The submariner who found the wreck of the Irish fishing vessel ST Leukos, which was sunk by a German submarine off Donegal in 1940, is hoping that relatives of the 11 crew who died might be able to make contact.
As first reported by The Irish Independent, diver and submariner John Kearney located the Leukos north of Donegal’s Tory Island in 105 metres of water late last month.
The wreck of the Irish fishing vessel ST Leukos Photo: John Kearney
The vessel owned by the Dublin Steam Trawling Co Ltd had been working in Donegal Bay close to five vessels from Fleetwood, England, when it was targeted by the German submarine U-38 (Heinrich Liebe).
Video footage which Kearney recorded from his submersible, Atlantic Explorer 2, shows that the bow of the vessel is missing – indicating that it may have been cut in two.
The Dutch built Atlantic Submersible 2 owned by Muirí Carraige Aonair Teo can take three people to a depth of 300 meters for 18 hours.
Kearney, a former Naval Service diver who has been involved in many search and recovery operations around the coast, has been using the submersible for a number of searches around the coast for the non profit company, Fastnet Maritime Heritage.
“I had obtained the drawings of the Leukos, and knew the reported position where it was sunk 12 nautical miles north-west of Tory, so I would say that without doubt this is it,”Kearney told the newspaper.
“I could see the rudder, the propeller, the engine space, but the wheelhouse had gone,”he says.
“A pod of dolphins met up with us and accompanied us on the dive and to the wreck and halfway back into Lough Swilly,”he says.
The Uboat.net research website states that at 21.13 hours on March 9th, 1940 the neutral Leukos, under skipper James Potter Thomasson (28), was attacked without warning by submarine U-38 about 30 miles north-west of Tory.
On board with Thomasson, who was from Dublin, were fireman Michael Cullen (17) from Ringsend, mate William Donnelly (no age recorded) from Blackpool, England, apprentice James Hawkins (17) from Ringsend, cook Patricio McCarthy (42) from Dublin and chief engineer Alexander McLeod from Stornoway.
Also on board were young deckhands Thomas Mulligan and Anthony Pill from Dublin, bosun PJ Scanlon from Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, second engineer Bernard Smith (23) from Marino, Dublin and apprentice Robert Sumler (16) from Dublin.
Seamus Bovaird, a director of the Inishowen Maritime Museum in Greencastle, Co Donegal, welcomed Kearney’s confirmation of the vessel’s location, and said the Leukos had “almost been forgotten about”.
“The crew who came from Ringsend and Dublin would be remembered in this area, and a wreath was laid for it at sea by a Greencastle vessel some years ago,”he said.
A total of 18 Irish vessels were sunk during the second world war, the first being the passenger ship Munster in Liverpool Bay in February 1940, a month before the Leukos.
The late artist Kenneth King was commissioned by the Maritime Institute of Ireland to paint the Leukos as part of a series organised by the institute’s president Des Branigan to commemorate the role of Irish seafarers during “the Emergency”.
Maritime historian Capt Frank Forde, who has researched the period, reported that 136 people died aboard the 16 ships lost and 14 fishermen died on two trawlers, including the Leukos.
Read The Irish Independent here
