Some lucky sport divers went to Pinewood Studios recently to work as underwater film extras in a production about the Marchioness river disaster, to be screened on TV in the autumn.

On set. Left to right: David and Trogon Sangan, Bradley Fox, Paul Norman, Morag Simms and Alex Rabson.

Fifty-one party-goers lost their lives in 1989 when the Marchioness, a River Thames pleasure boat, capsized and sank after being rammed from behind at night by a much larger vessel, the Bowbell.

The divers helped create scenes in which guests find themselves trapped in the pleasure boat's lower deck areas as it is pushed over on to its side and goes under. A mock-up of a cabin, complete with hullside windows, was constructed on a gantry that could be completely or part-submerged in a large tank, and tilted to simulate capsizing.

One group taking part were David and Trogon Sangan (who run Scuba Doo and Clothing Too, of Royston, Hertfordshire), Paul Norman, Bradley Fox, Alex Rabson and Morag Simms. Another group was put together from members of Croxley Dive Club.

The submergible and tiltable cabin mock-up.

"This is the first production to be filmed at Pinewood's purpose-built indoor underwater stage," David Sangan told Divernet. "The stage is 6m deep, 10m wide and 20m long." Water temperature was a "bath-soaking" 28 ° C during shooting.

The divers' roles included acting as people trapped in the bar area, others swimming out through windows, and survivors breaking surface. They were joined by stunt doubles for some of the actors in the production.

Out of shot, commercial divers from Pinewood - Diving Services UK oversaw operations and stood by with back-up second stage regulators for those being filmed.

Some of the divers also took part in an outdoor shoot using a full-scale recreation of the Marchioness, placed on an open-air wet stage once used for scenes in James Bond films.

Following the Marchioness disaster, a Marine Investigation Branch report highlighted failures aboard both vessels to keep a proper lookout, in particular from the overtaking Bowbell. However, a subsequent case against the skipper of the Bowbell failed.

A public enquiry ten years after the sinking acknowledged that, between 1989 and 1999, campaigns by survivors, relatives and friends of the dead played an important part in forcing improvements in regulations governing commercial marine activity on the Thames.


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