WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.899 So, I want you to just picture a standard list 00:00:03.899 --> 00:00:06.160 of World War II warships for a second. Okay. 00:00:06.280 --> 00:00:08.759 You've got your heavy hitters right at the top, 00:00:08.820 --> 00:00:11.339 the battleships, like the Hood, the Bismarck, 00:00:11.339 --> 00:00:13.980 the massive aircraft carriers. Right, the ones 00:00:13.980 --> 00:00:16.199 that get the movies made about it. Exactly. But 00:00:16.199 --> 00:00:18.519 I've been digging through this stack of naval 00:00:18.519 --> 00:00:20.859 logs you sent over for this deep dive, and I 00:00:20.859 --> 00:00:23.920 think I found something. Well, something weird. 00:00:24.120 --> 00:00:26.699 Weird is probably the charitable way to describe 00:00:26.699 --> 00:00:28.640 it. I mean, you're looking at the file for HMS 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:30.879 Sharpshooter, right? Yeah. Pendant number J68. 00:00:31.059 --> 00:00:33.820 Right, J68. Yeah. And on paper, this is just 00:00:33.820 --> 00:00:37.399 a minesweeper. It's small. It's, you know, unglamorous. 00:00:37.460 --> 00:00:39.359 But when you actually plot out the timeline, 00:00:39.659 --> 00:00:42.439 this ship is sort of the maritime equivalent 00:00:42.439 --> 00:00:44.799 of Forrest Gump. Oh, that's a good way to put 00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:47.079 it. I mean, it is somehow physically present 00:00:47.079 --> 00:00:51.219 at nearly every single disaster, triumph, and 00:00:51.219 --> 00:00:53.899 bazaar. bizarre turning point for the Royal Navy 00:00:53.899 --> 00:00:57.280 between like 1937 and 1965. It is statistically 00:00:57.280 --> 00:00:59.280 improbable. You're talking about a single hole 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:01.240 that starts out, you know, clearing mines in 00:01:01.240 --> 00:01:03.840 the English Channel, evacuates Dunkirk, fights 00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:06.280 this insane duel with a U -boat in the Arctic 00:01:06.280 --> 00:01:09.620 Circle. Right. Invades Sicily and then somehow 00:01:09.620 --> 00:01:12.640 survives long enough to hunt for crashed nuclear 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:15.519 bomber prototypes in the Cold War. It's wild. 00:01:15.980 --> 00:01:18.180 But there's a catch. And this is the part that 00:01:18.180 --> 00:01:21.079 made me stop and actually reread the notes. For 00:01:21.079 --> 00:01:24.140 a ship with such a heroic resume, she wasn't 00:01:24.140 --> 00:01:26.340 exactly graceful. She had a reputation. She hit 00:01:26.340 --> 00:01:28.480 things, like a lot of things. She was definitely 00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:31.290 contact heavy. Yeah. But, you know... That's 00:01:31.290 --> 00:01:33.209 actually the core of our mission today. We aren't 00:01:33.209 --> 00:01:35.909 just recounting battles here. We want to track 00:01:35.909 --> 00:01:37.730 the life of this single piece of engineering. 00:01:38.030 --> 00:01:41.750 It's just 245 feet of steel, but following it 00:01:41.750 --> 00:01:44.709 helps you understand how the Navy itself changed. 00:01:45.049 --> 00:01:47.430 Like, how do you take a ship built for 1930s 00:01:47.430 --> 00:01:49.530 technology and keep it relevant in the atomic 00:01:49.530 --> 00:01:51.930 age? And, of course, why does she keep bumping 00:01:51.930 --> 00:01:53.890 into other ships? Well, let's go back to the 00:01:53.890 --> 00:01:57.329 drawing board then. It's 1936 Devonport Dockyard. 00:01:57.469 --> 00:01:59.629 What was the sharpshooter actually designed to 00:01:59.629 --> 00:02:02.849 do? Because the sources mention this Halcyon 00:02:02.849 --> 00:02:05.790 class, and they frame it as a pretty major shift 00:02:05.790 --> 00:02:08.389 in naval thinking. It was a very necessary shift. 