Century-old US Coast Guard shipwreck discovered near England

The U.S. Coast Guard announced that the wreck of the USCGC Tampa, a cutter lost in a World War I attack more than a century ago, has been found off the coast of England and confirmed through technical diving work. The Coast Guard said the vessel was discovered about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off Newquay, Cornwall, United Kingdom, at a depth exceeding 300 feet (90 meters) in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Coast Guard said the wreck was located and confirmed by the British technical-diving team Gasperados. Coast Guard leaders said the discovery has significance for both historical record and remembrance for the Tampa’s crew, whose deaths the service said left “an enduring grief” when the ship was lost in 1918.

Adm. Kevin Lunday, commandant of the Coast Guard, said the courage and sacrifice of the Tampa’s crew reflected the service’s legacy of defending the United States during every armed conflict since the Coast Guard’s founding in 1790. In his statement, Lunday said that when the Tampa went down “with all hands” in 1918, it left an enduring grief in the service, and he said locating the wreck connects the Coast Guard to the crew’s sacrifice while reminding it that devotion to duty endures.

The Coast Guard said the Tampa was lost after being torpedoed by a German submarine in the Bristol Channel. The service said the vessel sank in less than three minutes, and it said all 131 people aboard died, including 111 Coast Guardsmen, four U.S. Navy personnel and 16 British Navy personnel and civilians.

The Coast Guard said the wreck’s confirmation involved Gasperados conducting 10 trips to possible dive locations. In a Facebook post, Gasperados team leader Steve Mortimer said the discovery resulted from three years of research and exploration and that the Tampa’s “final resting place is known at last.” Mortimer also said the ship’s identity was of “huge importance” to the United States and to the relatives of those who died.

Officials said the all-volunteer team first contacted the Coast Guard Historian’s Office in 2023 about the Tampa. Coast Guard Atlantic Area Historian William Thiesen said the historian’s office provided the dive team with historical records and technical data to assist in confirming the wreck site, including archival images of deck fittings, the ship’s wheel, bell, weaponry and other records.

With the site now found and confirmed, the Coast Guard said it is developing plans for underwater research and exploration. The announcement ends a long search for the remains of a ship that, officials said, was the largest single American naval combat loss of life in World War I.