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Appeal for tales of Hull airship crash which killed 44

D Howlett/Historic England The airshipD Howlett/Historic England
The R.38/ZR-2 airship was due to be handed over to the US Navy

An appeal has been launched for stories and memorabilia ahead of the 100th anniversary of an airship disaster which killed 44 people.

The R.38/ZR-2 exploded mid-flight in front of onlookers in Hull on 24 August 1921, before crashing into the River Humber, killing most of the crew.

The airship, called the "Titanic of the skies", was on a test flight before being handed over to the US Navy.

Historic England wants to create an online archive about the disaster.

D Howlett/Historic England The crashed airshipD Howlett/Historic England
The airship broke into pieces and landed in the River Humber

The 695ft long (212m) airship was built at Cardington, Bedfordshire, but was based at Howden, East Yorkshire, to complete its test flights.

It was due to fly to Pulham in Norfolk ahead of a final handover to the US, but it had to return due to bad weather. Last checks on its steering caused the light structure of the airship to break apart.

In total, 44 of the 49 British-American crew died in the resulting catastrophe.

It was designed to be the first of four ships that could patrol far out to sea for up to a week at a time, to combat the German U-boat threat.

Ahead of the anniversary, Historic England has commissioned a crowdsourcing project to create an online archive of materials relating to the disaster.

Keith Emerick, from Historic England, said: "Like the Titanic, the R.38/ZR-2 was the most advanced of its kind at the time. It was larger, faster and could fly higher than any of its predecessors."

D Howlett/Historic England Crew membersD Howlett/Historic England
Many of the crew who perished were buried in Hull Western Cemetery

Antony Firth, director of heritage consultancy firm Fjordr which is leading the project, said he first became fascinated with the crash after hearing about it from his grandfather, who witnessed the disaster first-hand as a young boy.

"We want to hear from people who have been told similar stories by relatives or who might have souvenirs of the crash," he said.

"We know that a range of objects were made from the wreckage including candlesticks and ashtrays. I can't wait to see what people come forward with."

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