Over 100-year-old wreck identified

Listen to this article Pete Hodkin, who trains divers in Welwyn Garden City, was making another dive on a wreck long known as “wreck 355″. As it turned out, this was the last day that the ship resting on the bottom hid its true name. Hodkin managed to find the ship’s bell and thus restore

ByTomasz Andrukajtis

Published: July 26, 2012 - 20:48

Updated: July 22, 2023 - 05:09

Listen to this article

Pete Hodkin, who trains divers in Welwyn Garden City, was making another dive on a wreck long known as “wreck 355″. As it turned out, this was the last day that the ship resting on the bottom hid its true name. Hodkin managed to find the ship’s bell and thus restore the sunken vessel to its true name.

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As the man himself said , “Finding a bell on an unidentified wreck is one of the most beautiful and exciting things that can happen to a diver. Usually it is the only indisputable evidence when identifying an individual”.

Last Sunday while diving with 11 members of the Mid Herts Divers club, where Pete is an instructor, he discovered a bell engraved with “SS Ladoga 1892 London”. Before going underwater, the skipper of the vessel from which the dive was being conducted asked to bring along anything that might help identify the wreck, but the result surprised everyone.

“I was just swimming around the wreck when I noticed a round shape in the sand. At first I thought it was a plate, then when I got closer I thought it was a bucket, but after lifting it from the bottom, it turned out to be a ship’s bell!” – reported the happy diver.

A subsequent search yielded the expected result. It turns out that SS Ladoga is a vessel which was lost in a collision on 15 March 1903. It was a cargo ship built in the shipyard of William Doxford & Sons Ltd. in Sunderland in 1892. Its name was changed to SS Miraflores.

Source: sportdiver.co.uk

About author

Tomasz Andrukajtis

Editor-in-chief of the DIVERS24 portal and magazine. Responsible for obtaining, translating and developing content. He also supervises all publications. Achived his first diving certification – P1 CMAS, in 2000. Has a degree in journalism and social communication. In the diving industry since 2008.