The
wreck of the 7,176 ton American Liberty ship James Eagan Layne is perhaps one of
the most famous in British diving. She sits on her keel in 24 metres not
far offshore to the west of Plymouth.She is one of a class of vessels, the Liberty ships which were produced as standard ships in large numbers and at great speed by America to combat the loss of Allied shipping to U-boat activity in the Second World War - to create a bridge of ships over the Atlantic. The Liberty ships essentially won the Battle of the Atlantic. Without them, the Allies would not have been able to ship sufficient quantities of war supplies to Britain. There would have been no D-day and perhaps no Allied victory.
James Eagan Layne was built in 1944 in New Orleans in just a short 40 days from laying down her keel strip. She crossed the Atlantic to Britain but, after only three month's war service, on 21 March 1945, she was torpedoed and sunk in Whitsand Bay by U-1195 whilst on a voyage from Barry, in Wales bound for Ghent in Belgium. She is included in Dive England's Greatest Wrecks.
