Sciences · Découverte maritimeLe Cornwallis retrouvé au large du Maine : que peut révéler l’épave ?Rédigé 29 octobre 2026 à 19:34 UTCRegarderTranscription0:07Divers have found Cornwallis, the merchant ship whose sinking killed forty three0:10people.0:11The Canadian freighter lies nearly four hundred feet below the surface off Maine.0:14Its discovery brings a largely forgotten wartime loss back into view and gives0:19divers a chance to examine its resting place.0:21What can they now learn about the wreck's condition and the fuel it may still hold?0:24The Nomad exploration team found Cornwallis on July11,2026 .0:29Later, dives confirmed its identity.0:31The Portsmouth-based group had been searching since2019 and announced the discovery0:35on October27 , more than three months after finding it.0:38The team searched the Gulf of Maine off Mount Desert Rock.0:41Its starting point was an approximate wartime sinking location, roughly ten miles0:45southwest of the rock.0:46Reaching the area could mean a five-hour boat trip from Portsmouth.0:49The searchers pieced together clues from where survivors had been found and where0:53debris had been seen.0:54A mariner also said he'd recovered the ship's compass housing.0:57That account gave them another place to investigate.0:59Archive blueprints helped the team understand the ship they were looking for.1:02They consulted authors, historians, and local fishermen.1:05Then checked seabed contours, tides, and weather.1:08Danny Allen estimated at least ten hours of preparation for every hour afloat.1:12Eight technical divers worked with experienced boat captain Ross Baxter.1:16Alongside Allan were Mark Bowers, Josh Cummings, Don Ferrara, Bob Foster, Nate1:20Garrett, Jeff Goudreau, and Ryan King.1:23Together, they brought decades of experience in New England waters.1:26The team passed within three hundred feet of the wreck without recognizing it.1:30That happened on the first pass through its planned search grid.1:33On the expedition's second day, side scan sonar was searching the seabed, but the1:37operators missed the return.1:44On the second pass, the wreck appeared in the final one hundred yards of the last1:48track.1:48The crew was reprogramming its GPS when the image emerged.1:51Had they missed it again?1:52They'd have marked that section as searched and moved on.1:55Don Ferrara's light failed on his first dive, leaving him effectively unable to see.1:59The sonar discovery had brought the team to the site.2:02Reaching the ship and examining it meant confronting cold water, strong currents,2:05and exceptional depth.2:06The wreck lies far below the one hundred thirty.2:09Foot recreational diving limit described for this search.2:12Allan called these the hardest dives he'd ever undertaken, and said they reached the2:15limit of what he was willing to attempt.2:17Subsequent dives confirmed the ship was Cornwallis.2:20Cornwallis was four hundred feet long and measured five four hundred fifty eight2:24gross tons, a measure of internal volume.2:26Built by J.2:27Comlin and Sons in Vancouver in one thousand nine hundred and twenty-one, the2:32riveted steel freighter used oil, fired steam power.2:35Vancouver was also its home port.2:37It entered service that October as Canadian transporter for the Canadian government.2:40In one thousand nine hundred thirty-two, Canadian National Steamships of Montreal2:45renamed it Cornwallis.2:46Its almost entirely Canadian crew included nineteen people from Nova Scotia.2:50A German submarine had already sunk Cornwallis once in shallow water.2:54U five hundred and fourteen attacked it in Bridgetown, Barbados, in September one2:58thousand, nine hundred and forty-two.3:00A torpedo passed through the harbor's protective netting and struck near its number.3:04Two hold salvagers raised the ship.3:06Temporary repairs allowed a tow to Trinidad that December.3:09Cornwallis then reached Mobile, Alabama in January1943 , for further repairs, and3:15returned to service that August.3:17Cornwallis left Barbados on November20,1944 , carrying bagged sugar and3:23barrels of molasses toward St.3:24John, New Brunswick.3:25Its route also listed Sandwich, Massachusetts.3:28Forty-eight people were aboard, including