00:02:08.949 --> 00:02:11.330 Because before the Halcyons, the British Navy 00:02:11.330 --> 00:02:13.370 was really confused about what a minesweeper 00:02:13.370 --> 00:02:16.030 should even be. How so? Well, they were building 00:02:16.030 --> 00:02:18.909 these things called minesweeping sloops. Basically, 00:02:19.050 --> 00:02:21.289 the Admiralty wanted a ship that could sweep 00:02:21.289 --> 00:02:24.919 mines, sure. but also patrol the colonies, chase 00:02:24.919 --> 00:02:27.500 pirates down, show the flag, and look impressive 00:02:27.500 --> 00:02:29.879 in a foreign port. Ah, the classic government 00:02:29.879 --> 00:02:32.639 procurement problem. Trying to make one machine 00:02:32.639 --> 00:02:35.520 do five completely different jobs. And failing 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:37.659 at most of them. They were too slow for patrol 00:02:37.659 --> 00:02:39.599 work and way too big for efficient sweeping. 00:02:40.219 --> 00:02:42.539 So the Halcyon class was the Navy finally getting 00:02:42.539 --> 00:02:45.979 back to basics. Dedicated minesweepers. Smaller, 00:02:45.979 --> 00:02:49.520 cheaper, and totally focused. When you say smaller, 00:02:49.560 --> 00:02:51.860 give me the scale here. She's 245 feet long. 00:02:52.270 --> 00:02:55.770 with a beam a width of about 33 feet. For comparison, 00:02:55.990 --> 00:02:57.889 a destroyer of that era would be significantly 00:02:57.889 --> 00:03:00.990 longer and much, much faster. Sharpshooter topped 00:03:00.990 --> 00:03:03.610 out at roughly 17 knots. Okay, so not a speed 00:03:03.610 --> 00:03:06.050 demon. No, she wasn't built to race. She was 00:03:06.050 --> 00:03:07.849 built to have enough torque to pull heavy cutting 00:03:07.849 --> 00:03:10.009 cables through the water to physically sever 00:03:10.009 --> 00:03:12.509 mine moorings. But I noticed in the specs she 00:03:12.509 --> 00:03:15.509 had steam turbines. The design notes say that 00:03:15.509 --> 00:03:17.969 was unusual for a sweeper. Why does the engine 00:03:17.969 --> 00:03:20.189 type matter so much? It matters for survival. 00:03:20.750 --> 00:03:23.710 Most small ships of that era used reciprocating 00:03:23.710 --> 00:03:26.569 engines. Think big pistons like a car engine, 00:03:26.650 --> 00:03:29.909 but massive. Right. They were reliable, but they 00:03:29.909 --> 00:03:32.169 were incredibly noisy, and they vibrated the 00:03:32.169 --> 00:03:35.090 whole ship. Sharpshooter had turbines. They were 00:03:35.090 --> 00:03:38.669 smoother and, crucially, a lot quieter. And quieter 00:03:38.669 --> 00:03:40.530 means it's harder for a submarine to hear you. 00:03:40.710 --> 00:03:42.789 That, and it means your own listening gear works 00:03:42.789 --> 00:03:45.159 better. If you're trying to use ASDIC, which 00:03:45.159 --> 00:03:47.759 was early sonar, to find a U -boat, you don't 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:49.479 want your own engine drowning out the return 00:03:49.479 --> 00:03:52.560 ping. Makes sense. So she launches in 36, commissions 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:55.620 in December 37, and she doesn't even get a nice 00:03:55.620 --> 00:03:57.800 shakedown cruise before things get really dark. 00:03:57.979 --> 00:04:00.099 No, not at all. She's immediately thrown right 00:04:00.099 --> 00:04:02.199 into the tension of the Munich crisis in 1938, 00:04:02.599 --> 00:04:05.759 mobilizing to scapa flow. But if you look at 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:08.580 the log for June 1939, that's where her first 00:04:08.580 --> 00:04:11.500 real trauma happens, the submarine Thetis. Oh, 00:04:11.599 --> 00:04:13.780 that was the sub that sank