The 21st March is the anniversary of the sinking of the WWII US Liberty ship SS James Eagan Layne. The ship was beached and sank in Whitsand Bay near Plymouth, England, after being torpedoed by a german submarine off the Eddystone reef in 1945.
The SHIPS Project celebrated the 70th anniversary in 2015 and will be celebrating the 80th anniversary in March 2025 as the 'Liberty 80' project.
The Liberty 70 project aimed to document all aspects of the life of this vessel - wartime transport, shipwreck, commercial salvage, the classic UK wreck dive and artificial reef:
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The Liberty 70 project recorded the history of the ship from the time the keel was laid in the shipyard in New Orleans to the present day. The story includes the part she played in the Battle of the Atlantic, her sinking by a U-boat and early attempts at salvage.
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The James Eagan Layne is thought to be the most dived wreck in the UK. It has been an attraction for visiting divers since the beginning of sport diving and for many divers of all generations this ship was their first experience of wreck diving. One aspect of the Liberty 70 project is to collect stories about your first or favourite dives on this wreck.
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The ship is falling apart under the action of waves and currents so may not remain standing for many more years to come. The Liberty 70 project recorded the wreck as it was in 2015 in a detailed site plan and as a 3D computer model.
The results of this history project are published in this website about the James Eagan Layne. The work is a community project being done by a large team of researchers, divers, surveyors, VR specialists and archaeologists including local diving groups and organisations, teams from Plymouth University, Oxford University and the University of Birmingham.
Click here to explore the SS James Eagan Layne...
The Liberty 70 Project is part of the SHIPS Project and was funded by the US research foundation ProMare. The Liberty 70 Project is partnered with the US National WWII Museum in New Orleans and provided material on their display about the Battle of the Atlantic.
See the James Eagan Layne page and information about other Plymouth shipwrecks from The SHIPS Project.
What's in a Name?
Often known by divers as the 'JEL' or the 'Layne', the name of this ship is often spelled James Egan Layne or even the James Egan Lane, but her real name is the S.S.James Eagan Layne.
