The Alastor (Wreck)

Most divers thought she was called the Alisdair. When that proved wrong, they thought she was the Allister. They were nearly right. But it took the divers of Queen's University Sub-Aqua Club, Belfast, to find out the true name and history of this 143ft steel motor yacht of 340 tons. She was in fact built for Sir Thomas Sopwith, writes Kendall McDonald.

Thomas Octave Murdoch ("TOM") Sopwith, born in 1888, was one of the first Englishmen to learn to fly. Four days after getting his licence in 1910, he had set a duration record of 108 miles in three hours, 12 minutes. Height, speed and distance records followed. He then started building aircraft to his own designs. His Sopwith Camel biplanes were said to be the greatest fighters of World War One.

After the war, he found time to break the world water speed record for motor boats, become a famous racing-car driver, and join Harry Hawker in developing military aircraft. As head of the Hawker Siddeley Group, Sopwith played an important role in developing the monoplane that would become the famous Hurricane of the Battle of Britain. The group was responsible for the first British jet fighter, the Meteor, in addition to the Hunter, Javelin, Sea Hawk and the huge Vulcan bomber. Sopwith died in January 1989, aged 101.

In 1927, yacht builders Camper and Nicholson had launched the Vita, a luxury motor yacht, largely designed by Tommy Sopwith. To suit this man of speed, it was meant to be fast, but was perhaps not fast enough for him, as within two years he had sold her to Sir John Shelley-Rolls. He renamed her Alastor, after a poem by his ancestor, Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Was it wise to use the name? Evil spirits were called "alastors" by the ancients. But Sir John seems to have been pleased with his Alastor, for he still owned her in 1939, when the Ministry of War Transport acquired her for use as a stores ferry, carrying supplies out to Naval vessels at the entrance to Strangford Loch for refuelling and reprovisioning.

She carried out this service throughout the war, but on 11 March, 1946, it was decided that the shabby vessel needed repainting before being handed back to her owner. She was moored some 80m off Ringhaddy Quay for her crew to start work.

Whether the fire that broke out in the galley was the result of a pre-paint brew-up, no one appears to know, but it destroyed the interior and the Alastor sank five days later. All six crew escaped unhurt.