A group based in Hull are working to combine the skills of world class salvage and marine engineering businesses to try and bring an historic steam trawler from a beach in South Georgia back to its home in the Humber.
Built in Beverley in 1906, Viola sailed from Hull in 1914, crewed by local fishermen for war duties after being requisitioned by the Admiralty. The former trawler was on front-line duties throughout the First World War and was involved in sinking two U-boats. Once the Great War was over, it made only a brief call in its original home port while still on Admiralty service in 1918 and went from there to Milford Haven. Over the years, it operated as a trawler, a whaler, a sealer and an exploration vessel before being finally beached and abandoned in South Georgia.
In 1982 the laid-up Viola was one of the ships targeted by Argentinian scrap merchants during the landings that resulted in the Falklands conflict. In 2015 it was featured in a set of stamps released in South Georgia, where she still sits on a beach.
The campaign to re-float, lift and return the Viola 100 years after she last sailed from the port is headed by Paul Escreet, chairman of Hull-based SMS Towage, who has established the Viola Trust, led by experienced industry figures under the patronage of former Home Secretary Alan Johnson MP, to raise the estimated project cost of £3 million.
As fund-raising gets underway Solis Marine Consultants are preparing to carry out a survey which will determine whether the Viola can be delivered to Hull as early as next spring to take its place in a maritime heritage programme. The hope is that their work will clear the way for a project cargo ship to collect the Viola from South Georgia in January or February. The Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (GSGSSI) confirmed in early 2016 that it is prepared to release the vessel – one of the few left which fought in the Great War.
Solis Marine is sending John Simpson and Rosalind Spink to spend two days examining the Viola in South Georgia. They hope to have their report ready by the time they are back in the UK via Port Stanley and Ascension to RAF Brize Norton,
‘The only drawing we have is from 1905 and covers the class of vessel rather than the Viola specifically. She has never undergone a full inspection in the modern era so essentially we will look at her condition and whether she has the strength to survive the journey back,’ Ros Spink said.
‘She’s sitting in a trench so we need to see if she can be re-floated and then lifted in a cradle. A previous operation in 2004 removed the oil from the ship but there are other environmental considerations.’
Ros has previously worked on re-floating the Indian submarine Sindhurakshak, which exploded and sank in Mumbai harbour in 2013 with the loss of 18 crew. John has just returned to Beverley from Australia, where he was advising on the compensation case around the grounding of the Shen Neng 1 coal carrier on the Great Barrier Reef.
‘Solis Marine are an organisation of world renown and I am looking forward tremendously to hearing what they find when they carry out their survey,’ Paul Escreet commented. ‘Hopefully we will then be able to progress by bringing in more world class partners from the maritime sector to patch up the Viola, lift her onto a project cargo ship and bring her back to the Humber. Once in Hull the Viola will be met by world class marine engineers who will begin the job of restoring her. But we have to raise the money, and that’s what we’ll be working on while Solis Marine are conducting the survey.’
The Viola Trustees are all experts in maritime matters. Paul Escreet is Chairman of Hessle-based SMS Towage Ltd. Dr Robb Robinson is a historian based in the University of Hull’s Maritime Historical Studies Centre. Rear Admiral Nick Lambert is a master mariner. Dominic Ward is Senior Partner at Andrew Jackson Solicitors and a specialist in shipping law for more than 30 years.
Paul Escreet and Robb Robinson came up with the idea of bringing back the Viola to promote Hull’s nautical heritage and the marine engineering skills which will carry out the repatriation and restoration of the vessel.
