One of last surviving vessels from Normandy landings sinks en route to restoration

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/world-war-2/8292009/One-of-last-surviving-vessels-from-Normandy-landings-sinks-en-route-to-restoration.html

One of only seven surviving vessels which took part in the Normandy landings sank last night with one of its crew missing.




By Andy Bloxham 10:08PM GMT 30 Jan 2011

The Yarmouth Navigator, a former Navy minesweeper and patrol boat, was being moved to a new mooring after a campaign to save it which lasted several years.

Rescuers were searching for one missing person after three people were saved from the waters of Plymouth Sound shortly after 6.30pm.

A major search and rescue operation was launched, with officers from Devon and Cornwall Police, crews from Brixham Coastguard, a search and rescue helicopter and RNLI lifeboats involved.

The vessel is understood to have been in the process of relocation from its former mooring in Noss Marina, on the Dart, to Plymouth.

FULL story at link.

I loved "The Longest Day" when I was a kid, but I was shocked by "Saving Private Ryan" as an adult. I still have the letter he wrote home to his dad about 10 days later saying, "You almost had one less son today".

Preservation of old ships, old railroad locomotives and cars, old tanks and other military equipment, and old cars is very resource intensive.

USS Olympia (Dewey's flagship at the Battle of Manila Bay) is just about to sink at her moorings in Philadelphia.