LCT 7074 Landfall at Birkenhead: risk of being scrapped

[griffo220]

Hi Guys I'm new to MLU usually spend my idle time on G503 as I have a 1943 GPW but I saw this in my local rag & done a search & ended up here, so thought you may be interested.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liver...0252-25966368/

Best Regards

Dave

[Alex van de Wetering]

Hi Dave and welcome to MLU.

Thanks for your reply regarding LCT 7074......I also read something on it on HMVF.......shocking! Really shocking, let's hope it does get saved (again).

Last year I seriously looked at making a visit just to see the LCT....I guess because I always had an interest in D-day landing craft and the places where you can visit and experience actual WW2 landing craft is very limited. 7074 is unique in a way that the original camouflage and numbers are still visible and because the modifications made to the vessel after WW2 are pretty limited, compared to some other survivors.

Even last year at the 65th remembrance of D-day, only one WW2 craft was to be seen along the coast, an LCVP. While there are still some landing craft around, most of them are lingering in ponds....or rotting away in naval harbours. A real shame, because they played such an important role in the liberation of Europe......sadly some of them will soon be lost forever.

Alex

[griffo220]

Hi all sorry for the delay but I went to see the vessel last weekend & it is now totally submerged, you can only just see the funnel!

Oh dear it doesn't look good, how on earth would / could someone attempt at rescueing this vessel?

check this link

http://evans-experientialism.freeweb...om/lct7074.htm

I know there was another article in a local magazine & it was from the previous owner stating that he sold it to the birkenhead maritime museum which went bust so not too sure was the vessel's fate is?

Dave

[griffo220]

http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/war-sea...ection-11.html

[Alex van de Wetering]

Dave thanks for your reply. The link you sent to the WW2talk forum is very interesting.
If I understand correctly the LCT has been sinking for years, but someone regularly pumped the water out uptil a few months ago. So, did the leak get worse, or did they just stop pumping the water out (maybe even to attract attention)?
I am shocked by your message that only the funnel is the only thing sticking from the water at the moment. When it was still partially afloat, you could at least move the vessel around. Now it has sunk it does make any attempt to rescue it harder and even though I agree that the flat bottom could make it easy to slip some cables underneath it, you still need one or two cranes to get it back to the surface.

Let's hope this new attempt as suggested on the WW2talk forum proves to be the "winner" and we will be able to admire the LCT as part of a museum or collection in the future.

Alex

[Alex van de Wetering]

Sadly, LCT 7074 is deteriorating further and I haven't heard of any recent plans to save it. I guess the plans mentioned previously didn't have the desired result.

I bought a lottery ticket yesterday.....now I only have to wait.....

http://www.demotix.com/sites/default...tos/593234.jpg

http://www.demotix.com/sites/default...tos/593231.jpg

source:http://www.demotix.com

[griffo220]

Hi all, she's saved!

http://www.warhistoryonline.com/pres...an-sawyer.html

Regards

Dave