during its sea trials, 00:04:13.879 --> 00:04:17.160 right? Yes, in Liverpool Bay. Yeah. It was just 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:19.720 a horrific accident. The sub flooded and couldn't 00:04:19.720 --> 00:04:22.300 resurface. Sharpshooter was part of the flotilla 00:04:22.300 --> 00:04:25.060 sent to find her. They were searching desperately 00:04:25.060 --> 00:04:27.959 while the crew was trapped inside. Wow. So before 00:04:27.959 --> 00:04:30.639 the war even officially starts, this crew of 00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:33.439 about 80 men is already dealing with a massive 00:04:33.439 --> 00:04:36.420 loss of life. It sets a really grim tone for 00:04:36.420 --> 00:04:40.120 the ship. And then September 39 hits. War is 00:04:40.120 --> 00:04:42.860 declared. She spends the phony war clearing channels. 00:04:43.139 --> 00:04:47.800 But then we get to May 1940, Operation Dynamo. 00:04:47.819 --> 00:04:50.600 The evacuation of Dunkirk. Right. And I feel 00:04:50.600 --> 00:04:52.500 like everyone knows the movie version of Dunkirk. 00:04:52.620 --> 00:04:54.639 You know, the little civilian boats, the yachts, 00:04:54.639 --> 00:04:56.980 the fishing trawlers. The armada of small ships. 00:04:57.040 --> 00:04:59.279 Yeah, exactly. But the logs here paint a much 00:04:59.279 --> 00:05:01.319 more industrial picture. Sharpshooter wasn't 00:05:01.319 --> 00:05:03.620 just ferrying a few guys at a time. No, she was 00:05:03.620 --> 00:05:05.579 a heavy lifter. We have the specific entry for 00:05:05.579 --> 00:05:08.439 May 29th. She pulls 69 troops off the beach. 00:05:08.680 --> 00:05:10.300 Which practically doubles the number of people 00:05:10.300 --> 00:05:13.120 on board. It does. But the next day, May 30th, 00:05:13.120 --> 00:05:15.420 is the real test. She goes back in. And this 00:05:15.420 --> 00:05:18.910 time she loads 273 men. Wait, pause there. This 00:05:18.910 --> 00:05:21.029 is a ship designed for 80 crew. You add nearly 00:05:21.029 --> 00:05:24.069 300 soldiers to that. Where do you even put them? 00:05:24.689 --> 00:05:27.250 Everywhere. The mess decks, the corridors, the 00:05:27.250 --> 00:05:29.430 upper deck. And you have to remember the context. 00:05:29.949 --> 00:05:31.930 These men are totally exhausted. They've discarded 00:05:31.930 --> 00:05:34.430 their kit. They're terrified. And for the captain, 00:05:34.569 --> 00:05:37.250 Lieutenant Commander A .E. Doran, this is an 00:05:37.250 --> 00:05:39.870 absolute nightmare of stability. Stability. You 00:05:39.870 --> 00:05:42.740 mean the ship tipping. Exactly. Ships are balanced 00:05:42.740 --> 00:05:46.019 very carefully. If those 300 men all suddenly 00:05:46.019 --> 00:05:48.220 rush to the port side because they see a Stuka 00:05:48.220 --> 00:05:50.699 bomber attacking, the center of gravity shifts. 00:05:50.939 --> 00:05:53.639 The ship could literally roll over. Oh, man. 00:05:53.819 --> 00:05:55.839 And it's in this chaos that we see the first 00:05:55.839 --> 00:05:57.860 incident, the start of her reputation as a bumper 00:05:57.860 --> 00:06:00.779 car. The first collision. On her third run, heading 00:06:00.779 --> 00:06:04.300 outbound, she smashes into the steamer St. Helier. 00:06:04.740 --> 00:06:08.480 Ten point sends PM. Now, looking at this, it 00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:10.980 feels really easy to blame the captain. Was he 00:06:10.980 --> 00:06:13.459 just bad at his job? I don't think that's fair 00:06:13.459 --> 00:06:16.100 at all. Yeah. We have to contextualize the environment. 