:00:09. > :00:12.Welcome to another week of Inside Out, stories from right
:00:13. > :00:43.All 31 people on board the Darwin perished including children. It made
:00:44. > :00:51.no sense. My mother said it should never have happened. Such a waste.
:00:52. > :00:59.This summer, a team of divers set out to find the Darlwynne. Could
:01:00. > :01:13.they find out what happened one terrible summer evening in 1966.
:01:14. > :01:19.When no longer looking for a wreck. It's a dive into the unknown. It
:01:20. > :01:26.needs to be found for closure for the families. Welcome to the search
:01:27. > :01:45.for the Darlwynne. Today, this is a haven for the local
:01:46. > :01:51.boating fraternity. A safe backwater. A place where sailors of
:01:52. > :01:58.all kind gather to explore the coastline and enjoy the love of the
:01:59. > :02:04.sea. But in 1966, it was the focus of one of Britain's worst maritime
:02:05. > :02:09.disasters. It happened the day after one of the country's biggest
:02:10. > :02:16.triumphs. COMMENTATOR: Some people are on the pitch. They think it's
:02:17. > :02:21.all over! Many people were celebrating England's World Cup
:02:22. > :02:32.victory when the Darlwynne left for a day trip. She was in poor shape.
:02:33. > :02:39.Her steering was erratic and there were issues with stability. She
:02:40. > :02:47.wasn't fit to carry 12 passengers, never mind 29 on board. The
:02:48. > :02:50.authorities knew nothing about the fact it was operating as a passenger
:02:51. > :03:07.craft. That boat should never have gone to see. It had left Fowey just
:03:08. > :03:14.warnings of a strong south-westerly storm heading in. The alarm was
:03:15. > :03:18.raised late that evening. With a storm raging and an apparent
:03:19. > :03:23.breakdown in communication between postcards, the air and sea search
:03:24. > :03:29.didn't begin until first light, more than nine hours later. In the coming
:03:30. > :03:34.days, from various locations along the coast, 12 bodies, small pieces
:03:35. > :03:39.of wreckage and the Darlwynne's Dinky were recovered but there was
:03:40. > :03:48.no wreck site to bring any clues as to what had happened. Darlwynne had
:03:49. > :03:57.sunk without trace. Lifeboatmen still remember the desperate search.
:03:58. > :04:04.We were out for 12-13 hours. We must have gone hundreds of miles up and
:04:05. > :04:11.down. Never found nothing. It's a needle in a haystack. You're talking
:04:12. > :04:15.about a 45 foot boat that came out of Fowey at four o'clock in the
:04:16. > :04:24.afternoon. I remember looking at watches on two of the bodies, one
:04:25. > :04:30.said eight o'clock, one said 815. Four hours. She could have been
:04:31. > :04:40.anywhere. There was a massive air and sea search, probably the biggest
:04:41. > :04:44.Cornwall has ever seen. Aircraft, helicopters, merchant ships, navy
:04:45. > :04:49.ships, private aircraft. They only found a Dinky and a little bit of
:04:50. > :04:56.wreckage. It was harrowing to a degree that I didn't let it affect
:04:57. > :05:02.me. The most harrowing part of the recovery, we went alongside one body
:05:03. > :05:11.and our stonewashed made it sink and then the crystal clear water, this
:05:12. > :05:15.body, just glided down to the depths. That was upsetting for all
:05:16. > :05:32.of the crew. We wanted to recover him. That was quite upsetting. 27 of
:05:33. > :05:37.those who died were tourists staying at this hotel which is now private
:05:38. > :05:44.apartments. In 1966, it was the focus of the story. People had to
:05:45. > :05:52.deal with the details. Who owns these cars, personal belongings,
:05:53. > :05:57.nobody wanted to stay at the hotel. The owners had to give up and it
:05:58. > :06:03.fell into disrepair. The other people who felt the impact were the
:06:04. > :06:07.boatmen, they were trying to sell perfectly safe trips around the
:06:08. > :06:13.harbour, their livelihood, they rely on tourism now and then, and they
:06:14. > :06:19.were packed in. All in all, the effect was profound at the time and
:06:20. > :06:23.we still feel ripples of it today. A memorial screen in the church nearby
:06:24. > :06:32.displays the names of those lost. Whole families like this one from
:06:33. > :06:37.Barnet. They had added an extra day to the holiday especially to take
:06:38. > :06:44.the boat trip. George Edmonds, an engineer from Derby, lost with his
:06:45. > :06:50.fiancee Patricia. All four members of the Russell family. On holiday
:06:51. > :06:57.with their friends the mills. But Russell was a keen sailor. A cousin
:06:58. > :07:00.of the family was 13 when she lost form is of the family. She was
:07:01. > :07:10.abroad with her parents when it happened. I know we were in Spain.
