EPISODE 13 THE RED FLOTILLA

One of the past salvages recorded on our time line was of a ship called The Red Flotilla. We decided to explore the story of the shipwreck and the salvage. On a large sheet of paper we started to fill in details about the shipwreck: it happened in 1906; the ship was sailing from Spain to South Africa; 100 passengers were on board - rich Africans who had holidayed in Spain and were returning home; the wreck happened in the Atlantic - strangely far out at sea (why was the ship not sailing down the coast as might be expected?); the wreck was caused by bad weather - thick fog, followed by a storm. We then began to recall the salvage, which happened three years ago. The children got into groups and each one made a 'photograph' of one aspect of the dive - the trip out to the Atlantic; diving down to the wreck; searching the wreck; bringing stuff to the surface; the journey home and finally restoring objects in the restoration room. The dive proved to be an eventful one, with an attack from a giant squid! The groups positioned themselves to make a mini time line of the salvage and then brought the photographs to life one group at a time. We will continue with the investigation into the Red Flotilla as the children were keen to know more about what exactly happened and want to find out about the people on board.