Plans to move the wreck of destroyer HMS Wakeful out of a shipping lane have been amended to allow the ship to safely remain where she sank during the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940.

In 2001 salvage experts decided that the wreck of the World War I-vintage V&W-class destroyer HMS Wakeful would need to be moved as she presented a hazard to shipping using the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, because of the increasing tonnage of merchant ships.

The original plan was to lift the two pieces of the ship and move them to a specially-dug trench.

The news was met with dismay by some survivors – not least because around 100 of their shipmates and more than 600 soldiers who had been plucked from the beaches of Dunkirk lost their lives in the attack, and their remains are still in the wreck.

Wakeful had already made one rescue run to the Dunkirk operation early on May 28, carrying more than 630 troops to safety from Bray Dunes.

She made a second trip south across the Channel later the same day, narrowly avoiding a low-level bombing attack by nine enemy aircraft – only one of more than 40 bombs landed close enough to cause damage.

By 3pm Wakeful was anchored off Le Braye once more, and in the following eight hours the ship’s boats ferried more than 600 battle-weary troops out to the destroyer.

She weighed anchor at 11pm and safely negotiated the Zuydcoote Pass and North Channel, increasing speed to 20 knots, but at 12.45am on May 29, shortly after passing the Kwinte Whistle buoy, two torpedo tracks were spotted heading for the veteran warship’s starboard bow.

The wheel was put hard over, causing the first torpedo to miss, but the second struck the forward boiler room, splitting the ship in two and causing her to sink within 15 seconds.

Official reports at the time state that around 40 of her complement of some 140 were rescued, along with ten troops – the vast majority were asleep below when the Wakeful sank and stood virtually no chance of escape. Precise figures are hard to come by because of the confused nature of the withdrawal from the beaches.

One of the survivors from the ship’s company was Stanley Crabb, who had expressed his reservations about the original plan to the Ministry of Defence, and who has now been told that the relevant Belgian authorities are hoping to pursue a less intrusive course of action.
Under the new scheme, Wakeful will remain where she is in the shipping lane, but around three metres will be removed from the top of her superstructure.

Effectively, this means the funnels and communications mast will be cut from the wreck and secured to the ship’s side.

This will allow shipping to safely pass over the top of the wreck site, and the remains of those who died in Wakeful will remain undisturbed once the work is complete.

At no point in the operation will any part of Wakeful break the surface of the sea.

The work was due to be carried out in August, but was delayed when equipment to be used had to remain on an earlier scheme longer than was anticipated.

Mr Crabb said he felt “a lot happier” about the amended plan.

A Ministry of Defence official said that there was a general acceptance that some work had to be done to ensure the safety of present-day mariners, and that there had been no negative responses from interested parties.