Wreck of World War II Submarine Discovered by Florida-Based Explorers

The wreck of a British submarine has been discovered off the coast of Malta by a team of explorers from Florida. HMS Olympus was located by the team while they were surveying the ocean floor during a scuba diving excursion last year.

The World War II submarine sank in the early hours of the morning on 8th May, 1942 after it struck a mine when it left Malta harbour under the cover of darkness. During the Second World War, the British Navy fought a German and Italian blockade so that Malta could be supplied with food rations, fuel and war supplies.

Image by Images Of Life Photography, on Flickr.

The scuba diving team were from the Florida-based exploration foundation, Aurora Trust, which was established to promote the knowledge of maritime cultural history.

The findings were passed on to the British government and the Royal Navy and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is now expected to formally designate the site.

Timmy Gambin, the Archaeological Director of the Aurora Trust, said: "We are extremely excited by this discovery, it's a very important piece of Malta's history during the war.

"The Royal Navy ran a large number of operations using submarines in and out of the island for many purposes, not least as a magic carpet ferrying fuel, ammunition and food, and Olympus played an extremely important role."

Image by SBrinn, on Flickr.

The trust has a logistical base in Malta and the team visited the wreck twice last year. During the second wreck diving expedition in September, 2011, a remotely operated vehicle with video cameras was sent down to capture images and confirm that the wreck was HMS Olympus.

The submarine is located seven miles off the coast of the island and when it sank it took 89 of the crew members with it. Only 11 men survived and they had to endure a dark and frightening seven-mile swim back to shore.

"What happened with the Olympus is a sad and tragic story. Many survived the blast and sinking but not the swim back to shore," Gambin said.

Image by Images Of Life Photography, on Flickr.

The explorers had first suspected that the wreck was the Olympus and after researching the submarine's features, they were able to confirm the identify the vessel.

Gambin added: "Except for the damage from the mine she was in pristine condition, sitting upright as if she'd been placed on the seabed."

Malta is one of the leading scuba diving destinations in the Mediterranean due to its large number of historic wrecks including HMS Hellespont, a steam-paddle tug, the Hunt-class destroyer HMS Southwold, and the Imperial Eagle which was scuttled in 1999 to create an artificial reef to attract marine species and provide an attraction for professional and recreational divers enjoying scuba diving holidays in Malta.