The Glen Strath Allen

by Peter Mitchell on July 1, 2007

Deliberately sunk to become an underwater classroom, the Glen Strathallen soon became a bit of an embarrassment, as it was a danger to local fishing boats and soon had to be disbursed. Over the years however thousands of divers have had their first wreck experience here, so in some ways it did fulfill its intended purpose.


photo courtesy of John Crossland

  • The Glen Strathallen
  • The Last Voyage of the Glen Strathallen
  • John Crosslands memories
  • Roy Phillpot's memories

    • { 6 comments… read them below or add one }

    ian walker June 11, 2009 at 6:42 pm

    A very interestng tale,thank you.I was fortunate enough to sleep one night on her in 1957 when I went back to see the Are. I often wonder what happened to the steam dingy as I am sure that would not have gone down with her.all the best,ian.

    Nick Thornhill November 28, 2009 at 5:57 pm

    My dad was in the last crew to have been trained on her, he knew what had happened to her and was sad to see her go. sadly he died in april of 2007. Its nice to see he had a claim to fame, 1 of the last to operate the engine that now sits in the science museum :)

    David Godfrey May 11, 2010 at 6:08 pm

    I did two short trips on the Glen when I was at Norwood Tech in 1965 while studying to be a Radio Officer. I remember it being very cramped both in the accomodation and the eating areas. Also, recall doing anchor watch during the night while anchored out in the Estuary and peeling spuds to pass the time. But it is a good memory to have steamed back up the River into Milwall Docks. I was at the Science Museum on a trip back to England this year and did not know the old triple expansion steamengine was there. It would have been very nostalgic to see again.

    Brian Biggs June 9, 2010 at 9:09 pm

    I looked up about the Glen Strathallen on Wikipedia and was surprised to find the video of the sinking. I was the Mate of the Sun 27 that towed the ship from Gravesend to the sinking position which as you can imagine was quite an event. It took us some 8 days due to stress of weather. I still have colour slides of the sinking and are part of my collection followings some 42 years in the Ship Towing industry

    John Crossland July 4, 2010 at 12:51 am

    I did several trips down to Southend and back, while at King Teds during 1966/1967.

    The name is GLEN STRATHALLAN by the way.

    John Crossland August 7, 2010 at 1:52 am

    Hi Peter,

    I see you have posted “John Crossland’s memories”, but still have the spelling as either Glen Strath Allen or Glen Strathallen.

    Please change the spelling throughout your website to GLEN STRATHALLAN.

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