WWI Wrecks

USS Samuel B. Roberts on the seabed
USS Samuel B. Roberts on the seabed. Victor Vescovo's team made six dives in search of the vessel.

World's deepest shipwreck located

Victor Vescovo, the founder of exploration company Caladan Oceanic, and a team from EYOS Expeditions made six dives over eight days looking for the long-lost WW2 destroyer which was located on 22 June. It lies at a depth of 6,895 meters (22,621 feet), in the Philippine Sea, split in two and lodged on a slope.

Speaking to CNN, Vescovo called it an "honor" to find the ship, saying in a statement that locating it had given the team the chance "to retell her story of heroism and duty."

The British cruiser HMS Drake in the United States in 1909.
The British cruiser HMS Drake in the United States in 1909. On October 2nd 1917 HMS Drake was was torpedoed by the German U-boat U-79

Divers reminded not to disturb protected wrecks off Northern Ireland

A prolonged period of sunshine and calm seas over the summer has led to an increase in the numbers of people visiting the historic wrecks which lie off Northern Ireland's shore.

Of the 340 known ship and plane wrecks within Northern Irish waters, only two have special levels of protection;  La Girona, a warship of the Spanish Armada which sank near Portballintrae in 1588, and HMS Drake, a WW1 cruiser that was torpedoed by a German U-Boat in 1917 and sank in Rathlin Bay.

Admiral Graf von Spee's famous flagship, SMS Scharnhorst. The wreck has now been located off the Falkland Islands

Wreck of Famed WWI Heavy Cruiser SMS Scharnhorst Discovered off Falklands

The wreck of the German battlecruiser SMS Scharnhorst, sunk by the Royal Navy during the First World War with the loss of all her crew and Admiral Graf von Spee has been found in the South Atlantic. SMS Scharnhorst, the flagship of the East Asia Squadron which was once the scourge of the Royal Navy, went down with most of the rest of the formation on December 8, 1914, in the Battle of the Falkland Islands.

The battlecruiser sank on Dec. 8, 1914, with more than 800 crew members on board, including German Adm. Maximilian Graf von Spee.

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Scharnhorst bow
Until 2003 one of the questions concerning the sinking of the Britannic "was she torpedoed or did she hit a mine"? The 2003 Spencer Expedition found and mapped the German minefield. Exped leader Carl Spencer later co-founded EUROTEK with fellow expedition members Leigh Bishop and Rosemary E Lunn

Britannic100: "Ship Of Dreams Sunk"

HMHS Britannic was the largest ship to sink during World War I. (Weighting in at almost 50,000-tons she was also the largest ship in the world).

Many argue she is one of the most beautiful, intact, well-preserved passenger liners accessible to divers. It is little wonder that these factors, and the story behind her construction and sinking continue to capture divers imagination.

HMS Hampshire. The shipwreck is rumoured to have been carrying a fortune in gold bullion

WW1 cruiser HMS Hampshire to be surveyed in 3D

The 10,850-ton armoured cruiser HMS Hampshire departed Scapa Flow in Orkney on 5 June 1916 on a voyage around the north cape of Norway to the port of Archangel in northern Russia. She was carrying Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, and his staff to Russia to discuss mutual war aims and strategy.

A Halifax bomber lost in World War 2 has been found at the bottom of a Norwegian Fjord
(Unrelated filephoto). The Handley Page Halifax was a British heavy bomber aircraft of World War II

WW2 British bomber found in Norwegian fjord

The Halifax bomber was struck by heavy flak and made a successful crash landing 600ft down a water inlet in northern Norway.

The sunken bomber will be protected as a war grave because of the likelihood of the remains of the two airman still being on board. Four of the six-man crew bailed out into a dingy but nothing was ever seen of navigator, Flight Sergeant Albert Columbine, or wireless operator, Arthur Evans. It is believed they drowned when the bomber went down.