seven armed guards.3:31The unescorted ship carried a four-inch gun, a twelve-pounder, two Orlican weapons,3:35and two machine guns.3:37During its final attack, it fired none of them.3:39On December three, U1230, commanded by Hans Hilbig, struck near the forward cargo3:44hold.3:44The explosion hurled a hatch cover into the air, but started no fire.3:48Cornwallis went down by the bow in less than ten minutes.3:51Forty three people died out of forty, eight aboard.3:54Only five survived.3:55The dead included Captain Emerson Horace Robinson, thirty five other crew members,4:00and all seven gunners.4:01Six people had reached life rafts, but one later died of hypothermia.4:05Aircraft spotted the survivors.4:07The Portland fishing trawler Notre Dame helped rescue them.4:10And they were transferred to a U.S.4:11Navy vessel before reaching Rockland, Maine.4:14Among those who never returned was able seaman Stephen Fowler,43 , commemorated in4:18Canada's war memorial record.4:20The loss reached communities far beyond this coast.4:22For Allan, one connection was close to home.4:24A Cornwallis crew member had grown up about ten miles from his own childhood home.4:28Finding the wreck also meant reaching a place where forty-three people died.4:32U1000230 had brought two German agents ashore just four days before sinking4:37Cornwallis.4:38On November29 ,1944 , Eric Gimple and William Kolpaw landed near4:44Hancock on Crabtree Neck.4:45Their mission, Operation Elster or Magpie, sought intelligence on American industry4:49and technology with possible sabotage also contemplated.4:52The agents took a taxi to Bangor, caught a train to Portland, and continued to New4:56York City without initially being detected.4:59Kolpah was an American who traveled to Germany for espionage training.5:02The submarine then encountered Cornwallis offshore.5:05The sinking helped prompt investigators to examine whether a submarine had landed5:09enemy agents.5:10They found Hancock residents who'd seen strangers on the night of the landing.5:13The mission unraveled after Kolopa confessed to a friend who contacted the FBI.5:18Gimple was arrested days later.5:20A military court sentenced both agents to death.5:23Their sentences were later reduced to life imprisonment.5:26U-1230 survived the war and was scuttled off Great Britain in December1945 .5:32The landing beach entered the National Register of Historic Places in2003 .5:36Cornwallis carried sugar and molasses on a merchant voyage.5:39Its connection to the spy operation was the submarine that attacked it after landing5:43the agents.5:44A2013 federal assessment gave a hypothetical worst.5:47Case oil discharge a high score of fifteen points.5:50A smaller modeled release, defined as ten percent of that volume, scored low at5:54eleven points.5:55These scores screened possible consequences of releases.5:58The assessment placed the ship's pollution potential in the medium category.6:01It identified heavy bunker fuel as the fuel type, but couldn't determine capacity.6:06Archaeological and operational factors tied to the actual site went unscored because6:10the wreck hadn't been located.6:11The older assessment used an estimated depth of about three hundred feet.6:15The discovery team now places Cornwallis in nearly four hundred feet of water.6:19Finding the ship makes a direct examination possible after years of working from an6:23approximate historical location.6:25The federal recommendations included locating the wreck through available surveys6:28and noting it in oil spill contingency plans.6:31Divers and fishermen could also help identify localized spills.6:34Those recommendations anticipated future assessment of the ship and any remaining6:38fuel.6:39The discovery hasn't yet resolved how much fuel remains or what condition the vessel6:43is in.6:43The team hasn't announced a present leak.6:45Its planned return dives will document the wreck's condition and how quickly it's6:49deteriorating.6:50Allen said the discovery brings renewed attention to a largely forgotten tragedy.6:54The team intends to return at least once a year to document Cornwallis, but hasn't6:58announced a date for its next visit.Lire l’articleChronologie de l’histoireHeyDex
