The talk within aeronautical circles in early 1919 was all about who would become the first to fly the Atlantic.

A prize of £10,000 had been offered by the Daily Mail, and among the companies keen to support a British attempt was Short Brothers of Rochester. It was an enterprise destined to join the list of great British disasters.

Chosen for the attempt was the Short Shirl, developed in 1917 as a torpedo bomber, capable of sinking a battleship. Like most aircraft of that time, it was a relatively flimsy affair of plywood and canvas.

But the Royal Navy gave up its interest in the machine, opting for the more agile Sopwith Cuckoo instead.

However, Oswald Short, one of the three founding brothers of the firm, realised that the torpedo could be replaced by an extra-large fuel tank, making the machine ideal for long- distance flights.

A variant of the aircraft was created. It had a wingspan of 62ft, a second cockpit complete with its own set of controls, and of course a large fuel tank attached to the torpedo rack.

This should have given the Shirl a range of 3,200 miles, more than enough for an Atlantic crossing. It was to be powered by a Rolls-Royce engine of 350 horsepower.

Piloting the aircraft on its record-breaking attempt would be Major JCP Wood, a veteran RAF officer who had flown more than 1,000 hours during the First World War.

His navigator would be Capt CC Wylie, an assistant pilot navigator who was also an experienced wartime officer.

Unlike their competitors, they had chosen to fly east to west, against what was generally thought would be the prevailing winds. But Oswald Short reckoned no one really knew what the winds were like at high altitude and in any case wind was unpredictable.

The Seaplane Works, alongside the River Medway in Willis Avenue, Rochester, was a frenzy of activity as no effort was spared to get the Shirl ready on time. This was to be an aircraft that would carve a place in aeronautical history.

Arrangements were made for British ships on the Atlantic run to make smoke at set times each day that could be seen by the airmen, who would be reassured they were on course.

Preliminary trials, carried out at Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey, went well. Confidently, the two airmen, Wood and Wyllie, took to the skies at 3.15pm on Good Friday 1919, bound for Ireland, where the record bid was to begin.

Four hours later all was going well. The aircraft was above Holyhead on the Welsh coast, shaping for Dublin and climbing to about 3,000ft to be above the clouds.

Suddenly everything changed. About 12 miles out to sea, the engine gave a cough and stopped altogether. There was nothing the two pilots could do to get it started again.

Reluctantly, they turned and glided towards shore. The Shirl turned upside down and plunged into the sea, drenching Major Wood in the forward cockpit, but somehow leaving Capt Wyllie high and dry. Both men were unhurt. They clambered out and sat on the aircraft axle awaiting rescue.

It was Sidney Goodchild, picnicking near Holyhead, who became Major Wood’s rescuer. Onlookers flocked to the shoreline to see what was going on, but Mr Goodchild found a rowing boat and with another man rowed out to where the aircraft rested, kept afloat by its fuel tank.

They were only able to take off Major Wood, leaving Capt Wyllie to the lifeboat, which arrived later.

“Before we reached the shore our little boat got swamped,” said Mr Goodchild, “three of us having to walk waist deep.”

Shadowing the Shirl was another aircraft, piloted by John Lankester Parker, the Short Brothers’ test pilot. Seeing what had happened, he attempted to come down on dry land. In doing so, his aeroplane smashed into a wall, but he escaped injury.

The Shirl was towed into the harbour, ignominiously hauled from the water by crane and placed on a vehicle for transport back to Rochester. There were still hopes to have it restored and ready for another attempt on the Atlantic later in the year.

Major Wood estimated it would take a fortnight to get the machine flying again.

But in June that year, John Alcock and Arthur Brown flew their First World War Vickers Vimy bomber into the record books by crossing from St John’s, Newfoundland, to County Galway in Ireland. They were presented with the £10,000 Daily Mail cheque by Sir Winston Churchill.

What caused the engine to fail? Engineers back at Shorts in Rochester thought an airlock in the fuel line was the most likely reason.