"It gets darker and darker. Eventually, out of the gloom, the seabed appears-or, if you've done it right, the shipwreck appears. Mortimer, the leader of the British technical diving team Gasperados, was searching for the Tampa, a United States Coast Guard cutter that sank in 1918. A German submarine torpedoed the vessel, killing all 131 people on board-the largest single loss of life in American naval combat during World War I."
"We look to solve mysteries. We turn up where we think there's a good story to be told. For three years, the team worked with historians to comb through the archives for clues. They ultimately identified ten sites to investigate. The first nine dives were a bust. Then, on April 26, the team conducted the final dive about 50 miles off the coast of Cornwall, England."
The British technical diving team Gasperados located the wreckage of the USS Tampa, a United States Coast Guard cutter that sank in 1918 after being torpedoed by a German submarine. The disaster killed all 131 people aboard, marking the largest single loss of life in American naval combat during World War I. The ship's final resting place had remained a mystery for decades. Gasperados specializes in solving maritime mysteries by collaborating with historians to investigate archival evidence. After three years of research and nine unsuccessful dives, the team conducted their final dive approximately 50 miles off the coast of Cornwall, England, where they discovered wreckage consistent with a warship at a depth of 95 meters.
#uss-tampa-shipwreck-discovery #world-war-i-naval-history #deep-sea-diving-expedition #maritime-archaeology
Read at Smithsonian Magazine
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