An update on the B17 flying fortress on the Sandwich flats B17 G 42 - 31243 303 rd Bomb group.

Since the last posting there has been a steady stream of items coming ashore in Sandwich Bay Kent. Parts are found over a wide area as the wings of the B17 break up. I have informed the MOD that parts are coming ashore. As the pieces are classed as surface wreckage I do not need a licence to collect them from the beach. However it does not mean I can keep them to build a private collection. With agreement with the MOD as I find the parts I take them to the RAF Manston History Museum. Given the fact that there are more than one crashed aircraft in the bay there is a possibility that some parts could be from another aircraft so they do need to authenticated by the Museum. The Museum are conserving the parts and will eventually have them on display.
I have set up a facebook group called Sandwich B17 G group that gives regular update on the finds and latest photographs feel free to join. In October this year the crash site took a battering in a storm and I have posted the latest photographs of the site. One again there were more pieces ashore and I even found  some ammunition. In 1999 the engines were taken and in nacelle two a tyre can be seen and it is in very good condition.

October 2016

A marking on the port wing

Rubber pipe work is still intact

Part of the tail section underwater

A maker plate still intact

Wiring in the fuselage area

The outer skin of part of the port wing is peeling away

Two rubber  fuel tanks

.5 live round

The maker of the .5 Lincoln city ordnance

Rubber pipe ashore

The numbering on the rubber pipe

Piece from the tail section ashore that is breaking up

This piece of aircraft is still attached to some wood.

A number part

Stainless steel nacelle panel

Numbering on the nacelle panel

Another numbered part

This part was found well over a mile away

The are only a few examples more info on https://www.facebook.com/groups/1568122450174108/

The hidden history of Sandwich Bay - Hearts of Oak

This winter I set out a new direction looking for new discoveries away from the mire that has engulfed anything to do with heritage in Thanet heritage . For one I am tired of the plagiarism of recycled history and secondly I am fed up finding myself being shoved out on the margins of everything I get involved in. The straw that broke the camels back was trying to unravel the dire situation of Ramsgate art and artefacts in local government collections and Ramsgate overall.

So it is time to do my own thing and starting my own projects from blank discovering new finds and generating something new and interesting. The first step was to pick a new area of coastline.
My choice was Sandwich bay given its location to the Goodwins and Brake sands. As I do nothing in half measures I kitted my car out with all new equipment and treated myself to a GPS finder. I also created a list of new contacts so there is nothing I cannot handle.
My primary target is maritime history and to find anything from the 1600's to end of the Napoleonic wars, a difficult task but achievable.
During wintry weather it is not uncommon to find pieces of wooden shipwreck ashore that in most cases are like random pieces of a jig saw puzzle made of English Oak. To establish provenance is an impossibility but as artefacts of a particular era they are worth recording and if possible worth conserving.
A few weeks ago I came across this amazing piece of wreckage from a wooden sailing ship, it is unique in the fact that the bark of the tree is still intact making it a very old form of ship construction.
I have be given a date that its origin is from the 1600's, but I am no expert and I am still learning.
Attached are photographs of the find and I do welcome any opinion.

Sandwich Flats B17 G 42 -31243 303rd bomb group 427th bomb squadron ditched 1st December 1943.

The remains of the B17 flying fortress on the Sandwich Flats , Sandwich Bay, Kent is one of many wreck sites on the flats. The crash site lay undisturbed until 1999 when two incidents took place that left the flying fortress looking like a  demolished wreck. In April 1999 the site was looted with two engines stolen and items taken. This was followed by an excavation that removed more items leaving just the wings, two engines and part of the frame in the fuselage area.
Since 1999 the site has been covered and uncovered by sand on many occasions, often with just a lone propeller sticking out of the sand. During the winter of 2015/2016 the site was uncovered yet again but this time wreckage appeared on the foreshore as it is now evident the wings are breaking up. At first I was unaware where the wreckage was coming from until I became aware of the crash site. As soon as it became clear the wreckage was from the B17 I informed the Receiver of Wrecks and declared the items I found.
Since then I have been out to the sites a few times just taking photographs and building up a library of images. I am waiting on a decision on the items I have picked up off the shoreline and hopefully they should go into a museum locally.
For those interested here are some of the photographs taken of the site and some of the finds on the shoreline and inter tidal zone.

A message in a bottle

Found yesterday in Pegwell Bay Ramsgate (4/9/14). A message in a bottle cast adrift from the Cunard cruiser " Queen Victoria " in the North Sea on the 23rd August 2014. I have made contact with the person who cast the bottle adrift informing him that it took 12 days for his bottle to reach shore.
I found the bottle when looking for sea coal something I have been doing over the past few weeks around the Thanet coastline. The origin of the sea coal is unclear and I really have to put it down to flotsam and jetsam either from spillage or shipwreck. Below I have photographed some of the different grades I have picked up. Left is sub bituminous, middle six pieces are bituminous and on the right a piece of canal coal. Also I have picked up another lump of coal weighing over 14 kilo , the origin I believe is from a shipwreck.