:07:11. > :07:16.It was my mother's birthday. 31st of July. My father got newspapers
:07:17. > :07:21.because he wanted to see the World Cup news. I remember reading about
:07:22. > :07:25.the Darlwynne but at that stage, I don't think we realised Albert was
:07:26. > :07:32.on the boat although we knew about the disaster. Latterly, I can
:07:33. > :07:36.remember my parents say, if we had turned over the page of the
:07:37. > :07:39.newspaper would have known more. The shock was horrendous. None of the
:07:40. > :07:44.cousins ever got over it because they lived next door to but who was
:07:45. > :07:49.like a brother to them. We were fortunate in as far as three members
:07:50. > :07:54.of our family were found. Albert, Peggy and Pat were all found but
:07:55. > :08:00.John was never found. It is still that disaster, shock and unnecessary
:08:01. > :08:06.waste of life for everybody. There would have been panic, for sure.
:08:07. > :08:12.Children on board, the parents would have been concerned. A high degree
:08:13. > :08:15.of panic. A lot of passengers in a confined space. I can only begin to
:08:16. > :08:25.imagine what they must have gone through. A public enquiry began in
:08:26. > :08:37.December that year. Its conclusion was clear. The court of enquiry
:08:38. > :08:45.blames two men for the loss of the Darlwynne and 35 lives on board. The
:08:46. > :08:50.skipper and the registered owner. John Barrett was ordered to pay ?500
:08:51. > :08:59.towards the cost of the enquiry. The only penalty the panel could impose.
:09:00. > :09:08.Locals had accused the hotelier of profiting from the trip. He claimed
:09:09. > :09:16.to have been exonerated for the disaster by the enquiry. What are
:09:17. > :09:20.your feelings looking back? Sincere regret that it ever happened and a
:09:21. > :09:27.feeling that it was probably one of these things that was due to happen
:09:28. > :09:31.anyway. I don't think there was anything wrong with the boat. I
:09:32. > :09:37.don't think that the boat contributed in any way to the loss.
:09:38. > :09:44.But with no survivors and no wreck site, the enquiry raised more
:09:45. > :09:51.questions than answers. It just made no sense. They were given warnings,
:09:52. > :09:56.why go out? Such a lengthy trip on a boat that wasn't really fit for the
:09:57. > :10:03.purpose, we would say now. It didn't make any sense. My mother would
:10:04. > :10:12.often be heard saying, it should never have happened. Such a waste.
:10:13. > :10:20.Martin Banks has researched the tragedy and its impact. The effect
:10:21. > :10:25.of the villagers was immense because two of the village children were
:10:26. > :10:32.lost with the boat, Amanda and Joel Hicks. There were lots of questions
:10:33. > :10:38.asked. Was the boat fit, where the crew licensed? Question piled on
:10:39. > :10:44.question. The biggest mystery of all is where is the boat? They expected
:10:45. > :10:48.to find it very soon. They have said eight of the art Cold War
:10:49. > :10:51.minesweeper and they expected to raise it very quickly. And therefore
:10:52. > :10:59.answer the questions as what went wrong. Also to return the bodies to
:11:00. > :11:10.the families but after 18 months they still couldn't find any. So, an
:11:11. > :11:15.extensive search by the Royal Navy found nothing. 50 years on, our
:11:16. > :11:23.search would have the benefit of better charts, while sophisticated
:11:24. > :11:29.underwater technology would also need a bit of luck. Mark Milburn and
:11:30. > :11:35.Nikolai and our professional rex finders who have worked all over the
:11:36. > :11:42.world. This local story has particular resonance. It matters to
:11:43. > :11:50.me because Darlwyne has been forgotten. I'm a embarrassed to
:11:51. > :11:55.state that I'd never heard of it. Because it sunk after the World Cup
:11:56. > :12:02.final in 1966, there is this issue that overshadowed it. All wreck
:12:03. > :12:09.searches are special but this one is so recent and such a lot of life, it
:12:10. > :12:17.needs to be found for closure to the families. We have worked on all
:12:18. > :12:22.sorts of Rex, 17th Linus, U-boats, but never anything within living
:12:23. > :12:28.memory. Certainly not within my living memory which it is just. I'd
:12:29. > :12:31.like to tell the story. I've spoken to people who knew the boat, people
:12:32. > :12:34.who should have been on the boat and relatives of people who are on the
:12:35. > :12:38.boat and this is all in living memory and they need some closure.
