Divers Discover British Ship Wreck
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Christian Francis, the owner of Lebanon Divers dive center had been searching for HMS Victoria, the flagship of the British Mediterranean Feet since 1996. HMS Victoria sunk due to a collision in 1893 off Tripoli, Lebanon. 358 officers and men were lost when she was rammed by another British battleship. This disaster was the largest peacetime loss of life in the history of the Royal Navy.
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Francis went repeatedly to the British National Maritime Museum in Greenwich in research purposes. In March 2004, Francis teamed up with a British scuba instructor Mark Ellyat. Ellyat holds the world record for deepest ever dive at 313 meters. His experience was vital in the hunt for HMS Victoria due to the depth she was lying at.
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Francis used a sonar device to record the soundings of the seabed in the hope of finding the wreck. On August 22nd they finally succeeded to find the ship which was lying in 140 meters of water off the coast of Tripoli. They followed a guide rope down to about 70 meters below the surface and then something caught their eyes.
"I saw a huge shadow off to the left between us and the setting sun" told Francis later. Ellyat said he thought initially the massive object was an abandoned fishing net. Soon the two divers realized they had discovered HMS Victoria. There she was standing vertical with about three quarters of her length buried in the sea floor. She is thought to be the only ship wreck in the world that lies in a 90-degree position.
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The exact position of the wreck is being kept secret for the time being to prevent looting.
And finally to mention that all the diving instruments the divers were using were Suunto products and functioned flawlessly till 148 meters.
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Photos taken by Mark Elliot.
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