Divers Find WWII Steamer Cornwallis Wreck off Maine Coast
A team of volunteer technical divers says it has found the wreck of the SS Cornwallis, a merchant steamer sunk by a German submarine in the Second World War. The wreck lies about 122 metres (400 feet) deep near Mount Desert Rock, roughly 40 km (25 miles) off the coast of Maine in the United States. The site is in the Gulf of Maine, a large bay of the north-western Atlantic Ocean shared by the US and Canada.
The Cornwallis was a 5,458-ton, Canadian-operated cargo steamer about 120 metres long. She was first torpedoed near Barbados in September 1942, but was repaired and returned to service. On 3 December 1944 she was torpedoed again, this time by U-1230, and sank. Of the 48 people on board, including seven armed guards, 43 died and only five survived.
From the CrewMirror Blog
Days before the attack, the same U-boat had landed two German spies near Hancock, Maine, on Frenchman Bay, as part of a wartime mission known as Operation Elster.
The self-funded Nomad Exploration Team made five expeditions between 2019 and July 2026. It used archive research to narrow the search to three possible areas and then scanned more than 130 square kilometres of seabed with side-scan sonar. According to regional newspaper reports, the divers confirmed the ship’s identity by comparing the wreck with the Cornwallis blueprints. The team plans to return with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to record the site in more detail.
CrewMirror Takeaway
The 43 merchant seafarers and guards lost on the Cornwallis are a reminder that merchant crews have long carried the risks of war at sea, just as many crews on conflict-zone routes still do today.