00:06:16.399 --> 00:06:18.899 Imagine driving down a highway at night, the 00:06:18.899 --> 00:06:21.120 wrong way against traffic, with your headlights 00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:23.740 off while people are shooting at you. That's 00:06:23.740 --> 00:06:26.439 intense. That was Dunkirk. Were there really 00:06:26.439 --> 00:06:30.060 no navigation lights? None. You couldn't risk 00:06:30.060 --> 00:06:32.879 the Luftwaffe seeing you. You have hundreds of 00:06:32.879 --> 00:06:35.220 destroyers, sweepers, and ferries maneuvering 00:06:35.220 --> 00:06:38.199 in shallow water in pitch blackness. Smoke from 00:06:38.199 --> 00:06:40.779 the burning oil tanks on shore is obscuring the 00:06:40.779 --> 00:06:43.459 moon. Honestly, it's a miracle she didn't hit 00:06:43.459 --> 00:06:45.519 five ships. The damage was pretty bad, though. 00:06:46.100 --> 00:06:48.240 Catastrophic for the bow. She couldn't sail home. 00:06:48.459 --> 00:06:51.480 She had to be towed back to Dover by a tug, the 00:06:51.480 --> 00:06:55.310 Foremost 22. That is an 11 -hour tow, completely 00:06:55.310 --> 00:06:57.829 helpless, creeping across the channel, just waiting 00:06:57.829 --> 00:06:59.850 for a bomber to finish you off. So she survives 00:06:59.850 --> 00:07:03.350 that, spends months in repair. But looking at 00:07:03.350 --> 00:07:05.370 the specs from the yard, she comes out different. 00:07:05.610 --> 00:07:08.089 The Navy didn't waste the downtime. They fitted 00:07:08.089 --> 00:07:11.110 her for magnetic mine sweeping. They realized 00:07:11.110 --> 00:07:13.610 the Germans were using magnetic triggers. Those 00:07:13.610 --> 00:07:15.810 are the mines that exploded when the steel hull 00:07:15.810 --> 00:07:18.129 of a ship passed over them, right? Exactly. So 00:07:18.129 --> 00:07:20.250 Sharpshooter had to adapt. She gets knocked down. 00:07:20.290 --> 00:07:22.410 She gets up smarter. She did some convoy work 00:07:22.410 --> 00:07:24.069 in the Western approaches after that. But then, 00:07:24.149 --> 00:07:26.850 late 1941, she gets the worst ticket in the lottery. 00:07:27.470 --> 00:07:30.310 The Arctic. The romance run. I've read about 00:07:30.310 --> 00:07:32.529 the storms up there, but the logs here describe 00:07:32.529 --> 00:07:35.709 the cold as an enemy in itself. It sounds almost 00:07:35.709 --> 00:07:38.110 alien. It was lethal. We aren't just talking 00:07:38.110 --> 00:07:40.370 about being chilly. Spray would freeze on the 00:07:40.370 --> 00:07:43.279 guns instantly. Jamming them solid. If you touched 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:45.800 a metal railing without gloves, you left your 00:07:45.800 --> 00:07:47.980 skin behind. Brutal. And you're sailing right 00:07:47.980 --> 00:07:50.740 past Nazi -occupied Norway, so you have U -boats 00:07:50.740 --> 00:07:53.680 and land -based bombers harassing you the entire 00:07:53.680 --> 00:07:57.740 way. She's escorting convoys PQ -8, PQ -9, PQ 00:07:57.740 --> 00:08:00.160 -10. And this is where we get to the cinematic 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:03.959 climax of her career. March 24th, 1942. Yes, 00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:06.639 the U -655 incident. Let's set the scene for 00:08:06.639 --> 00:08:10.060 this. So it's evening, about 8 .25 p .m. She's 00:08:10.060 --> 00:08:13.199 escorting convoy QP -9. Visibility is incredibly 00:08:13.199 --> 00:08:16.160 low, probably sea mist or snow flurries. Suddenly, 00:08:16.300 --> 00:08:18.100 the lookout on the forward four -inch gun yells 00:08:18.100 --> 00:08:20.500 out. He spots a shape in the water. The report 00:08:20.500 --> 00:08:22.300 says two to three cables. For those of us who 00:08:22.300 --> 00:08:24.620 don't speak Navy, what is that exactly? A cable 00:08:24.620 --> 00:08:27.480 is roughly 185 meters. So we are talking maybe 00:08:27.480 --> 00:08:30.579 400 to 500 meters away. That is nothing. In naval 00:08:30.579 --> 00:08:33.019 