A British warship torpedoed during World War I with a Titanic survivor on board has been discovered in the Aegean Sea.
Built as an ocean liner, the SS Arcadian was chartered by the Royal Navy in 1915 and sunk on 15 April 1917, with the loss of 279 lives.
Five years have passed since the sinking of the Titanic, and one of the survivors, Thomas Threlfall, would also survive the sinking of the Arcadian.
Now its wreck has been found more than a century later, discovered by a Greek team at a depth of 163 metres, southeast of the Cycladic island of Sifnos.
Team leader Kostas Thoctarides said: “The main feeling was excitement and a sense of satisfaction. For a long time we have been reading this exciting story that has so many fascinating aspects.
A British warship torpedoed during World War I has been discovered in the Aegean Sea with a Titanic survivor on board (the wreck is pictured above)
Built as an ocean liner, the SS Arcadian (pictured) was chartered by the Royal Navy in 1915 and sunk on 15 April 1917, with the loss of 279 lives.
Five years have passed since the sinking of the Titanic, and one of the survivors, Thomas Threlfall (pictured), would also survive the sinking of the Arcadian.
Pictured is the luxury ocean liner White Star Titanic, which sank on its maiden voyage to America in 1912.
‘Then we saw the image of her at the bottom of the sea, something that the human eye sees for the first time.
‘For us it was a journey into the past and into the history of Arcadia, unknown to most people in Greece.’
The Arcadian sank while en route from Salonika, Greece (present-day Thessaloniki), to Alexandria, Egypt.
He headed west towards the Cyclades, hoping to avoid a German submarine, detected off the island of Ikaria, but was unsuccessful.
Those on board had just completed an abandon ship drill when, at 17:44 hours, the torpedo hit.
Fired by UC-74, it hit the Arcadian on her starboard side, between the bridge and the foremast.
With most of the crew still on deck after the drill, Captain Charles L. Willats launched the lifeboats and ordered them to abandon ship, for real this time.
Just five minutes after the explosion, the Arcadian’s bow slipped underwater and its stern rose out of the sea.
Her escort, HMS Sentinel, led the rescue, and French warships from Milos joined the effort about two and a half hours later.
In total, 1,058 people were saved and 279 were lost: 34 crew members, ten members of the Navy and two civilians, and the rest were members of the Army.
Mr Threlfall later said: “It was the same day and month that the Titanic sank, and I have emerged unscathed from both incidents.”
Now, more than a century later, a Greek team has found the wreck of the SS Arcadian, discovered at a depth of 163 metres, southeast of the Cycladic island of Sifnos.
The Arcadian sank en route from Salonika, Greece (present-day Thessaloniki), to Alexandria, Egypt.
He continued: ‘The Titanic was stopped afloat for a couple of hours and we had time to turn around, but of course you couldn’t live on the water that night.
‘This time we had calm seas and warm weather, and you had a chance, but with the Titanic you died in the water almost as soon as you got on.’
A statement from Planet Blue, Thoctarides’ company, said the Arcadian was in “excellent condition” and was “one of the most impressive shipwrecks in Greece.”
He continued: “Time seems to have stopped when it sank in 1917.”
It is also upright in the water, apparently because its bow hit the sea floor while the stern was still sinking.
The hole caused by the torpedo is still visible today.
For Thoctarides, it is the culmination of a decades-long effort. “Our historical research on Arcadian began more than 20 years ago by gathering information primarily from British and German archives,” he said.
This photo shows the aft accommodation on the wreck of the SS Arcadian.
Pictured above is the dining room of the SS Arcadian, which sank during World War I.
Survivor Thomas Threlfall said after the sinking of the SS Arcadian: “It was the same day and in the same month that the Titanic (pictured) sank, and I have emerged unscathed from both wrecks.”
‘We have been collecting data on the subject since 2000. As the wreck is located in an area quite far from the coast and a long journey is required to get there, we wanted to be as prepared as possible for these studies.
“We built up a fairly large archive at Arcadian and when we had the opportunity to be in the area to do underwater work, we located it relatively quickly using sonar.”
No remains or personal artifacts were found on the ship, which was explored externally using a ROV (remotely operated vehicle).
Lord Thoctarides dedicated the discovery to those who perished in the Arcadian.
The ship was built in 1899 by the Vickers, Sons & Maxim company at its shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, England.
Built for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, she was initially named Ortona, but was renamed Arcadian after being acquired by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in 1906.
Her enemy, the UC-74, was built in 1916 at the Vulcan Shipyard in Hamburg and sank a total of 37 ships during her career.
She was interned in Barcelona in 1918 after running out of fuel, handed over to France in 1919 and scrapped in Toulon two years later.
