Campaign to bring ship home raises steam

Picture shows the Viola trawler and bell at the abandoned whaling station at Grytviken, South Georgia. The bell is held by the Grytviken museum curator, Elsa Davidson

Surveyors fly out from RAF Brize Norton tomorrow to undertake a survey on Viola, which is beached in South Georgia, to see if she’s capable of making the trip home in time for Hull to celebrate City of Culture in 2017. Viola, built in nearby Beverley, enjoyed an incredibly adventurous life, helping sink two U-boats in the First World War.

She was later sold to Norway as a trawler and whale catcher and finally to South Georgia, as a sealer and exploration vessel.

Lyle Craigie-Halkett - a salvage diver on Brunel’s SS Great Britain which was rescued from the Falkland Islands four decades ago - will be carrying out the survey, along with Tim Broughton, surveyor for SMS Towage.

Historian Dr Robb Robinson, who has championed bringing back Viola, mentioned the vessel in a lecture in Scotland, which was heard by Sir Menzies Campbell, who has since taken a keen interest, along with MPs Alan Johnson and Graham Stuart.

Originally it was hoped to carry out the survey in January after a meeting between the MPs and the Government department looking after World War One commemoration funding.

The trip had to be bought forward to this month but Paul Escreet, chairman of SMS Towage, has persuaded four other firms, Dunston (Ship Repairs), Reffolds, Holderness Ship Repairers and Everard Insurance, as well as NatWest to underwrite the costs, which they hope to recoup off the Government.

Mr Escreet said: “It’s good to see all these companies say, yes, let’s do it.

“What we are doing now is very much the first step - we have to ascertain whether the hull is like lace curtains or structurally sound.

“If there’s no strength in the hull that’s the end of the project.”