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12 Volume 73 Number 1
15 February 2021
The German ships then turned their attention to
Edinburgh, leaving the convoy out of immediate
danger. Edinburgh continued steaming slowly and
in the general direction required and by now the
minesweepers had arrived from Murmansk and
were assisting. Early in the morning of May 2nd
the German destroyers emerged from the mist.
Edinburgh was already at battle stations, but the
ship was in a bad way, only able to fight from the
forward part with A and B turrets and smaller
guns. Maneuvering was almost impossible. Edin-
burgh and her escorts were outgunned and out-
distanced by the enemy though you wouldn’t
think so by the fight that ensued. Edinburgh im-
mediately cast off the tow and tether and was
able to increase speed to 8 knots but without
steering. Minesweepers stuck to Edinburgh and
pounded the enemy ships with their little 4-inch
guns when ever they got a chance. A and B tur-
rets on Edinburgh and the other shells fired from
the smaller ships, all found their mark on Herman
Schoeman severely damaging her. Two British
shells had passed through her engine spaces. The
ship was done for and all by expert British gun
crews firing manually and by verbal orders. Z24
fired a torpedo and this hit Edinburgh on the port
side below the bridge. She began to list danger-
ously to port, stopping at a severe angle. It did-
n’t, however, stop her from fighting. Whenever a
German ship appeared in front of the guns they
kept on firing. By now Edinburgh was open from
port to starboard side and abandoning ship was
on the mind of everyone on board. Foresight and
Forester were still fighting despite having been hit
in the boiler rooms and the Germans still had the
upper hand even though they had lost a destroy-
er. Eventually they withdrew into the mist leaving
the British ships badly mauled. Later the German
officers recorded that they thought they were
fighting destroyers and not minesweepers.
Bonham-Carter assessed the situation and be-
cause of a real danger that the ship would over-
turn decided to abandon ship. Bonham-Carter
later wrote to his wife “I managed to get two
ships alongside under difficult conditions and got
everyone away who was alive, including 80
wounded, all officers except two who were killed,
and 800 men out of 850.” Edinburgh looked like
she would overturn anytime but was agonizingly
slow to sink. HMS Forester was ordered to put a
torpedo into her so there was no question of an
enemy takeover. This finally sent HMS Edinburgh
to the bottom. Commander Eric George a ship
constructor observed at the time “She went down
stern first on an even keel. She was a master-
piece of design and construction. I could see down
her funnels and the main diesel exhausts of the
engines which had supplied power for the guns
were still running. Then she was gone.” Fifty-
seven men went down with her. She would lay in
732 feet of water at the bottom of the Barents
Sea for another 40 yrs. Then along came Keith
Jessop.
THE SEARCH FOR THE EDINBURGH AND
HER GOLD.
Jessop was born
in 1933, illegiti-
mate and penni-
less in an English
Yorkshire mill
town named
Keighley.
(Pronounced
Keethly) situated
at the opposite
side of Ilkley
Moor from The
Dale’s town of
Keith Jessop Ilkley. Travelling
over the moor
from Ilkley in those days, you would think you
had gone from an English country paradise to the
dark satanic mills of England’s industrial revolu-
tion. It was a town filled with dirty woolen mills
and broken-down engineering factories. Growing
up Keith’s interests were never scholastic. He
loved the outdoors and soon learned climbing and
caving over a nearby terrain ideally suited to it.
He also liked diving down in the local rivers where
he had learned to stay under water without
drowning. He later found and recovered the body
of a small local boy who had gone missing. The
local police had not taken Keith seriously when he
had offered to assist but now were clearly atten-
tive as their efforts had been sadly lacking. Keith
became accomplished at all his outdoor pursuits
and then one day his National Service papers ar-
rived. He had been called up for the military.
(Post WW2) He promptly went to the recruiting
office and told them he wanted to join the Royal
Marines. The RM did not normally take national
servicemen as usually all they wanted was to
serve time and get out with minimum effort. Keith
Jessop convinced the recruiters he was much
more than that based on his experience and they
reluctantly agreed to take him. He excelled at
everything in training and loved it. After two
years he said he would sign up for another longer
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