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On the 29th April 1918 the German submarine U-60 was patrolling off the coast of St.Ives. The U-boat was under the command of Kapitänleutnant Franz Grünert and whilst approximately 3 miles North of St.Ives head a steamship was sighted through the periscope, he manoeuvred his U-boat and went in for the kill.
A single torpedo was ordered to be fired and it struck the steamship midships and created a huge explosion. Luckily none of the ship’s crew were injured and Captain Doln ordered the crew to abandon ship. There is no record of what happened to the survivors but it is assumed that they came ashore in the ship’s boats. The St.Ives Lifeboat was not launched to the incident
The target turned out to be the French Steamship ST. CHAMOND which was on passage from Glasgow and bound for St.Nazaire in France. She had loaded a general cargo in Glasgow which included an unusual deck cargo of 5 steam locomotives.
The ST. CHAMOND was built in 1913 by W.Grey & Co Ltd in West Hartlepool and was owned by the french steamship Company - Soc. Anon. des Chargeurs de l'Ouest and registered in Nantes. The ship was 314 feet in length and had a gross tonnage of 2866 and was powered by a triple expansion steam engine which produced 250 horsepower.
The wreck of the ST. CHAMOND now lies on the seabed 2 miles NNE of St.Ives head at a depth of 25 meters. The site is known locally as “The Train Wreck” because of the unusual sight of steam trains sitting on the seabed.
The wreck was located by crayfish divers in the late 1970’s and was heavily salvaged for scrap metals and her part cargo of tin ingots. The ship’s bell was also recovered.
Today the wreck is a very popular dive site for Scuba divers
U-Boat attacks were very common during these times of war and many merchant ships were armed with a large deck gun in order to defend themselves against U-boat attacks.
The ST. CHAMOND’s 95mm deck gun was recovered by divers and now sits outside the entrance to Trevair campsite in St.Hillary near St Erth.
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