warfare, where engagements can happen at 10 miles, 00:08:33.179 --> 00:08:35.000 that is absolute knife -fighting rate. Then it's 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:39.679 a U -boat. U -655. Surfaced. And here's the strange 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:42.740 part. The report notes... There was no one on 00:08:42.740 --> 00:08:44.720 the conning tower. They didn't see the sharpshooter 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:46.639 coming? Apparently not. They might have been 00:08:46.639 --> 00:08:48.580 charging batteries or venting the boat to get 00:08:48.580 --> 00:08:50.860 fresh air, but they were completely caught off 00:08:50.860 --> 00:08:53.360 guard. So the captain, Lieutenant Commander David 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:56.019 Lampin, has a split -second decision to make. 00:08:56.409 --> 00:08:58.610 He doesn't try to fire torpedoes. You can't. 00:08:58.610 --> 00:09:00.789 They're too close. The torpedoes wouldn't even 00:09:00.789 --> 00:09:02.769 have time to arm themselves in the water. Oh, 00:09:02.769 --> 00:09:04.710 yeah. And the main guns might not be able to 00:09:04.710 --> 00:09:07.450 depress low enough or turn fast enough to hit 00:09:07.450 --> 00:09:10.289 a target that close. He does the only thing he 00:09:10.289 --> 00:09:12.690 can. He yells the order. Emergency full ahead. 00:09:13.110 --> 00:09:15.710 Stand by to ram. Stand by to ram. It sounds so 00:09:15.710 --> 00:09:17.590 archaic, like something from a Roman galley, 00:09:17.629 --> 00:09:21.159 not a... 20th century warship. It is brutal physics. 00:09:21.399 --> 00:09:24.019 You are turning your ship into a missile. And 00:09:24.019 --> 00:09:25.879 remember, Sharpshooter is not an icebreaker. 00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:29.200 She has a standard steel bow. Hitting a pressure 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:31.200 hole, which is high tensile steel designed to 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:33.659 withstand deep ocean pressure, is like driving 00:09:33.659 --> 00:09:36.759 your car into a bank vault. You know you're going 00:09:36.759 --> 00:09:38.700 to wreck your own ship. But he commits to it. 00:09:38.899 --> 00:09:42.019 He commits. The U -boat tries to dive at the 00:09:42.019 --> 00:09:44.460 very last second, but it's too late. Sharpshooter 00:09:44.460 --> 00:09:47.139 catches her beam on just behind the conning tower. 00:09:47.879 --> 00:09:52.159 The violence of that impact. The minesweeper 00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:54.759 basically rode up over the submarine. Wow. The 00:09:54.759 --> 00:09:56.799 U -boat rolled over, scraped along the hull, 00:09:56.960 --> 00:10:00.019 and sank stern first. That's just gone. Instantly. 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:03.519 45 men, no survivors. The sources mention the 00:10:03.519 --> 00:10:05.840 debris field was hauntingly empty afterwards. 00:10:06.139 --> 00:10:08.759 Just two life buoys and what looked like a canvas 00:10:08.759 --> 00:10:10.929 dinghy. That's it. And what about Sharpshooter? 00:10:11.070 --> 00:10:13.990 Her bow was completely crushed. Again, they had 00:10:13.990 --> 00:10:15.750 to shore up the forward mess deck with heavy 00:10:15.750 --> 00:10:18.370 timber just to keep the freezing water out. She 00:10:18.370 --> 00:10:20.470 couldn't stay with the convoy. She had to limp 00:10:20.470 --> 00:10:23.850 to Iceland entirely alone at slow speed. That 00:10:23.850 --> 00:10:26.809 is a terrifying image. Damaged, alone in U -boat 00:10:26.809 --> 00:10:28.629 waters, just hoping you don't run into another 00:10:28.629 --> 00:10:30.490 one before you make port. It really proves the 00:10:30.490 --> 