwynne's dinghy were recovered but there was no

wreck site to bring any clues The Darlwynne had

sunk without trace. Lifeboatmen still remember

the desperate search. We must have gone hundreds

of miles up and down. You're talking about a 45 foot boat

that came out of Fowey at four I remember looking at watches

on two of the bodies, one said eight o'clock, one

said 815. There was a massive air and sea

search, probably the biggest Aircraft, helicopters,

merchant ships, navy They only found a dinghy

and a little bit of wreckage. One family had added an extra day to

their holiday to take the trip. An engineer from Derby was lost with

his fiancee. All former members of the Russell family, on holiday with

their friends, the Mills. Albert Russell was a keen and experiences.

Alex Scott, a cousin, was 13 when she lost four members of her family.

She was abroad with her parents when it happened.

My father got newspapers because he wanted to see

I remember reading about the Darlwynne but at that stage,

I don't think we realised Albert was on the boat although we knew

Latterly, I can remember my parents saying, if we had turned over

the page of the newspaper we would have known more.

None of the cousins ever got over it because they lived next door to

Albert, who was like a brother to them.

We were fortunate in as far as three members of our family were found.

Albert, Peggy and Pat were all found, but John was never found.

It is still that disaster, shock and unnecessary waste

There would have been panic, for sure.

Children on board, the parents would have been concerned.

A lot of passengers in a confined space.

I can only begin to imagine what they must have gone through.

A public enquiry began in December that year.

The court of enquiry blames two men for the loss of the Darlwynne

The skipper and the registered owner.

John Barrett was ordered to pay ?500 towards the cost of the enquiry.

The only penalty the panel could impose.

Locals had accused the hotelier of profiting from the trip.

He claimed to have been exonerated by the enquiry.

Sincere regret that it ever happened and a feeling that it was probably

one of these things that was due to happen anyway.

I don't think there was anything wrong with the boat.

I don't think that the boat contributed in any way to the loss.

But with no survivors and no wreck site, the enquiry raised more

They were given warnings, why go out?

Such a lengthy trip on a boat that wasn't really fit for

My mother would often be heard saying, it should

Martin Banks has researched the tragedy and its impact.

The effect on the villagers was immense because two

of the village children were lost with the boat,

Was the boat fit, were the crew licensed?

The biggest mystery of all is where is the boat?

They had a state of the art Cold War minesweeper

and they expected to raise it very quickly.

And therefore answer the questions as to what went wrong.

Also to return the bodies to the families but after 18 months

So, an extensive search by the Royal Navy found nothing.

50 years on, our search would have the benefit of better

charts, more sophisticated underwater technology,

and we would also need a bit of luck.

Mark and Nikolai and our are professional wreck finders

This local story has particular resonance.

It matters to me because Darlwyne has been forgotten.

I'm a embarrassed to state that I'd never heard of it.

Because it sunk after the World Cup final in 1966, there is this issue

All wreck searches are special but this one is so recent

and such a loss of life, it needs to be found

The Darlwyne left Mylor for an uneventful

At about one they arrived in Fowey where they spent a few hours.

Ignoring news of an approaching storm, they left to return at around

There were reports of several sightings on the coast.

The timings suggest she was three or four hours

That would put her in the area searched by the Navy in 1966.

Mark and Nick think she may have been blown back by the storm

towards Dodman Point where reefs and fast currents are notorious.

We knew the boat would never have been found

We had to think, if we were coming into a heavy Southwesterly sea,

with those reefs there, what would we do?

We know it left Fowey on its way to Mylor.

You can see the overflows on the chart.

That bit wasn't actually searched because you can't get

You have got where people have looked, where haven't they look.

The spread of the bodies, all to the east.

That starts you eliminating these little squares.

I think, the thing to say, if it's not in there,

We've got the best chance of finding it ever with the information

It would be exciting but it's quite a sombre

What we are looking for is such a loss of life.

Two months into our research, word reaches the team

pulle dup wreckage of the Darlwyne in the 1970s.

It would have been the summer of 1979.

The pedestal that the ship's wheel was attached to.

A greased pipe to the stern tube and a few sections of plank.

I didn't suspect it was from the Darlwyne at the time.

We took it back to Fowey which was our home port at the time.

We were talking to the mechanic from the Fowey lifeboat

The more I talked to him, the more he was saying, this matches.

