HMS Dasher Memorial, South Beach 1 5
August 2002
On the afternoon of Saturday
27 March 1943, the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Dasher was sailing in the
Clyde Estuary between Ardrossan and Arran. At 4.40 pm, there was an enormous
explosion. Within a short time, the ship sank. Of the 528 men on board, 379
were killed by the blast or drowned. The memorial stone and plaque, in the Sunken
Gardens on South Beach, were unveiled on 27 March 1993, exactly fifty years
after the tragedy. Every year since 2000, there has been a commemoration service
on the Sunday of or before 27 March.