An iconic United States military ship that was sunk by a German submarine in World War I has been discovered by a diving team off the coast of Britain over a century after it was lost, officials revealed Wednesday. The sinking of the Coast Guard Cutter Tampa in 1918 in the Bristol Channel killed 131 service members, the largest loss of life on any U.S. combat ship during the war.
The long-lost vessel was found by the British diving team Gasperados about 50 miles off Cornwall more than 300 feet deep in the Atlantic Ocean, the Coast Guard confirmed on Wednesday. The diving team had previously announced the discovery, declaring they had “finally cracked it” after a three-year search.
In the summer of 1917, six United States Coast Guard cutters were sent overseas on convoy duty for the war, and the Tampa was the only one that never returned. Under the command of Captain Charles Satterlee, the vessel escorted 18 convoys, earning a special commendation for exemplary service.
The ship’s logs show that the crew’s morale was high and cited acts of selflessness. For example, an electrician once jumped overboard to rescue a drowning British officer and two medical officers once went to another ship to treat an injured boatswain. The crew even loaned the cutter’s ice cream freezer to another vessel without permission.
But the Tampa’s demise was sealed on the night of September 26, 1918. While sailing through the Bristol Channel toward a Welsh port for more fuel, it was torpedoed by the German submarine UB-91.
U.S. Coast Guard photo / Gasperados Dive Team 
The Tampa sank in less than three minutes. U.S. destroyers and British patrol craft searched for survivors but all they found were a few pieces of debris and two unidentifiable bodies in naval uniforms. All 131 people aboard — 111 Coast Guardsmen, four U.S. Navy personnel and 16 British Navy personnel and civilians– were killed.
“When the Tampa was lost with all hands in 1918, it left an enduring grief in our service,” Adm. Kevin Lunday, commandant of the Coast Guard, said in a statement Wednesday. “Locating the wreck connects us to their sacrifice and reminds us that devotion to duty endures. We will always remember them.”
In 2023, the Gasperados Dive Team contacted the Coast Guard about searching for the Tampa, and the military agreed to provide the all-volunteer team with information to help locate the wreck site, including archival images of the deck fittings and the ship’s wheel, bell and weaponry.
After three years of coming up empty, the dive team said last week that it would explore two more final target areas after receiving “new intel.” Three days later, team declared that the Tampa had been found.
“This discovery is the result of three years of research and exploration,” said dive team Leader Steve Mortimer. “Tampa is of huge importance to the United States and the relatives of everyone who died that day. Their final resting place is known at last.”
The Coast Guard said it’s now developing plans for more underwater research and exploration of the ship, using robotics and autonomous systems.
U.S. Coast Guard photo 
Other shipwrecks from World War I have been discovered around the globe in recent years.
Last year, nine ships sunk by German torpedoes during World War I were found off the coast of Morocco.
In November 2024, military officials in England announced that a shipwreck discovered off the coast of Scotland was confirmed to be the HMS Hawke, a British cruiser sunk by a torpedo during World War I, killing more than 500 crew members on board.
About a month before that, the German World War I supply ship Titania was discovered by an expedition ship off the coast of Chile.
Leave a Reply