Sunderland T9044 is a unique survivor.
There are just three other military Sunderlands left in the world -
all later Mark V versions which
differ significantly. T9044 is the
only surviving Mark I - dating to the earliest period in World War II
when Britain stood alone against
Hitler’s Germany.

In just two active months, flying with the RAF’s famous 210 Squadron from Oban in Scotland and from Pembroke Dock, T9044 flew 14 operational missions.
Its sinking on November 12th 1940
was a big blow as the RAF had so few Sunderlands - at the time by far the largest aircraft in RAF service.

On a gale-lashed night in November 1940, one of the Royal Air Force’s Sunderland flying-boats, serial number T9044, sank at its moorings off Pembroke Dock, south-west Wales.

There was no-one on board.

Decades passed before T9044 was rediscovered by divers. In the intervening
years the mighty Sunderland, along with all the other flying-boats from the 1930s, ’40s and 50s, had almost become extinct, overtaken by technology
and progress.