The shipwreck of a World War I United States combat vessel has been discovered off the coast of Cornwall by a dedicated team of divers, 108 years after it sank beneath the waves. The US Coastguard Cutter Tampa had been missing since being torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1918. Now, it has been located approximately 50 nautical miles offshore from Newquay by the Gasperados Dive Team.
All 131 lives aboard the vessel were lost, including personnel from the US Navy and Coastguard, as well as British civilians. Dominic Robinson, a 54-year-old diver from Plymouth, Devon, and a member of the Gasperados Dive Team, revealed that they had been searching for the ship for the past three years after it vanished without a trace.
The team on the day of the discovery included leader Steve Mortimer, Jacob Mackenzie, James Gregory, Steve Green, Duncan Haywood, Chris Lowe, and Paul Downs. They utilised information from the UK Hydrographic Office, including seabed data, to help track down the wreck. They also analysed German records concerning the U-boat that sank the Tampa and spent the last three years conducting numerous dives to locate it.
Final Attempt Yields Success
Sunday, 26 April marked what was to be their final attempt when they made the incredible discovery. The team have presented their findings to the US Coastguard, and Mr Robinson says they are 'confident' they have found the Tampa. Reflecting on the moment, he stated: 'Sunday was our last attempt. Basically we were like "we've looked everywhere this could be", and were going to give up, and then we got down there and found it.'
He elaborated on the condition of the wreck: 'Most people think a shipwreck is a ship under water but the reality is it's been underwater for 100 years in the Celtic Sea in-between Cornwall and Ireland, so it's been smashed by storms and a 100 odd years of decay. And the fact it was torpedoed in the first place. The things we were looking for were anchors, boulders, the engine – we knew it had guns on it and lots of ammunition, lots of portholes. It was a well-built, good quality ship.'
The divers also found crockery inscribed with 'New Jersey', providing an instant link to America. The Tampa was assigned escort duty in World War I, protecting convoys from German submarines between Gibraltar and the south coast of England. On 26 September 1918, the Tampa had just parted with a convoy it had escorted when it was torpedoed.
Extreme Diving Conditions
Mr Robinson described the diving conditions as 'extreme', with wrecks up to 100 metres deep. The team would spend around 20 minutes at the bottom and a further two and a half hours decompressing while ascending slowly to the surface. He noted that the US Coastguard has kept a vessel named Tampa in service ever since, and many have tried to locate the wreck.
'It's probably important to recognise this is not a one-off event and a culmination of three years of stuff and loads of other people who have done other dives,' Mr Robinson added. The depth of the wreck is 320 feet, and it lies 50 miles off the coast of Newquay. The sinking of the Tampa represents the biggest single American naval combat loss of life in World War I, with 111 Coast Guardsmen, 4 US Navy personnel, and 16 British (Royal Navy and civilians) losing their lives. The vessel was 205 feet long, armed with four 3-inch guns and two 6-pounder guns, and was torpedoed by German U-boat UB91. It sank in less than three minutes, and no distress signal was successfully sent.
