Memories of the brave uncle he had never seen fired Stephen’s interest in the war and then his reading took him to the Graf Zeppelin.
The Cold War prevented any exploration of the wreckage, but the easing ofEast/West tension led to her being located in international waters, though it was not until 2006 that divers were able to formally identify her.
Stephen has not seen her himself but from photographs and speaking with Adam Olejnik, he knows that she is in “incredibly good” condition. “The biggest problem I have got in diving for her is that she is a Russian-owned ship,” he says. “It even took the Poles six months to get permission to dive with their foreign offices speaking to each other.”
So nobody hears the slow groans from the hulk of a ship launched in grandeur, but now only seen by the witless eyes of fish.