00:10:32.409 toughness of the Halcyon design, though. A lesser 00:10:32.409 --> 00:10:34.289 ship might have found it right there. So she 00:10:34.289 --> 00:10:36.789 gets patched up again and is back in action by 00:10:36.789 --> 00:10:39.889 September for convoy PQ -18. And the notes here 00:10:39.889 --> 00:10:42.330 say PQ -18 was an absolute bloodbath. It was 00:10:42.330 --> 00:10:44.750 one of the defining battles of the Arctic. The 00:10:44.750 --> 00:10:47.269 Germans threw everything at it. Thirteen merchant 00:10:47.269 --> 00:10:51.110 ships sunk. But this is where Sharpshooter Schiff's 00:10:51.110 --> 00:10:53.730 roles yet again. She goes from a killer to a 00:10:53.730 --> 00:10:56.590 lifesaver. She pulled 101 survivors from the 00:10:56.590 --> 00:10:58.830 water during that single convoy. Think about 00:10:58.830 --> 00:11:00.990 the logistics of that for a second. You have 00:11:00.990 --> 00:11:04.450 a crew of 80. You add 101 freezing, oil -soaked 00:11:04.450 --> 00:11:07.289 men who have just seen their ships explode. You 00:11:07.289 --> 00:11:09.669 have to feed them, clothe them, treat their wounds, 00:11:09.830 --> 00:11:12.210 all while you are still fighting off Heinkel 00:11:12.210 --> 00:11:14.750 bombers and submarines. It's a humanitarian crisis 00:11:14.750 --> 00:11:17.929 happening inside a warship. Exactly. She survives 00:11:17.929 --> 00:11:21.309 PQ -18. She turns around to bring convoy QP -15 00:11:21.309 --> 00:11:24.450 back home in November. Well, remember what we 00:11:24.450 --> 00:11:26.169 said earlier about her being a bumper car? Oh, 00:11:26.169 --> 00:11:28.889 here we go. November 27, 1942, she's leaving 00:11:28.889 --> 00:11:31.799 the convoy. and she collides with the cargo ship 00:11:31.799 --> 00:11:34.360 Empire Snow. At this point, you really have to 00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:37.580 ask, is she clumsy or is she cursed? I was going 00:11:37.580 --> 00:11:39.279 to ask you that. We have the Dunkirk Collision, 00:11:39.320 --> 00:11:41.720 now this. Is this just bad seamanship? It's easy 00:11:41.720 --> 00:11:44.740 to judge from a desk 80 years later. But we need 00:11:44.740 --> 00:11:47.100 to talk about station keeping. This is a technical 00:11:47.100 --> 00:11:50.279 term that sounds incredibly boring, but is actually 00:11:50.279 --> 00:11:53.700 terrifying in practice. Unpack that for us. In 00:11:53.700 --> 00:11:57.080 a convoy, you have a specific imaginary box relative 00:11:57.080 --> 00:11:59.580 to all the other ships. You have to stay in that 00:11:59.580 --> 00:12:02.379 box. But you aren't sailing in a straight line. 00:12:02.559 --> 00:12:05.659 You're constantly zigzagging to throw off U -boat 00:12:05.659 --> 00:12:10.200 aim. So every ship turns 30 degrees starboard 00:12:10.200 --> 00:12:13.019 at the exact same moment than 30 degrees port. 00:12:13.259 --> 00:12:15.419 And you're doing this in total darkness. Total 00:12:15.419 --> 00:12:18.659 darkness, often in fog or gale force winds. And 00:12:18.659 --> 00:12:20.779 these ships don't have brakes. They carry massive 00:12:20.779 --> 00:12:23.509 momentum. If the ship next to you zigs when they 00:12:23.509 --> 00:12:25.470 should have zagged, or if you drift just 100 00:12:25.470 --> 00:12:27.809 yards out of position crunch. So it was basically 00:12:27.809 --> 00:12:30.009 synchronized swimming in the dark with 10 ,000 00:12:30.009 --> 00:12:32.210 ton steel blocks. That is exactly what it is. 00:12:32.429 --> 00:12:34.509 Collisions were actually a major cause of damage 00:12:34.509 --> 00:12:37.009 during the war. Sharpshooter just seems to have 00:12:37.009 --> 00:12:39.429 a real talent for finding the other ships. Well, 00:12:39.509 --> 00:12:41.990 that collision sent her back for repairs yet 