Your correct Chris, when campbell was killed in 1967 royal navy divers were dispatched and found the bluebird the next day. Nothing difficult really.
And that was with flash lights, no sonar and diving only on 8 mins bottom time.
Bluebird was mostly intact but the cockpit was gone as it took the full force of the collision.
After weeks of searching Campbell's body was not recovered and the navy concluded that he must of disintegrated on impact. I've been a member of Donald Campbell's speed club for over 20 years now and go coniston every year to pay tribute to the worlds greatest speed king.
Campbell was my childhood hero when growing up.
It was eventually bill smith who raised the bluebird boat in 2001, it didn't take him four years to find it, it took a few visits with the sonar to pin point the debris field at 125 ft of water and bingo there it was. 34 years at the bottom and bluebird was raised.
But where was Campbell? Well two months after raising bluebird bill smith using sonar finally located donalds body, not at the wreckage but about 100 ft or more further back at the impact point of after the bluebird had done a somersault , impacted the surface and cartwheeled on a further distance.
The royal navy divers at the time got the point of impact wrong and with poor equipment just missed donalds body. Donald had been shot out of bluebird at the moment of impact, into the lake, his body drifting off at an angle.
Donald rather than in bits was found on his back, still in his bluebird overalls, one glove on his hand, car keys beside him, and some coins in his pocket. He even had his st Christopher medal around his neck that his father sir Malcolm gave him as a boy.
Donald had lain in the same spot for 34 years undisturbed.
Sadly the impact was so violent at 190mph that donalds head was never recovered from the lake. Gina , donalds only daughter waited on the pier for Donald to be brought back.
It was a very emotional day.
September 12th 2001 and with the world still reeling from sept 11th the previous day, Donald Campbell was buried at coniston in the english lake district.
It was an awful wet and miserable day, I attended the funeral and saw the man I had admired for so long get the funeral he deserved, a horse drawn carriage with thousands of mourners and soaked school children lining the streets holding aloft yellow and blue ribbons as the coffin passed by.
In america Earhart is the icon, in Great Britain it's men like Donald campbell that our country was made from.
In 2000 I joined Donald campbells nephew Don Wales and his team to break the electric land speed record on pendine sands in Wales, with a speed of 123mph, we raised this record to 138mph a few months later.
Campbells bluebird is being restored and will return to coniston in the near future.
Just typing this has brought back a lot of memories.