Divers find wreckage of America’s biggest naval loss of World War I

A United States military ship that was sunk by a German submarine during World War I has been discovered by a diving team off the coast of Great Britain, nearly 108 years after it was lost, officials said Wednesday.

In a news release, the U.S. Coast Guard said that the wreckage of the Coast Guard Cutter Tampa was located by Gasperados, a British technical diving team.

The vessel sank off the coast of southwest England on Sept. 26, 1918, after it was torpedoed by a German submarine, CBS News reported. The vessel was sailing through the Bristol Channel toward a port in Wales when it was attacked by the UB-91 sub, according to the news outlet.

According to the Coast Guard, the ship sank in less than three minutes, killing call 131 people aboard. That figure included 111 Coast Guard personnel, four members of the U.S. Navy and 16 British Navy personnel and civilians.

“This remains the largest single American naval combat loss of life in World War I,” the Coast Guard said.

The wreck was found 50 miles off the Cornwall coast, CNN reported.

The British Gasperados had been searching for the vessel since 2023, according to the cable news outlet.

“This discovery is the result of three years of research and exploration,” Gasperados team leader Steve Mortimer wrote in a social media post. “Tampa is of huge importance to the United States and the relatives of everyone who died that day.

“Their final resting place is known at last.”

In 2023, the Coast Guard Historians Office was contacted by the dive team about the Tampa. The office provided team members with historical data and technical data to help confirm the site of the wreck, the Coast Guard release said.

“This included the archival images of the deck fittings, ship’s wheel, bell, weaponry, and archival images of the Tampa,” William Thiesen, the Coast Guard’s Atlantic area historian, said in a statement.

The Coast Guard said it is developing plans to explore the wreck further, CNN reported.

“When the Tampa was lost with all hands in 1918, it left an enduring grief in our service,” Adm. Kevin Lunday, commandant of the Coast Guard, said in a statement. “Locating the wreck connects us to their sacrifice and reminds us that devotion to duty endures. We will always remember them.”

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