Greek explorers have found in the Aegean Sea the wreck of the WWII British submarine HMS Triumph.

Last Wednesday, June 7, a Greek research team led by Kostas Thoktarides announced that the wreck of the British submarine HMS Triumph had been found and identified. The vessel sank in the Aegean Sea in 1942 along with its entire crew of 64 sailors.

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HMS Triumph

The Royal Navy’s T-class vessel measured 84 meters in length and entered service in 1938. During World War II, ship served in the Mediterranean. On December 30, 1941, the sub successfully dropped agents on the small island of Anti Paros in Greece. However, on January 9, the unit failed to show up to pick up the agents as planned.

Earlier the same day, at around 12:00 PM 4 NM southeast of Sounio, the ship was spotted by an Italian aircraft. The most likely cause of the sinking is believed to have been running into a mine.

For 81 years there have been discussions and historians have speculated as to what exactly happened to the HMS Triumph submarine and its crew. Now there will finally be an opportunity to carefully investigate the wreck and to find out the cause of its sinking.

The search for HMS Triumph began back in 1998. This is the most difficult and expensive mission I have carried out in my entire life,” said Kostas ThWoktarides, leader of the exploration team that found the Royal Navy ship.

In search of the wreck

Teams from all over the world tried their luck in finding the wreck of the British sub. Apart from the British, experts from Russia and Malta also searched for it, but without any success. The vessel was finally found by an experienced Greek team of Kostas Thoktarides, who also discovered several other wrecks in the region in recent years.

HMS Triumph rested at a depth of 203 meters,

making it almost inaccessible to divers. However, the wreck, as well as the surrounding area, can be successfully explored and documented using a remotely operated robot ROV.

From the information released by the research team, we know that the wreck is located dozens of kilometers off the coast of Greece and has settled on a tilt of 8 degrees to the right. Lowered periscopes and closed hatches suggest that HMS Triumph was in a submerged position when it sank. It is likely that the cause of the sinking was an explosion in the forward part of the ship, however, it is not known what caused it.

The team continues its investigations and is looking for evidence to definitively determine the cause of the ship’s sinking.