Historical Commission
PRINTS AVAILABLE
A Fraction of a second (Commission) SOLD
Oil on canvas: 2000mm x 1000mm (79 inches) x (39 inches)
BACKGROUND
Falklands War diving heroes immortalised in painting to pay tribute to their braveryNot many people know about how Ray Sinclair and other divers risked their lives to prevent “classified” secrets and weapons from falling into the wrong hands.
Forty years ago Royal Navy diver Ray Sinclair (formerly Suckling) was tasked with affixing an explosive device to a warhead on the wreck of HMS Coventry at the bottom of the ocean. Sitting astride the missile he didn’t know whether it would detonate within a fraction of a second, or whether he would survive the harrowing Falklands War mission. Not many people know about how he and other divers risked their lives to prevent “classified” secrets and weapons from falling into the wrong hands.
So Mr Sinclair, who is now 62, commissioned a painting so what happened during the dangerous operation is immortalised on canvas and never forgotten. Dubbed Operation Blackleg, the saturation diving team, led by Lieutenant Commander Mike Kooner, was tasked with salvaging the wreck of HMS Coventry.The Type 42 destroyer was sunk by an Argentine Air Force A-4 Skyhawks on May 25, 1982.
The horror attack took the lives of 19 sailors and injured a further 30 – with the ship, and many of its important contents, sinking in just 20 minutes. Blackleg was undertaken between October 13, 1982, and January 2, 1983, as fears swirled that the Soviet Union could get their hands on sensitive information.It saw the team secure various weapons such as the Sea Dart missile and recover items including coded documents, the captain’s ceremonial sword and telescope, as well as the Cross of Nails from Coventry Cathedral, presented in 1978 when the ship was commissioned.
And the artwork that South African-born artist Dave Coburn has created captures just a split second of that mission – the moment that Mr Sinclair was strapping explosives to a missile on November 26 1982 so it could be blown up underwater, rather than being captured by enemy forces.
Mr Sinclair said: “I remember sitting astride that missile which was armed, the warhead was armed so nobody really knew whether that could detonate or not. “The odds are that the electronics in the warhead were too wet but nobody knew that for sure plus there was another bomb that was unexploded in the wreck anyway that hadn’t gone off. “But I just remember sitting there thinking it’s a pretty surreal thing to do. The whiteness of the missile in the painting is exactly as it was because it was brand new but surrounded by the deep blackness of the ocean and it was quite surreal really.
“I called the painting A Fraction of a Second because that’s how quick they detonate, in a fraction of a second.” “I asked Dave to capture the depth and the loneliness and the poignancy in the painting and when he it to be a portrait painting rather than landscape he basically nailed it.”
A Fraction of a second (Testimonial by Ray Sinclair. Client and Diver)
I’d like to publicly express my sincere gratitude to Dave Coburn Art for his amazing oil on canvas artwork. Dave through my rough drawings and images scoured from the net has brilliantly captured this moment in Royal Navy history. Shortly after Fleet Clearance Diving Team (2) which served in the Falklands War in a battle damage repair role, was hastily flown back to the Uk.
With in five months of #hmscoventry sinking the team was deployed aboard the DSV Stena Seaspread and stationed off West Falkland Island , 300 ft below was the sacred and honoured war grave of #hmscoventry
Our operation brief was to recover or destroy all NATO sensitive documents and equipment and render safe all ordnance. The painting is of myself strapping 4lb plastic explosive pack to the armed warhead of the last Sea Dart missile on the launcher. #OperationBlackleg was not without incidents and extreme danger. It’s a credit to the planning and execution and an element of luck by all personnel involved that all MoD equipment and documents were recovered. The divers in particular risked their lives to fulfil the operation. Little to no recognition was given to the military operation, as Naval Party 2200. As member of the NP 2200 and now a holder a Bachelor of Journalism, I feel it incumbent to correct disinformation and give the team the accolades they deserve.
To the sailors who remain “Forever on Watch” #lestweforget
#clearancediver #saturationdiver #royalnavy #uxo #SeaDart #falklandswar #operationblackleg
Coventry Cathedral and the Cross of Nails.
The painting is dedicated first and foremost to the 19 Royal Navy sailors who paid the ultimate sacrifice and died in the Falklands War in 1982 for the high ideas of freedom and democracy. H.M.S. Coventry is their sacred war grave. Secondly, to the divers who, in the most physically and psychologically demanding of circumstances, performed their duty and carried out all items on the M.O.D. manifest. The divers could only have completed the tasks with the Royal Navy and civilian support crew. To this day, Operation Blackleg has been the Royal Navy’s finest achievement in deep saturation diving recovery from inside a warship. Without a doubt, on the same page, as the gold recovered from H.M.S. Edinburgh, both are worthy of merit. While one was for the security of NATO,the other was about treasure. I recently contacted the former Defence Secretary Mr Ben Wallace and endeavoured to get the whole team of Operation Blackleg recognised retrospectively with a Commander-in Chiefs citation the response from Ministry of Defence was miserly and dismissive. I hope the families of those sailors who remain forever on watch in the South Atlantic and the 20th crewman who died from injuries sustained much later find some comfort in the painting.
