French divers find steamer that sank in 1892

After two arduous years of searching, the efforts of a group of French divers have been crowned with success. At a depth of 108m they managed to locate the wreck and identify it as the Marechal Canrobert, which sank in a collision in 1892.

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A team of divers consisting of Florent. M Locatelli, Lerome Espla and Romain Lhost, found the steamer which, after leaving the port of Marseille, ended its service, taking 107 human lives to the bottom.

On 7 July 1892, while crossing between Bône and Marseille, the steamer Marechal Canrobert collided with the battleship Hoche in the course of manoeuvres she was carrying out and sank in less than 8min near the island of Planier.

According to a New York Times article of 8 July 1892, 107 people lost their lives during this disaster, some of them as a direct result of the collision with the battleship. On that day, at the time of the accident, 85 passengers were watching the manoeuvres from the deck of the Marechal Canrobert.

The steamer was almost cut in half by a heavy armed battleship and moments later was under water. All aboard died except for two soldiers and three children.

The disaster occurred 18mil off the coast of Marseille and was caused by an error in judgement of the situation and distance, by the captain of the vessel Marechal Canrobert.

According to the divers, the 75m long wreck is preserved in surprisingly good condition. The divers made a descent lasting 4h and 20min, using trimix and CCR rebreathers, allowing them to remain at a depth of 110m for 30min.

Source: xray-mag.com