Could Wreckage Of First Ship Sunk In WWII Have Been Discovered?

The first British ship to be sunk in World War Two has potentially been identified lying on the Atlantic seabed.

David Mearns, a shipwreck hunter, has said that sonar data has identified the transatlantic passenger ship 200m below the surface off the coast of Ireland.

The liner, known as the SS Athenia was sunk by a German torpedo in 1939, just hours after Neville Chamberlain broadcast the infamous words “we are at war with Germany.”

It turned out that the ship had been mistaken by a U-boat commander for an armed cruiser.

Tragically, three quarters the Athenia’s passengers, 112 of whom were killed, were women and children.

But despite there being a significant loss of life, 1,306 of those on board were saved.

According to Mr Mearns, the ship’s hull can be seen with sonar data from the Geological Survey of Ireland, and looks to be in fairly good shape despite the torpedo attack 77 years ago.

It appears, he says, that the dimensions of the object located by the sonar date match that of a 160m, 13,500-tonne passenger liner like the Athenia.

The location of the apparent wreckage also matches those of the Athenia at the time that she sent out a distress call.

Mr Means said of his discovery, the case of which he describes in his book The Shipwreck Hunter:

"Can I go into a court of law and say, '100%, that's Athenia?' No. But barring a photograph I can say in my expert opinion there's a very, very high probability that that's Athenia. Everything fits."