:12:39. > :12:51.It's an important story for them, really. The Darlwyne left Mylor for
:12:52. > :12:57.an uneventful trip along the coast. At about one they arrived in Fowey
:12:58. > :13:03.where they spent a few hours. Ignoring news of an approaching
:13:04. > :13:07.storm, they left to return at around four in the afternoon. There were
:13:08. > :13:10.reports of several sightings on the coast. The timing suggest she was
:13:11. > :13:19.three or four hours into the journey when she Saddam. That would put her
:13:20. > :13:26.in the area surged by the Navy in 1966. Mark and Nick think she may
:13:27. > :13:35.have been blown back by the storm towards Todman point where reefs and
:13:36. > :13:42.fast currents are notorious. We knew the boat would never have been found
:13:43. > :13:48.in a 15 square miles area. We had to think, if we were coming into a
:13:49. > :13:56.heavy Southwest Lisi, with those reefs there, what would we do? Why
:13:57. > :14:09.would we go? We know it left Fowey on its way to Mylor. You can see the
:14:10. > :14:17.overflows on the chart. That bit wasn't actually searched because you
:14:18. > :14:25.can't get a minesweeper in there. Maybe it turned back. It's where we
:14:26. > :14:30.don't need to look. You have got where people have looked, where
:14:31. > :14:38.haven't they look. Where is live normally. The spread of the bodies
:14:39. > :14:43.were all to the east. That starts you eliminating these little
:14:44. > :14:48.squares. I think, the thing to say, if it's not in there, we won't find
:14:49. > :14:53.it. We've got the best chance of finding it ever with the information
:14:54. > :15:00.we've gathered. It's narrowed it down to that area. It would be
:15:01. > :15:07.exciting but it's quite a sombre thing, as well. What we are looking
:15:08. > :15:09.for is such a loss of life. Two months into our research, word
:15:10. > :15:20.reaches the team of a significant discovery. This trawlerman believes
:15:21. > :15:29.he. Wreckage of the Darlwyne in the 1970s. It would have been the summer
:15:30. > :15:40.of 1979. We trawled up a section of Keele. The pedestal that the ship's
:15:41. > :15:50.wheel was a catch to. A greased pipe to the stern tube and a few sections
:15:51. > :15:55.of plank. How did they are true,? We were trawling and we snagged into a
:15:56. > :16:08.previously lost control. It brought the whole a lot to the surface. What
:16:09. > :16:14.sort of condition was this in? The vessel had disintegrated. It was in
:16:15. > :16:19.pieces. I didn't suspect it was from the Darlwyne at the time. We took it
:16:20. > :16:26.back to Fowey which was our home port at the time. We were talking to
:16:27. > :16:31.the mechanic from the Fowey lifeboat who knew of the Darlwyne. The more I
:16:32. > :16:38.talk to him, the more he was saying, this matches. We put two and two
:16:39. > :16:45.together. Even the paint was, apparently, correct. In a way, it's
:16:46. > :16:52.confirmed what we were thinking. It is in the area we were looking at.
