Credit River - HMS Cricket Traditional Cache

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Middle Earthlings: Farewell Cricket! It was a fun series.

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Hidden : 8/5/2013
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
5 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:


Credit River - Shipwreck Series

HMS Cricket
 1941



There are many shipwrecks around the world. Some very famous and others not so. Each however has it’s own story to tell. As you travel along the Credit River doing this series of caches, we have highlighted a number of these shipwrecks. During low water levels on these parts of the Credit River, you need to be careful in a canoe or kayak so as you don’t wind up in your own shipwreck. Besides the many large rocks along the way, there are also some other obstacles such as dams which should be avoided. All of the geocaches in this series have been placed by tubing, inflatable boat or on foot by walking in the water along the Credit River. Whichever way you choose to search for these caches, use caution and common sense.
More information about this series can be found here: Credit River - Shipwreck Series

HMS Cricket
Situated off Larnaka, this is an old British battleship that rests upside down on the seabed at 27 metres. The World War Two gunboat survived the war. It was then anchored in Larnaca Bay and used as target practice by the RAF but sank in 1947 due to bad weather. There is a sandy dip under the wreck where divers can swim inside the hull through escape hatches and underneath the wreck. The vessel is also home to groupers and other fish. Visibility is some 25 metres. The maximum depth is 33 metres.

HMS Cricket, was one of ten Aphis Class (Large China) Gunboats constructed during the First World War to counter Austro-Hungarian monitors on the River Danube. Due to be scrapped in 1939, her life was extended by the outbreak of the Second World War. Her ultimate fate is not currently understood, however, an Aphis class gunboat, popularly known as ‘the Cricket’ lies on the seabed north-east of Larnaca, Cyprus. Designed for use on shallow rivers these gunboats saw service on the Tigris and on the Danube during the Austro-Hungarian crisis during the First World War. The ships could be disassembled and transported to the rivers where they would be used. The reference to ‘China’ in the class name was to confuse the enemy as to their final destination.

HMS Cricket Ship Technical information;
• Large China Gunboat Aphis Class
• 645 tons; 72.5 m long; 11.0 m wide; 1.2 m draft
• 6″ guns were carried fore and aft of the superstructure
• Powered by two triple expansion engines fed from boilers mounted amidships
• Built by Barclay Curle in 1915 under the supervision of Yarrows
• Service speed 14 kts but substantially faster on trials

Various publications differ on how HMS Cricket was damaged, but all agree that it was in the Southern Mediterranean in 1941.

It is suggested that the ship was hit by an enemy torpedo and the stern was blown off. Other accounts claim that the ship was bombed by German aircraft off Tobruk, Libya on 30th June 1941 and subsequently sold and scrapped the same year. A reference from the Lowestoft Naval Museum states that the ship hit a mine at Mersa Matruh, Egypt and was broken up at Alexandria in 1942. From these accounts, it would seem that the ship was badly damaged in the stern near the North African coast. In view of the ship’s unusual un-pierced bulkhead design, it would have been quite feasible for the ship to sustain severe damage and remain afloat. The ship would have ended up at the yards in Alexandria.

To progress further, it is worth noting the history of two other ships of this class. Firstly, HMS Gnat, the damage to which is consistently recorded in different references. On the 21st October 1941, HMS Gnat was torpedoed off Bardia, Italy (not on modern maps). Again, the ship’s remarkable construction seems to have kept her afloat for a long tow across the Mediterranean where she was beached at Alexandria as an anti-aircraft platform. The Gnat was then scrapped in 1944- or broken up in 1945. Interestingly, another report, which summarizes the disposition of all ships active in the Second World War, notes that there was a proposal to join the two serviceable ends, the bows of the Cricket and the stern of the Gnat which was abandoned as infeasible. Again, the construction of these ships makes this suggestion quite possible since they were designed for disassembly and re-assembly.

So is the wreck off Cyprus HMS Cricket, HMS Gnat, or a combination of both ? The wreck is obviously a hulk stripped of all components, armament, engines, boilers and shafts. This could not have been carried out after the sinking since the ship is inverted with no bottom openings. I guess that after the war, the engines, guns, boilers and everything of value was stripped from the two hulks and the bows of the Cricket joined to the stern of the Gnat; but by whom? The Royal Navy could have done this and then used it as a target for shore or sea-based artillery. The inverted hull prevents investigation of shell damage, but I believe this option is unlikely, since the Navy at that time had many old hulks for target practice.

Perhaps the two parts fell into less salubrious hands and they were joined together and used as a towed hulk for the illegal transportation of Jewish refugees to Palestine which was rife after the war. Many Jews were secretly shipped from detention camps on Cyprus to Palestine in the most un-seaworthy vessels. I have heard rumours that the hulk was an illegal transport and was sunk by the Royal Navy, hence the lack of information about this sad episode.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Pevpxrg. Gvrq n pbhcyr srrg nobir tebhaq ba ubevmbagny oenapu.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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