Even the paint was, apparently, correct.

In a way, it's confirmed what we were thinking.

It is in the area we were looking at.

If anything, it's made our task more difficult but it's made it

On the face of it, a lucky breakthrough.

Though, if the wreckage recovered was from the Darlwyne it means

there will be less on the sea bed for the divers to find.

Early June, a break in the weather coincides with the right tides.

The team assembles at Mylor ready to begin the underwater exploration.

We've been looking into this for three months.

This is hopefully going to see the end of the research

It left from the quayside a few hundred yards away.

The families of the lost are keen to know where it is.

It is the completion of the story, if we find it.

Even on a relatively calm summers day, this point is still

Offshore currents and reefs have claimed numerous lives

We are in the rough area that the trawlerman said.

Looking at the chart, if something was trawled up

by a scholar dredger, it's got to be where a scallop

We need to start and let the current takers through.

It is the right bearing but a lot further than he said.

After 50 years, there won't be much left.

Metal objects may have survived and Nick thinks

the unusual ballast could be easy to spot.

The granular texture is going to stand out.

For their first series of dives, visibility is surprisingly good

and the team quickly find the area that has been trawled.

Scallop fishermen use heavy chains that plough the sea bed and they may

have destroyed evidence of the wreck of the Darlwyne.

Protocol requires divers to leave evidence of untouched so they have

several cameras to record anything of interest.

30 minutes into the first set of guides, Mark finds a piece

Could it be granite ballast from the Darlwyne's hull?

This is where he would have trawled it up if the story is true.

Not far away, Nick makes a similar discovery.

It had the granular texture on the surface.

Having said that, we know that some of the wreckage was dredged up

The evidence on the sea bed is of scallop dredging.

I'd like to find something a little more conclusive but I think

It's an encouraging start but the team is hoping to complete

the search before the 50th anniversary of the tragedy in July.

Will the weather allow another series of dives in time?

Just a week before the anniversary weekend, the weather clears and Mark

This time, the current is much stronger and the visibility

Knowing the geography of the sea bed, Mark heads straight for the end

Anything dragged along by the scallop fishermen

Once again, there are areas where the sea bed has been stripped bare.

It's an unlikely place to find wreckage.

30 minutes into the dive, as Mark is beginning to think

about returning to the surface, he starts to find what

Various pieces of mackerel work, ironwork.

A fisherman's anchor, about four feet long, two feet wide.

The sort of thing you'd expect from a smaller vessel.

One piece of timber that looked like it had been recently uncovered.

It had been under the ironwork for a good few years

It was a timber ship with steel fittings.

We know there would have been Darlwyne steel.

That was the right size of anchor that the Darlwyne was carrying.

The fisherman's anchor was flat in the sea bed

What I saw was probably spread over no more than 20 - 30 feet.

Again, that says it was a smaller vessel.

It's the right size for the Darlwyne.

Best guess is because we have nothing else of the age in the area

that we know has sunk, so a very good chance

They may have found the wreck of the Darlwyne but their thoughts

What will their families feel and what does our finding reveal

about the dreadful events of 30 years ago?

Captain Mike Evans is a Marine accident investigator

There were witness statements from along the shore that indicated

The fact that it got to be area of the point tells is a lot

about the passage and it's already an area of serious overflows.

The sea state would have been highly confused, high waves.

If anything was wrong, it would soon have been found out

and that wreckage indicates that is where it started

An early morning in Mevagissey harbour.

The weekend of the 50th anniversary of the loss of the Darlwyne.

Families of those who died have travelled to Cornwall

Our discovery means a chance at last to visit the spot where her cousins

The short trip from Mevagissey retraces the final

Nick shows them the footage of the wreck site.

We truly believe that is the right location.

This was never going to be a forensic dive.

We were never going to say "this happened."

It's a beautiful bit of sea bed, a resting place for people and I'm

Over the wreck site, a moment of reflection for Alex

A rose for each of the 31 souls lost on the Darlwyne.

I feel it was an unnecessary loss of life.

A lot of families perished that should not have perished.

The more we find out, the worse it seems to get

We've said our goodbyes and hopefully the families can now

When the flowers went in the water, it was a lump in the throat moment.

I got hooked into this story by the people.

It was never going to be a spectacular wreck but the personal

Which was to find a grave site and allow these people closure