Onwall, United Kingdom: Divers have found the USCGC Tampa wreck more than a century after the U.S. Coast Guard cutter was sunk by a German submarine during World War I.
The British volunteer dive team Gasperados confirmed that the wreck was located about 50 miles off the coast of Cornwall, resting more than 300 feet below the Atlantic Ocean.
The discovery was made on Wednesday, April 29, after a three-year search involving 10 research and exploration missions, according to the dive team.
“Their final resting place is known at last,” Gasperados team leader Steve Mortimer said. The Tampa was travelling through the Bristol Channel to refuel in Wales on September 26, 1918, when German submarine UB-91 fired a torpedo at the vessel.
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The ship sank in less than three minutes after a secondary explosion, killing 131 people, including 111 Coast Guardsmen, four U.S. Navy personnel and 16 British individuals.
The sinking remains the largest single combat loss of American life at sea during World War I.
The U.S. Coast Guard is considering further exploration of the site using remotely operated vehicles, while the dive team said it wants the wreck treated as a war grave.
