Bismarck Expeditions
James Cameron's Expedition: Bismarck May - June 2002
Expedition Diary | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Before the Expedition |
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Sunday 19. May 2002: Early in the morning I went to the Copenhagen International Airport, Denmark to fly to Hamburg, Germany where I arrived at 09:45. I was picked up by a car that would take me to Kiel. While I was on my way to Kiel the Russian research vessel Keldysh arrived at Kiel harbour.
After a short half an hour stop at a hotel in Kiel we went to the pier where the Keldysh had now arrived. At the hotel I first saw the 3 Bismarck survivors and two veterans of the Prince of Wales. Time was limited and I didn't speak to them on this occasion.
When we arrived there was already a hectic activity with trucks and vans bringing expedition equipment to the pier. As the Keldysh had just arrived we had to wait for quite some time before we could embark the ship and bring the equipment onboard. This was because the German customs had to check the ship to see that everything was in order.
Later that day I met with 3 Bismarck survivors (Karl Kuhn, Heinz Steeg and Walter Weintz) and two veterans of Prince of Wales (Christopher Peacy and David Roome). We were immediately on good terms and from this day and until the end of the expedition we shared many good times.
Bismarck survivor Heinz Steeg doesn't walk well anymore and he had to decline the offer of going with us to the wreck site. Heinz Steeg visited the Bismarck wreck site in 2001 on an earlier expedition though. But he would spend the time together with us until we would leave Kiel to start our expedition. Also Prince of Wales veterans Christopher Peacy and David Roome would only be with us until we would leave Kiel. Then they would return to England.
At night we had dinner at a restaurant in Kiel. I went to bed at 03:00 in the morning. Monday 20. May 2002: I got out of bed at 07:45.
I had planned to visit the Marine-Ehrenmal (naval memorial) in Laboe about 16 kilometers from where the Keldysh was moored. I was allowed to borrow a mini bus so I could take with me the three Bismarck survivors (Karl Kuhn, Heinz Steeg and Walter Weintz) and the two veterans of Prince of Wales (Christopher Peacy and David Roome) and the wife of Christopher Peacy with me to the naval memorial. The two veterans of Prince of Wales and Mr. Peacy's wife as well as Bismarck survivor Heinz Steeg were staying at a hotel in downtown Kiel which was about 7 kilometers from where the Keldysh was moored . Also the mini bus I was going to use was at the hotel in Kiel. So Andrew, the driver that had picked me up at the Hamburg airport took me to the hotel where I took the mini bus and picked up the people staying at the hotel. Then Andrew and I drove back to the Keldysh where I picked up the two other Bismarck survivors. Now I was ready to take them to the naval memorial in Laboe. We only had a limited time because the Bismarck survivors and the Prince of Wales veterans should be back on the Keldysh for interviews by James Cameron at 15:15 in the afternoon. We had a great time at the naval memorial and spent almost 2½ hour there. We would have loved to stay there longer but we had to return for the interviews.
On our way back to the Keldysh we made a short visit to the U-Boot Ehrenmal (U-boat memorial) which isn't that far away from the naval memorial in Laboe.
At night we again had dinner at a restaurant in Kiel. I went to bed at 03:30 in the morning. Tuesday 21. May 2002: I got out of bed at 06:45. Prepared some material about the Bismarck for the project. A friend of mine, American Bob Weymouth, had kindly allowed the project to use his wonderful model ships which were used to illustrate the battles that Bismarck was involved in during Operation "Rheinübung". I spent some time making the ships ready for use.
Also I picked up some German soil which I had planned to place on the wreck of the Bismarck to salute the ship and the dead sailors. The Keldysh was due to sail on Tuesday evening. But it was re-scheduled as we were not ready to leave. Our departure was re-scheduled to be Wednesday morning. I went to bed at 11:00 at night. |
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