It should’ve been a routine dive to the bottom of the seabed for two Cumbria submariners – but it all went horribly wrong.
In 1973 Roger Chapman and Roger Mallinson were onboard a mini-submarine in the Atlantic when disaster struck.
They were working on laying transatlantic telephone cables when a catastrophic fault suddenly sent their Pisces III craft tumbling to the ocean floor.
They were plunged into darkness – almost half a mile down. Stuck at rock bottom with time running out.
The Vickers Oceanic workers would be trapped in a six foot diameter steel ball for three days.
Their plight, 150 miles off the coast if Ireland, led to an international rescue mission watched by millions around the globe.
The pair sat in the pitch black for more than 72 hours unable to speak to each other in order to conserve oxygen.
They only had 12 minutes of oxygen left before they were finally rescued.
This week survivor Roger Mallinson was present at Windermere Jetty Museum with former colleagues of Vickers Oceanics as they gathered for a reunion.
Roger Mallinson is pictured above (right) next to author Stephen McGinty and June Chapman, wife of Pisces III survivor Roger Chapman – who sadly died in 2020. Doug Huntington, organiser of the reunion event, is pictured left.
Roger Mallinson is a long-term friend of the museum often seen aboard the steamer Shamrock. Visitors to the museum are largely unaware of his harrowing and heroic story of survival from 48 years ago.
During the reunion event author Stephen McGinty gave a talk about his new book “The Dive” – which is the definitive account of the dramatic Pisces III rescue.
The book reconstructs the minute-by-minute race against time that took place to first locate Pisces III and then execute the deepest rescue in maritime history.
The reunion event comes at a time that the museum is exploring what lies beneath the surface of Windermere.
Beneath the lake lie sunken ships and hidden treasures just waiting to be found.
Windermere Jetty Museum invites you to come and explore WRECKED! a new immersive experience that will amaze and inspire as you seek to solve puzzles, reveal secrets, and discover stories that were once lost to the water.
