Eddie Kirkpatricks Diving and Family Pages

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Diving in the Sixtys | Working for a Salvage Co 1970 | From Dorinda to working on Ant | Humber Divers LTD Formation | Ben Macduhi Wreck | Now on the Ashby Fame sold | Tropic Shore Dispersal Contract | Commercial work on Ashby | Ashby Sold and Cornelius Purchased | Cornelius Sold and Pescoso Purchased | Another Boat Purchase Inge | Purchasing 7 Seas Club | British Gas work with Inge | The Recovery Heavy Lift Vessel | The Recovery on Salvage Work | The Recovery on Hindostan | The Laurentic | Now left Humber Divers | Risiko | Searching for Wrecks | Family History Photos | Edward Kirkpatrick born 27 November 1938 | Now married 7th May 1960 | Eddie Married Continued | Now divorced June 1986 | Building Burton house at Hornsea | Gillian Rose Smith and Eddie Kirkpatrick | Gill and Eddie | Gill and Eddie now married 20th December 1995 | Gill and Eddie now married | Debbies and Martins Wedding | Eddie and Gill Year 2000 | Kirkpatrick History Title
Another Boat Purchase Inge

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We purchased this additional boat (two boats now)for a cheap survey work.
The following photos show when we hired it out for film work, ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES, WITH DEL BOY, Gran Dad, etc (they were shooting a Christmas Show,the film were they went to Holland.

Also photos of JOHN PRESCOTT, before he became Deputy Prime Minister we were friends of John, we took him out for a dive on the "FALMOUTH" five years previous, Plus he helped us with the "CADMUS shell cases enquiry (I will tell you about that in later pages)





"INGE" in Albert Dock, Hull.










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Looking out to sea before film work starts
















At sea with the "INGE" actors from ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES















John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister

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John Prescott getting ready for a dive

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Nearly ready

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John entering the River Humber

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John Prescott (future deputy Prime Minister) We are giving him a dip in the river Humber on surface demand equipment.

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Coming back up the ladders



Gold on a Flying Fortress B17

We met a old seadog SNOWY GALLAGAR (ex sidewinder skipper) who sometimes used to skipper our boats on salvage work. One day when we were out at sea, he told me he had a good story, but he would not elaborate and said he would tell me one day in the future.
Two years later when i was in a pub down Hessle Rd Hull, I got talking to a fisherman who mentioned that a skipper he had sailed with previously had been telling his crew that he was going to sell his house and finance a expedition to find something out at sea off Germany, it turned out that it was the same skipper SNOWY,this obviously made me curious to find out more, but the deckhand told me that SNOWY was dead, so I thought that his wife may have kept his charts and books etc, next day I tracked down Snowys address and telephone to Grimsby, I rang and his wife answered the phone, I apologized for ringing and offered my condo lances on Snowys death,she said he is not dead and he is stood along side me.
Snowy came on the phone and i asked him about this mysterious find , he then asked me over to Grimsby to talk it over
and have a drink.
Any way this is the story he told me.

While trawling 20 miles off the German coast back in 1958, he fouled his trawl on what he thought was a wreck, he pulled in his trawl and he pulled up a complete B17 American Flying Fortress by the tail,he removed the rear gun (see photo)then his warps snapped and the B17 went back down to the seabed.When he got back to LOWESTOFT he handed the gun into the Receiver of Wrecks and never thought any more about it until a week later, when a American Officer and three privates came round to see him and asked him for the location of the B17, stating that that they had identified the B17 by the number off the rear gun, and that it had been carrying a very valuable cargo (possible gold)obviously SNOWY gave them the incorrect decca position, and decided to keep the position for himself.

We then arranged with Snowy to go off to Germany and try and find the B17 We then set sail with Snowy on a no gain, no pay deal,
We arrived off Germany on the position, but all our Decca gear broke down, and we had no means off getting the position correct, so we had to sail all the way back to Hull.
I now have a copy of his log book with the position, and I fully intend to go out again to the site.
Snowy was a genuine man, and considering that he came out on a no gain, no pay deal, proves what he told me was genuine.
1-- His logbook shows that he pulled up the B17.
2-- The receiver as a record of the gun (Browning machine gun)
3-- Photo from local newspaper with gun.
4-- Bank of England verify gold shipments by air during 1950s
5-- B17 Likely and heavy enough to carry gold plus they armed




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Snowy and Mate with B17 rear gun, BROWNING MACHINE GUN


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Map of rough location.
I hold the true position

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"INGE" laid on Riverside Quay, Albert Dock, ready to sail to Germany



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Setting off to Germany,Snowy waving

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Jeb and Jeb out at sea



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Checking a wreck out on the South Coast.

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On our way to Germany



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Checking our chart position

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Deep in thought.




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Jeb and myself in Brixham.
We hired a boat to check out a wreck on the South Coast.