DIVERS’ GRIM DISCOVERY IN LINER SUNK BY U-BOAT

Western Morning News
November 18, 2008 Tuesday
Plymouth

Thousands of animal bones were discovered by divers inside the wreck of
a luxury liner sunk off the Cornish coast during the First World War.

The 9,000-tonne White Star liner Armenian had been carrying a cargo
of 3,000 mules, destined for the trenches of France, when it was
torpedoed by a German U-boat on June 28, 1915.

It was only hours from its Avonmouth destination after crossing the
Atlantic from Newport in the USA when it was sunk. Nine crew and 20
donkeymen were lost, though these were probably caused by shelling
before the ship was torpedoed.

The history of the Armenian will be the subject of a two-part
television show, ITV’s Deep Wreck Mysteries, which starts this week.

Specialist deep-water divers found the wreck in early April this year
after locating it using a combination of GPS and sonar technology. It
was found 100m underwater, 50 miles off the coast of Newquay.

The 160m wreck is still upright and intact, having survived the depth-
charges which destroyed many wrecks during wartime.

Dive boat skipper Chris Lowe, 46, has spent five years searching
for the "very prestigious wreck", which belonged to the company that
owned the Titanic.

He originally thought he had found the wreck three years ago after
the discovery of a sunken vessel containing animal bones, but the
bones turned out to be from beef cattle.

When wreck explorer Innes McCartney became involved with the search,
he suspected the location given for the stricken vessel may have
been wrong.

He said: "The position given by the captain of the ship when she
sunk was very inaccurate. The only way I put that right was to get
my hands on the log of the U-boat that attacked the Armenian. The
Germans were very meticulous with position keeping."

The team from the TV show, along with Mr Lowe, were able to pinpoint
three possible locations, with the first turning out to be the
Armenian.

The crew, who have done three dives on the wreck, confirmed the ship’s
identity after they found a dinner plate bearing the insignia of the
White Star Line. The bones were also identified by English Heritage
as belonging to mules.

The history of the Armenian will be shown in two parts on ITV1. The
first will be on November 20 at 7.30pm, while the second will be on
December 4, also at 7.30pm.