:16:53. > :16:57.If anything, it's made our task more difficult but it's made it a lot
:16:58. > :17:04.more interesting. On the face of it, a lucky break through. Though, if
:17:05. > :17:07.the wreckage recovered was from the Darlwyne it means there will be less
:17:08. > :17:11.on the sea bed for the divers to find. Early June, a break in the
:17:12. > :17:17.weather coincides with the right types. A team assembles at Mylor
:17:18. > :17:22.ready to begin the underwater exploration. We've been looking into
:17:23. > :17:29.this for three months. Searching and searching. This is hopefully going
:17:30. > :17:36.to see the end of the research and finding the wreck. It left from the
:17:37. > :17:44.quayside a few hundred yards away. The families who lost are keen to
:17:45. > :17:51.know where it is. It is the completion of the story, if we find
:17:52. > :17:57.it. Even on a relatively calm summers day, this point is still an
:17:58. > :18:05.imposing sight. Offshore currents and reefs have claimed numerous
:18:06. > :18:11.lives over the centuries. We are in the rough area that the trawlerman
:18:12. > :18:21.said. This gully is quite rocky. You can see the rocks on the scan.
:18:22. > :18:26.Looking at the chart, if something was trawled up by a scholar dredger,
:18:27. > :18:31.it's got to be where a scholar dredger would dredge. We need to
:18:32. > :18:39.start and let the current takers through. It is the right bearing but
:18:40. > :18:44.a lot further than he said. After 50 years, there won't be much left.
:18:45. > :18:55.Metal objects may have survived and Nick thinks the unusual Alice could
:18:56. > :19:04.be easy to spot. -- ballast. Granite sets. These are unusual here. The
:19:05. > :19:31.granular texture is going to stand out. How far are we? 300 metres.
:19:32. > :19:38.For their first series of dives, visibility is surprisingly good and
:19:39. > :19:46.the team quickly find the area that has been trawled. Scallop fishermen
:19:47. > :19:56.use heavy trials that plough the sea bed and they may have destroyed
:19:57. > :20:00.evidence of the wreck of the Darwin. Protocol requires divers to leave
:20:01. > :20:00.evidence of untouched so they have several cameras to record anything
:20:01. > :20:18.of interest. 30 minutes into the first set of
:20:19. > :20:24.guides, Mark finds a piece of rock that doesn't belong there. Could it
:20:25. > :20:38.be granite ballast from the Darlwyne's hole. -- Hull. Great
:20:39. > :20:45.piece of visibility. We could see ten metres. I saw one lump of
:20:46. > :20:52.granite. It could have been a set. Not 100% sure. This is where he
:20:53. > :21:01.would have trawled it up if the story is true. Not far away, Nick
:21:02. > :21:09.makes a similar discovery. What did you find down there? I think I found
:21:10. > :21:16.a granite set. We've photographed it. It is a cube of granite. It had
:21:17. > :21:23.the granular texture on the surface. It was perfectly cube shaped. I'd
:21:24. > :21:27.like another look. Having said that, we know that some of the wreckage
:21:28. > :21:34.was dredged up by a scallop dredger. The evidence on the sea bed is of
:21:35. > :21:37.scallop dredging. We are in the right area. I'd like to find
:21:38. > :21:42.something a little more conclusive but I think we are onto something
:21:43. > :21:46.here. It's an encouraging start but the team is hoping to complete the
:21:47. > :21:51.search before the 50th anniversary of the tragedy in July. Will the
:21:52. > :22:02.weather allow another series of dives in time? Just a week before
:22:03. > :22:11.the anniversary weekend, the weather clears and Mark and Nick returned.
