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Description
Finding the wreck of the Royal Navy Airship: Tigress July 1989

Further info:
On 14th April 1942, just 10 days after the loss HMAS Huntress, The Tigress suffered a similar fate some 120 miles out to sea south off Cork, Ireland.

Both Tigress and her sister ship The Huntress had been detailed to watch and carry out nuisance rains on the Lorient U-boat pens. This was a task they carried out with impunity as until the arrival of the ME626 there was little to combat these giants. Both ships would hold position 20 miles out to sea and fire shells at the pens. The damage caused was disruptive mostly and vital stores and equipment were transferred out of range or underground.

The biggest headache to the Germans was being forced to wait for the cover of night before the U-boats could set sail. This was but an inconvenience during the winter months but the long summer days were very disruptive to timetables and rendezvous planning.

The Luftwaffe rose to meet the great aerial battleships often but at the time there was no airborne weapon that could cause any real damage. The 88mm canon armed ME626 was a different matter and could cause significant damage although the chances of bringing down a ship were very remote. The introduction of the modified ME626 with the Henschel Hs293Z radio controlled air to air/surface missile changed all that and brought about the end of the aerial battleship era.

The Loss of both the Huntress and the Tigress are recounted here:

Although mortally wounded Tigress had descended under control and, unlike the Huntress, most of her crew escaped. Survivors who later recounted the event describe how even though she was severely damaged she was still generating lift and came down quite steadily not hitting the water hard and, for a second or two, seemed to float before slowly disappearing below the waves.

In the early 1980’s there had been two attempts to find the wreck of the Tigress but each had failed largely because her position was plotted by means of a best guess. Air life boats in the 1940’s had only a charged capacitor for short duration flight. Even so, as much as 100 miles could separate the launch and landing points. Crews were in shock and in fear for their lives and so not so concerned about the whereabouts of the vessel they had just escaped from. Those that would have been aware, the Captain and his first officer, were aboard the air life boat that failed to launch properly and plunged directly into the sea and was lost.
In 1989 all the available information was reevaluated and cross checked and it was found that the likely position of the Tigress was not that far distant from the second exploration of 1984 only that her likely position was more to the north.

In July of 1989 the third exploration finally got underway after unimaginable delays and equipment malfunctions. The exploration Vessel, Deep huntress, was still not fully functional when she arrived at the first search location. The generator for the ROV’s, Explorer 1 & 2, would not produce peak power and so repairs were be made that took 36 hours off the available search time.

On day 3 the first side scanning radar sweep was made and 3 hours into the sweep a contact was made. Explorer 1 was launched and on the control room monitors there came into view the undeniable shape of an air life boat. This could only be the Captains air boat and so surely the Tigress must be close by as the air boat had failed almost immediately upon launch. The area was logged and the day ended on a high note of confidence in their endeavors.

The following days brought no luck and halfway through the last day of side scanning the equipment just gave up. The mood among the crew of the Deep Huntress was now at an all-time low. To have been so seemingly close but now reduced to only what amounted to searching the sea bed with a big torch was just too much to take in.

Even so, the crew were not about to pack it all in and leave. They had six hours left and so Explorer 1 was lowered and an almost painfully slow exploration of the sea bed began. Nothing but silt, rocks and small marine life broke the endless gloom on the monitors and six hours later – still nothing.

A further 20 minutes just gave more of the same and the order was given to bring up the ROV.
The operator, tired and extremely ill tempered by this time threw procedure out the window and just brought Explorer 1 about ready for surfacing and extinguished the lights as he did. In that micro second between light and darkness was there something there as the ROV spun round?

The operator called out and scrabbled for the spotlight array switches and resumed the video feed. There was nothing but a cloud of silt stirred by the violent about turn of the ROV but then as the operator reversed his path the silt began clearing and there, disappearing into the dark was the unmistakable bulk of a Predator class aerial battleship.

She was a rusting hulk but still intact and just as impressive as she was all those years ago when she ruled the skies with her sister ship. Her discovery caused quite a stir as, other than her own rotting wreck, there is not another such intact example of an aerial battleship anywhere in the world. All were scrapped upon decommission some being converted to troop carriers for a short period of time before giving way to the scrap man’s torch.

Two more dives were made on the Tigress and in the 30 odd years since her discovery there have been some crazy ideas to salvage her that even included powering up one of her remaining lift generators – apparently feasible once you get over the problems of men working on her at that depth and a million other minor inconveniences.

The final dive, the first in 16 years, found her in an accelerated state of decay. Her port engine nacelle has now broken away as has the mast. A lift generator has also dropped from its mounting and a hug crack appeared running from the mounting ring vertically.

