This story was originally produced by the Portsmouth Herald. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
A Portsmouth-based dive team recently discovered the ruins of the SS Cornwallis steamship sunk by a German U-boat during World War II in the Gulf of Maine.
The Nomad Exploration Team, a nine-person civilian team, located the wreck in mid-July using side scan sonar technology. The divers plunged nearly 400 feet deep to determine the wreck detected on sonar was indeed the SS Cornwallis, a ship that departed Barbados for New Brunswick in fall 1944 carrying sugar and molasses.
Divers began their search for the nearly 5,550-ton ship in 2019, according to founding team member Danny Allan. The wreck was located off Mount Desert Rock.
The 400-foot ship built in British Columbia was hit by a German submarine’s torpedo off the Maine coast on Dec. 3, 1944, according to the dive team and historical records. Among the 48 passengers, all but five people perished when the ship sank in minutes.
Read more at SeacoastOnline.