:22:12. > :22:16.This time, the current is much stronger and the visibility not as
:22:17. > :22:20.good. Knowing the geography of the sea bed, Mark heads straight for the
:22:21. > :22:24.end of the gully they've been searching. Anything dragged along by
:22:25. > :22:33.the scallop fishermen is likely to end up there. Once again, there are
:22:34. > :22:36.areas where the sea bed has been stripped bare. It's an unlikely
:22:37. > :22:55.place to find wreckage. 30 minutes into the dive, as Mark is
:22:56. > :23:04.beginning to think about returning to the surface, he starts to find
:23:05. > :23:10.what he's been looking for. Various pieces of mackerel work, ironwork. A
:23:11. > :23:18.fisherman's anchor, about four feet long, two feet wide. Some other
:23:19. > :23:24.ironwork. What look like a winch. The sort of thing you'd expect from
:23:25. > :23:29.a smaller vessel. The barest pieces of ironwork. One piece of timber
:23:30. > :23:35.that looked like it had been recently uncovered. Under the
:23:36. > :23:40.ironwork. It had been under the ironwork for a good few years
:23:41. > :23:49.because of the general condition. It wasn't a steel ship. It was a timber
:23:50. > :23:55.ship with steel fittings. We know there would have been Darlwyne
:23:56. > :24:02.steel. That was the right size of anchor that the Darlwyne was
:24:03. > :24:07.carrying. The fisherman's Anke is flat in the sea bed with some bits
:24:08. > :24:13.of chain. What I saw was probably spread over no more than 20 - 30
:24:14. > :24:23.feet. Again, that says it was a smaller vessel. It's the right size
:24:24. > :24:28.for the Darlwyne. Best guess is because we have nothing else of the
:24:29. > :24:34.age in the area that we know has sunk, so a very good chance that it
:24:35. > :24:39.is the Darlwyne. The team are in a reflective mood. They may have found
:24:40. > :24:43.the wreck of the Darlwyne but their thoughts are with those who have
:24:44. > :24:48.perished. What will their families feel and what does our finding
:24:49. > :24:55.reveal about the dreadful events of 30 years ago? Captain Mike Evans is
:24:56. > :25:01.a Marine accident investigator who knows the area well. Does this
:25:02. > :25:06.discovery givers any clues? The location is very important. There
:25:07. > :25:12.were witness statements from along the shore that indicated seeing the
:25:13. > :25:15.boat as it passed. The fact that it got to be area of the point tells is
:25:16. > :25:25.a lot about the passage and it's already an area of serious
:25:26. > :25:29.overflows. The sea state would have been highly confused, high waves. If
:25:30. > :25:34.anything was wrong, it would soon have been found out and that
:25:35. > :25:47.wreckage indicates that is where it started to get in trouble. And early
:25:48. > :25:50.morning in Mevagissey harbour. The weekend of the 50th anniversary of
:25:51. > :25:56.the loss of the Darlwyne. Families of those who died have travelled to
:25:57. > :26:05.Cornwall for a series of memorial events. Our discovery means a chance
:26:06. > :26:12.at last to visit the spot where her cousins died on a stormy night in
:26:13. > :26:22.1966. The short trip from ever give easy -- from Mevagissey retraces the
:26:23. > :26:28.final route of the Darlwyne. Nick shows them the footage of the wreck
:26:29. > :26:35.site. We truly believe that is the right location. I think that is
:26:36. > :26:41.enough evidence. This was never going to be a forensic dive. We were
:26:42. > :26:48.never going to say this happened. I think we got our location. A bit of
:26:49. > :26:53.closure. It's a beautiful bit of sea bed, a resting place for people and
:26:54. > :27:00.I'm happy to leave it like that. Can't do any more. Over the wreck
:27:01. > :27:10.site, a moment of reflection for Alex and her family. And a tribute
:27:11. > :27:29.from the dive team. A rose for each of the 31 souls lost on the Darwin.
:27:30. > :27:34.-- Darlwyne. I just feel very sad today. I feel it was an unnecessary
:27:35. > :27:39.loss of life. A lot of families perished that should not have
:27:40. > :27:46.perished. The more we find out, the worse it seems to get but there is
:27:47. > :27:49.closure now. We know where they lay. We've said our goodbyes and
:27:50. > :27:59.hopefully the families can now be in peace. When the flowers went in the
:28:00. > :28:08.water, it was a lump in the throat moment. I got hooked into this story
:28:09. > :28:12.by the people. It was never going to be a spectacular wreck but the
:28:13. > :28:18.personal stories got under my skin. I wanted to do good things. Which
:28:19. > :28:27.was to find a grave site and allow these people closure and I'm very
:28:28. > :28:33.glad I've done that. The final chapter in the history of the
:28:34. > :28:37.Darlwyne. You can find out more of the tragedy of the Darlwyne and how
:28:38. > :28:40.the wreck was found on the BBC News website. That's it from us. Thank
:28:41. > :28:48.you for joining as.