According to Mr Knudsen, the ship was armed with one 12 pdr., 4 Oerlikons, 1 Strip Lewis and 2 P.A.C. Rockets. The crew was made up of a British and Danish volunteers under a Danish master and also included 4 Naval and 3 Army DEMS Gunners, and there was one passenger (a pilot). As part of the convoy, Storaa was legally required to defend herself and the rest of the convoy. The Dover Strait and Wold Channel (known as Hell's Corner and E-boat alley), were the most dangerous sea passages in the world. Just after midnight on 3 November 1943 German E-boats were sighted. HMS Whitshead and the Storaa opened fire and the E-boats were driven off, but a quarter of an hour later a torpedo fired by struck Storaa amidships. She was heavily laden and sank quickly. Of the total of 36 people on board, 22 were lost (master, 1st and 2nd officers, 2nd and 3rd engineers, steward, cook, 1 naval and 2 army gunners, and 12 crew). Seven survivors from the Storaa were picked up by an English coaster which was also part of the convoy, the rest being rescued by an M.L., and all were taken to Newhaven. Designation under the Protection of Military Remains Act In 1985 John Short purchased for £150 the salvage rights to Storaa, which lies in about of water some off the East Sussex coast near Hastings. A year later, in 1986, the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 came into law. Local historian and maritime archaeologist, Dr Peter Marsden, Director of the Hastings Shipwreck Heritage Centre, wrote to the Ministry of Defence in April 2000, requesting that Storaa should be designated under the Act. On 25 May 2000, the Ministry of Defence wrote back, refusing the request on the grounds that the vessel was not eligible to be designated under the Act, because it was not in military service at the time. One of the men of the Royal Navy who had died on Storaa was Petty Officer James Varndell, who was 44 at the time. In 2003, his daughters Rosemary Fogg and Valerie Ledgard made an application to the Ministry of Defence to designate the wreck to protect it as a war grave. Their request was also refused by the Ministry of Defence. However, supported by Dr Marsden and by the Merchant Navy Association, they launched a request for a