It didn’t take a robotic submarine to finally discover the resting place of a 1917 Italian shipwreck—just a great passion for the sea.
The SS Enrichetta—or “Ghost Ship” as it has been better known for almost a century—was hit by a German submarine torpedo during the World War I and was never found. Its fate has been an enigma ever since.
Now the mystery surrounding the British-built, Italian cargo ship has been solved: The ship was discovered lying upside down, vertically, behind a ridge.
The ship is very deep, because it rests at a depth between 853 feet and 465 feet (260 and 142 meters), explains shipwreck explorer, Lorenzo Del Veneziano.
The ship was first discovered off Moneglia, about 30 miles southeast of Genoa, by Genoa fisherman Massimo Massari. After his discovery, Del Veneziano and his crew jumped on the case.
For Del Veneziano’s team, it wasn’t hard to determine the location of the ship, but reaching it was the challenge. The crew dove to a depth of about 460 feet (140 meters).
“I don’t know if there has ever been an exploration so deep in the Mediterranean,” said Del Veneziano. When fire department or the state police dive, they stop at 164 feet (50 meters), while recreational diving does not exceed 40 meters. “Here we are four times over the limit,” Del Veneziano said proudly.
The stern of the vessel was filmed in a first dive on Aug. 10. It wasn’t until the second dive Aug. 23, that they could be certain it was really the Enrichetta. Their discovery was made public Monday.
The test to confirm the true identity of the ship was simple: they needed to find out how many propellers the ship had. Only one other ship sank in the region—a two-prop destroyer called the Gioberti. The Enrichetta has only one propeller.
The Enrichetta was a 3,638-ton steamship built in 1899. On June 30, 1917, it had been en route from the United States when it was attacked by the German submarine.
Del Veneziano and his team discovered a U-455 German submarine dating back to the Third Reich in 2005 near the Italian fishing village of Portofino.
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