The remains of a passenger liner torpedoed off the Irish coast when a a German submarine captain mistook it for a warship has been found by a shipwreck-hunter.
David Mearns collected sonar data which shows what’s left of Athenia lying on the bed of the Atlantic on Rockall Bank some 200m below sea level.
More than 100 people drowned when Fritz Julius Lemp mistakenly blasted the British boat on September 3, 1939, just hours after Neville Chamberlain declared war on Nazi Germany.
The sonar image which shipwreck hunter David Mearns said shows what’s left of Athenia
The British liner Athenia (pictured) with 1,400 aboard before it was torpedoed back in 1939
Ten hours after war had been declared between Britain and Germany this telegram – an SOS following a torpedo strike – reported the first attack
The Athenia carrying 1,103 passengers was attacked in September 3 1939 when the German captain mistook her for an armed merchant ship.
Her sinking led to the deaths of 118 people including a Canadian child which brought the Commonwealth country into the conflict.
Three chilling telegrams were uncovered in 2009 which revealed the brutal sinking of a defenceless British passenger ship by a U-boat just hours after World War II was declared.
The first telegram, sent to all shipping at 12.18pm, announced that ‘war has broken out with Germany’.
The second sent less than ten hours later read: ‘SOS from British steamer Athenia. Torpedoed – 1,400 passengers some still aboard sinking fast.’
The third was sent by Capt McCelland, from 420ft yacht the Southern Cross, to the SS Athenia, timed half and hour later and read: ‘Distance from you 50. Steering full steam ahead to your assistance.’
His ship helped in the rescue of 980 passengers.
Ironically the yacht was owned by Swedish industrialist Axel Wenner-Gren who was a close friend of Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering.
The Illustrated London News carries the story
At the time of the torpedo attack the multi-millionaire was being taken to the Bahamas to escape the war and to meet up with friends the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
Captain James McLelland of the SS Southern Star was involved in the dramatic rescue and kept the telegrams
The captain of the submarine had attacked the Athenia after mistaking it for an armed merchant ship.
When Adolf Hitler found out he was furious and made the trigger-happy captain re-write his log so stop news of the sinking from getting out.
The three telegrams were kept by Capt McCelland and were handed down through his family.
They are now about to go on public show for the first time at London’s Imperial War Museum after his grandson Greg McCelland, 50, re-discovered them in a drawer.
Mr McCelland said: ‘My grandfather obviously appreciated the significance of these messages and decided to keep them along with his medals.
‘My grandfather died in the 1950s and my father ended up with them and then they were passed to me.
‘I knew what they were but I never realised the story behind them until recently.
‘There are only a few words on each message but they tell a startling story of the opening exchanges of World War II.
‘It was probably quite alarming for the ships that were out in the Atlantic when war broke out.
‘But it must have been even worse when they saw the second message of the torpedo attack come through.’
The Marconigrams’ importance was realised through a chance remark to the experts on TV’s Antiques Roadshow.
Mr McCelland’s wife had taken some antique jewellery to be valued and While there, she happened to mention them to the team.
A painting of the sinking of the British ship Athenia, by artist Arthur JW Burgess
Neville Chamberlain declares war on Nazi Germany in a broadcast to the United Kingdom
Her husband was made to get out of bed and bring the messages for them to look at.
Mr McCelland, from Belfast, said: ‘They aren’t very valuable but they are very significant and important.’
The SS Athenia, a 13,500 ton passenger ship, was taking 1,103 people from Glasgow to Montreal.
It was 250 miles west of the Northern Irish coast when it was attacked by U-30.
Richard Overy, a World War II historian at Exeter University, said: ‘The British people had been brought up to believe that Germany under Hitler was this barbarous war machine and this attack helped confirm those beliefs.
‘The first news of the war the British expected to read about was the bombing of London but what they got was the sinking of a passenger ship, something more akin to the First World War and the terrible Hun.
‘Hitler didn’t want to provoke the Americans into the war. Up until this point America had been impartial.
‘But within hours of war breaking out the Athenia attack pushed American opinion more towards Britain and they provided the British with weapons and materials.
‘Every now and again you get little documents like these telegrams that materialise and illuminate a little corner of the war.’
The incident nearly wrecked the career of the German submarine captain, Fritz-Julius Lemp, but he pleaded that it had been a genuine error.
In May 1941 he was the captain of U-110 that was captured south of Iceland by British destroyers. Lemp and his crew scuppered the boat and swam away. He was never seen again.
The Imperial War Museum plans to display the Marconigrams as part of its programme to mark the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II.