Deep Wreck Mysteries

Collision Course (2x3)

Air date: Feb 06, 2009

Eighty kilometres off the northern coast of Ireland the Queen Mary, the most famous liner in the world, carrying 10,000 American and Canadian troops to Britain, rams and sinks her escort ship, HMS Curacoa. The British cruiser Curacoa is sliced in two and takes just six minutes to sink. 338 of her crew die as the giant liner does not stop to pick up survivors. The story becomes one of the 2nd World War ‘s best- kept secrets. Who is to blame for the sinking? For the first time an extreme dive expedition searches for evidence from the wreck itself which lies in deep Atlantic waters, 125 metres below. Royal Navy crewmen of the Curacoa who survived tell their tale. Personnel aboard the Queen Mary also share their memories. US Army Air Corps veterans witnessed the horror of the sinking. Their moving stories, together with dramatic reconstructions of the events leading up to the tragedy, paint an accurate picture of an important and largely untold wartime story. The 4,500-ton HMS Curacoa was a light cruiser that had seen service in the First World War. She was past her prime, but had been converted for an air defence role. As the Queen Mary entered British coastal waters Curacoa’s job was to protect her from German aircraft. The 81,000-ton Queen Mary had travelled across the Atlantic from New York. Camouflaged to escape detection, she sailed fast and zigzagged. No German U- boat could keep up with her; her twists and turns made it hard for a submarine to aim torpedoes. Her ability to evade the enemy led her to become known as the ‘grey ghost’. In order to provide effective anti-aircraft cover the Curacoa needed to stay close to the Queen Mary. On October 2nd 1942 she was too close. Did Curacoa steer a fatal course towards the Queen Mary or was the Queen Mary to blame? What will the dive to the wreck reveal?