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It was a savage act of war from which a legacy of beauty still remains and now this remarkable story of treachery, secret love and lost treasure is being retold in a new Hampshire exhibition.

The SS Persia exhibition at the Maritime Museum was officially opened by Alison Kentuck, who holds the position of Receiver of Wreck at the headquarters of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency based in Southampton.

On December 18, 1915 the P&O liner, SS Persia left London on a voyage to India carrying more than 500 men, women and children, in the ship's hold were sacks of Christmas cards and presents, and locked away in the bullion-room were millions of pounds worth of gold, silver and jewels belonging to the wealthy Raja Maharaja Jagatjij Singh.

Among the passengers were John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Lord Montagu of Beaulieu and his secretary, Eleanor Thornton.

It seemed only a handful of close friends knew of the couple's close, but highly discreet, relationship that had lasted for ten years.

Lord Montagu was one of the country's leading pioneers of the automobile and from 1902 he edited a magazine called The Car, where Eleanor worked as his secretary.

A member of the couple's inner circle was the sculptor, Charles S Sykes, who was commissioned by the Baron to create a special mascot for his Silver Ghost Rolls-Royce.

Eleanor was the inspiration for the small statue entitled The Whisper, which depicted a young girl in flowing robes with a forefinger to her lips, suggesting that the figure knew of a hidden secret.

Eleanor Thornton's grandson Richard Moorby.

Following this commission, Rolls-Royce asked Sykes if he would craft a mascot to adorn the company's cars and in February 1911, he presented the now-famous Spirit of Ecstacy, which bore a striking resemblance to The Whisper. This was no coincidence as Eleanor had posed for both statues.

The liner, Persia, which had been built in 1900, regularly plied the route between London and Bombay and on December 30, as the ship was in the eastern Mediterranean the first-class passengers, and officers, sat down to enjoy lunch together.

A young officer was later to write: "As we had gone down to lunch and I had just finished two anchovies on toast there was a dull bang, a clatter of falling glass and a shudder through the ship.

"Everyone got up to fetch their life belts without any panic at all.'' Descendents of passengers who died when a German U-boat attacked the P&O liner, SS Persia, more than 90 years ago, have praised the new exhibition at Buckler's Hard as "a permanent memorial'' to those who were lost following the torpedo attack.

For David Conran-Smith and his sister, Caroline Hill the exhibition had added poignancy as their grandparents were both killed in the attack on the ship.

"They were Marcel and Hilda Conran-Smith, who were both in their 30s and on their way back to India after taking their young six-year-old son, Louis back to England for his education,'' said Mrs Hill.

"The family had long been established in India and my grandfather's work was in connection with telegraph communications but they were not able to survive the sinking.

"I like to think that this exhibition will be a permanent memorial not only to our grandparents but also to the many others who went down with the ship.'' Also at the exhibition's official opening was the grandson of Eleanor Thornton, Richard Moorby, who described his grandmother as a "most ambitious'' person.

Without warning an enemy torpedo had slammed into the hull of the ship and immediately Persia began to list to port. Passengers were trying to collect lifebelts and make their way to the lifeboats but the launch of these craft were hampered by the incline of the deck.

People were washed into the sea as the deck became too steep to walk along. The ship capsized and five minutes after the explosion Persia's funnels slipped below the waves.

John, 2nd Lord Montagu and Eleanor Thornton, his secretary and mistress, who was also known as "Thorn'', were sitting in the First Class dining salon when the torpedo struck. As the couple went to save themselves a wall of water engulfed the deck, ripping Thorn from Lord Montagu's grasp.

The ship disappeared into 8,400 feet of water and remained undetected until 2001 when Deep Tek, a company owned by Alec Crawford and his wife, Moya, began work on the wreck.

Highly sophisticated equipment was brought to the site in what had become the world's deepest commercial salvage operation inside a wreck. The target was Persia's bullion room said to contain huge amounts of gold and jewels but none was ever found.

3:24pm Wednesday 9th July 2008

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