00:12:41.990 --> 00:12:44.370 again. She eventually goes down to the Mediterranean 00:12:44.370 --> 00:12:46.610 for the invasion of Sicily, doing mine sweeping 00:12:46.610 --> 00:12:50.149 there, finally comes back to home waters in late 00:12:50.149 --> 00:12:54.860 44. War ends in 45. And normally, this is where 00:12:54.860 --> 00:12:57.419 the story stops. The Royal Navy had thousands 00:12:57.419 --> 00:12:59.679 of these little escorts. They didn't need them 00:12:59.679 --> 00:13:02.159 anymore. Most were driven straight onto the beach 00:13:02.159 --> 00:13:04.700 and cut up for scrap metal to rebuild the economy. 00:13:04.940 --> 00:13:07.240 But Sharpshooter survives the call. She does. 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:09.539 She had a good haul, and those steam turbines 00:13:09.539 --> 00:13:12.879 were still incredibly useful. So in May 1945, 00:13:13.240 --> 00:13:15.299 she goes into Chatham Dockyard, they strip the 00:13:15.299 --> 00:13:17.720 guns off, they take out the depth charges, and 00:13:17.720 --> 00:13:19.759 she's completely converted into a survey ship. 00:13:19.919 --> 00:13:23.179 Mapping the ocean floor. Finally, a peaceful 00:13:23.179 --> 00:13:25.440 retirement. Well, peaceful is a relative term 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:27.120 for this particular ship. I see where you're 00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:28.940 going. Let's look at the post -war log here, 00:13:29.100 --> 00:13:32.080 1946. She collides with the merchant ship Fieldy. 00:13:32.159 --> 00:13:34.039 Unbelievable. Then she goes out to Southeast 00:13:34.039 --> 00:13:37.179 Asia, Singapore, Borneo. She's actually doing 00:13:37.179 --> 00:13:39.740 really valuable work finding wrecks and harbors 00:13:39.740 --> 00:13:42.620 so global trade can restart. Vital work. But 00:13:42.620 --> 00:13:46.179 then, October 1947. She hits the merchant ship 00:13:46.179 --> 00:13:48.600 Celebs. And just for the hat trick, in 1958, 00:13:48.980 --> 00:13:51.600 she runs aground in the Bristol Channel and completely 00:13:51.600 --> 00:13:54.399 smashes her sonar dome. You have to respect the 00:13:54.399 --> 00:13:56.379 resilience, really. She's like a boxer who keeps 00:13:56.379 --> 00:13:59.220 walking right into punches, but absolutely refuses 00:13:59.220 --> 00:14:02.360 to fall down. In 1953, she does get a rebrand. 00:14:02.419 --> 00:14:06.320 She is renamed HMS Shackleton. Which is fitting. 00:14:06.679 --> 00:14:08.360 given her time up in the Arctic ice. But the 00:14:08.360 --> 00:14:10.580 most fascinating chapter for me is right at the 00:14:10.580 --> 00:14:13.399 end of the file. We're in the Cold War now, 1959, 00:14:13.960 --> 00:14:17.740 the jet age. This is such a jarring contrast. 00:14:18.200 --> 00:14:21.460 You had this ship laid down in 1936 with steam 00:14:21.460 --> 00:14:23.779 engines and rivets, suddenly interacting with 00:14:23.779 --> 00:14:26.240 the absolute cutting edge of nuclear strategy. 00:14:26.500 --> 00:14:30.019 On August 20th, 1959, a prototype Hanley Page 00:14:30.019 --> 00:14:32.720 Victor B -2 bomber crashes into the Irish Sea. 00:14:32.940 --> 00:14:34.860 The Victor was a V -bomber, looked like a spaceship. 00:14:35.210 --> 00:14:37.789 Huge swept wings designed to drop nuclear weapons 00:14:37.789 --> 00:14:40.470 on Moscow. This prototype crashing was a massive 00:14:40.470 --> 00:14:42.970 national security disaster. The Navy needed to 00:14:42.970 --> 00:14:46.370 know why. Was it a design flaw? Pilot error. 