Sleep well Tigress

Description
Finding the wreck of the Royal Navy Airship: Tigress July 1989

Further info:
On 14th April 1942, just 10 days after the loss HMAS Huntress, The Tigress suffered a similar fate some 120 miles out to sea south off Cork, Ireland.

Both Tigress and her sister ship The Huntress had been detailed to watch and carry out nuisance rains on the Lorient U-boat pens. This was a task they carried out with impunity as until the arrival of the ME626 there was little to combat these giants. Both ships would hold position 20 miles out to sea and fire shells at the pens. The damage caused was disruptive mostly and vital stores and equipment were transferred out of range or underground.

The biggest headache to the Germans was being forced to wait for the cover of night before the U-boats could set sail. This was but an inconvenience during the winter months but the long summer days were very disruptive to timetables and rendezvous planning.

The Luftwaffe rose to meet the great aerial battleships often but at the time there was no airborne weapon that could cause any real damage. The 88mm canon armed ME626 was a different matter and could cause significant damage although the chances of bringing down a ship were very remote. The introduction of the modified ME626 with the Henschel Hs293Z radio controlled air to air/surface missile changed all that and brought about the end of the aerial battleship era.

The Loss of both the Huntress and the Tigress are recounted here:

Although mortally wounded Tigress had descended under control and, unlike the Huntress, most of her crew escaped. Survivors who later recounted the event describe how even though she was severely damaged she was still generating lift and came down quite steadily not hitting the water hard and, for a second or two, seemed to float before slowly disappearing below the waves.

In the early 1980’s there had been two attempts to find the wreck of the Tigress but each had failed largely because her position was plotted by means of a best guess. Air life boats in the 1940’s had only a charged capacitor for short duration flight. Even so, as much as 100 miles could separate the launch and landing points. Crews were in shock and in fear for their lives and so not so concerned about the whereabouts of the vessel they had just escaped from. Those that would have been aware, the Captain and his first officer, were aboard the air life boat that failed to launch properly and plunged directly into the sea and was lost.
In 1989 all the available information was reevaluated and cross checked and it was found that the likely position of the Tigress was not that far distant from the second exploration of 1984 only that her likely position was more to the north.

In July of 1989 the third exploration finally got underway after unimaginable delays and equipment malfunctions. The exploration Vessel, Deep huntress, was still not fully functional when she arrived at the first search location. The generator for the ROV’s, Explorer 1 & 2, would not produce peak power and so repairs were be made that took 36 hours off the available search time.

On day 3 the first side scanning radar sweep was made and 3 hours into the sweep a contact was made. Explorer 1 was launched and on the control room monitors there came into view the undeniable shape of an air life boat. This could only be the Captains air boat and so surely the Tigress must be close by as the air boat had failed almost immediately upon launch. The area was logged and the day ended on a high note of confidence in their endeavors.

The following days brought no luck and halfway through the last day of side scanning the equipment just gave up. The mood among the crew of the Deep Huntress was now at an all-time low. To have been so seemingly close but now reduced to only what amounted to searching the sea bed with a big torch was just too much to take in.

Even so, the crew were not about to pack it all in and leave. They had six hours left and so Explorer 1 was lowered and an almost painfully slow exploration of the sea bed began. Nothing but silt, rocks and small marine life broke the endless gloom on the monitors and six hours later – still nothing.

A further 20 minutes just gave more of the same and the order was given to bring up the ROV.
The operator, tired and extremely ill tempered by this time threw procedure out the window and just brought Explorer 1 about ready for surfacing and extinguished the lights as he did. In that micro second between light and darkness was there something there as the ROV spun round?

The operator called out and scrabbled for the spotlight array switches and resumed the video feed. There was nothing but a cloud of silt stirred by the violent about turn of the ROV but then as the operator reversed his path the silt began clearing and there, disappearing into the dark was the unmistakable bulk of a Predator class aerial battleship.

She was a rusting hulk but still intact and just as impressive as she was all those years ago when she ruled the skies with her sister ship. Her discovery caused quite a stir as, other than her own rotting wreck, there is not another such intact example of an aerial battleship anywhere in the world. All were scrapped upon decommission some being converted to troop carriers for a short period of time before giving way to the scrap man’s torch.

Two more dives were made on the Tigress and in the 30 odd years since her discovery there have been some crazy ideas to salvage her that even included powering up one of her remaining lift generators – apparently feasible once you get over the problems of men working on her at that depth and a million other minor inconveniences.

The final dive, the first in 16 years, found her in an accelerated state of decay. Her port engine nacelle has now broken away as has the mast. A lift generator has also dropped from its mounting and a hug crack appeared running from the mounting ring vertically.

Sleep well Tigress