00:14:46.590 --> 00:14:49.029 Because if the design is bad, the whole nuclear 00:14:49.029 --> 00:14:52.029 deterrent is compromised. Precisely. They had 00:14:52.029 --> 00:14:54.809 to find the wreckage to steady it. But finding 00:14:54.809 --> 00:14:58.370 a crashed plane in the ocean is incredibly hard. 00:14:58.779 --> 00:15:00.820 So they send Shackleton. Because she has the 00:15:00.820 --> 00:15:03.259 survey sensors. She spends weeks trawling the 00:15:03.259 --> 00:15:05.539 seabed looking for fragments of a supersonic 00:15:05.539 --> 00:15:07.740 jet. It really highlights how long her career 00:15:07.740 --> 00:15:10.120 was. She started out hunting U -boats that ran 00:15:10.120 --> 00:15:12.879 on diesel batteries. And she finished by hunting 00:15:12.879 --> 00:15:15.860 a jet bomber that could fly at Mach 0 .9. And 00:15:15.860 --> 00:15:18.539 true to form, even while she's doing this high 00:15:18.539 --> 00:15:22.080 -stakes search, she finds time for one last rescue. 00:15:22.259 --> 00:15:24.940 April 1960. She picks up a distress call from 00:15:24.940 --> 00:15:29.079 a trawler, the Starbank. Uncontrolled leak. Shackleton 00:15:29.079 --> 00:15:31.960 pauses the search, rushes over, transfers her 00:15:31.960 --> 00:15:34.460 pumps, and saves the ship. It's like she couldn't 00:15:34.460 --> 00:15:36.519 help herself. If there was trouble anywhere nearby, 00:15:36.799 --> 00:15:38.620 she was going towards it. It's a very fitting 00:15:38.620 --> 00:15:41.960 final act. The end finally came in November 1965. 00:15:42.600 --> 00:15:45.080 She was placed on the disposal list and sold 00:15:45.080 --> 00:15:47.220 to Bisco. The British Iron and Steel Corporation. 00:15:47.700 --> 00:15:50.340 The knacker's yard. She was broken up at Troon, 00:15:50.500 --> 00:15:53.500 born in the pre -war tension of the 30s, scrapped 00:15:53.500 --> 00:15:55.700 in the swinging 60s. Court of Journey. So when 00:15:55.700 --> 00:15:58.190 you look at this whole stack of reports, What 00:15:58.190 --> 00:16:00.830 is the big takeaway? Why should you or I care 00:16:00.830 --> 00:16:04.129 about one clumsy minesweeper? I think she represents 00:16:04.129 --> 00:16:07.090 the Workhorse Navy. We preserve the bill fast 00:16:07.090 --> 00:16:10.250 in London as a museum. We look at the big guns 00:16:10.250 --> 00:16:12.909 and the heavy armor. But the war wasn't won by 00:16:12.909 --> 00:16:15.250 battleships. It was won by these little ships, 00:16:15.370 --> 00:16:17.169 the ones that cleared the mines, screened the 00:16:17.169 --> 00:16:19.309 convoys, and took the hits. They made the ocean 00:16:19.309 --> 00:16:22.149 usable. Right. Without Sharpshooter clearing 00:16:22.149 --> 00:16:23.929 the channel, the battleship can't even leave 00:16:23.929 --> 00:16:27.279 port. Without her screening the convoy, the foo 00:16:27.279 --> 00:16:30.360 doesn't get to Britain. They were small, cramped, 00:16:30.440 --> 00:16:33.159 freezing, and utterly indispensable. It also 00:16:33.159 --> 00:16:34.740 makes you think about the life of a machine. 00:16:34.860 --> 00:16:37.580 We tend to view ships as static objects, just 00:16:37.580 --> 00:16:40.019 hunks of metal. But this ship had a real career 00:16:40.019 --> 00:16:42.679 path. It had job changes. It had a personality. 00:16:43.100 --> 00:16:45.360 A slightly accident -prone personality, sure. 00:16:45.759 --> 00:16:47.919 but definitely a heroic one. And it leaves you 00:16:47.919 --> 00:16:51.100 wondering, if a random minesweeper like J68 has 00:16:51.100 --> 00:16:53.840 a story of this wild ramming subs and hunting 00:16:53.840 --> 00:16:56.500 nuclear bombers, what other epic stories are 00:16:56.500 --> 00:16:58.220 just sitting in the archives right now, hiding 00:16:58.220 --> 00:17:00.220 in the logs of the thousands of minor vessels 00:17:00.220 --> 00:17:02.480 that no one ever talks about? That is a very 00:17:02.480 --> 00:17:04.799 big question. And definitely one for another 00:17:04.799 --> 00:17:06.460 deep dive. Thanks for listening.