World War I - SS Armenian

Good morning, today we are going to explore the mystery of deep shipwrecks.  Is ship was carrying mules back from America to England.  Why did it sink?  The run time for this episode is 49:31.

The year is June 1915.  The SS Armenian is carrying 1400 mules for the battlefields of Europe.  A U-boat spots the ship and fires.  Twenty-nine Americans are killed and the mules are sent to the bottom of the sea.  Americans already outraged by the Lusitania sinking are made even angrier.  The sinking of this ship would cause a second international incident between Germany and the United States.  Now a team of divers plans to locate the wreck of the ship off Cornwall.  Will these divers be successful?

The wreck supposedly lies off the coast of Cornwall among other shipwrecks.  Some shipwrecks have been identified, others have not.  The SS Armenian flew under the White Star flag, the same flag that the Titanic flew under.  However, unlike the Titanic, the SS Armenian’s location remains unknown.  This baffles explorers, who over the years, have tried to find the wreck.  Over the years surveyors have crisscrossed the area pointing out shipwrecks that could be the SS Armenian.  None of these surveys have been proven right.  Now, with the latest technology, a group of scientists plans on going down to a potential site to perhaps identify the SS Armenian.

Innes McCartney, a historian, is diving on these wrecks in hopes of identifying the SS Armenian.  There have been many shipwrecks identified as the SS Armenian, but none have stood the scrutiny.  McCartney is leading a dive team to one potential site.  This one site had reports of scattered bones.  These bones could have been the remains of the mules that went down with the ship.  When he arrives at the site, he notes that the bow is upright, with its anchors still in the ship.  There are holes in the ship and the dive team continues to explore the ship.  However, due to the depths, they are only allowed fifteen minutes at a time on the ship.

The SS Armenian was built for the Leland line before being rented by the White Star Line.  Her primary job was to transport cattle.  She was built by Harland and Wolff Shipyards.  McCartney calls her a beautiful ship.  On her final voyage, she set sail from Virginia.  She has a load of mules destined for the battlefields of France.  However, a German U-boat spies the ship near the entrance of the Bristol Channel.  The U-boat is spotted, so the SS Armenian’s captain flees from the scene to avoid capture.  The U-boat fires and chases the boat.  The SS Armenian finally puts out the white flag the ship is abandoned.  The U-boat allows the survivors to flee into the lifeboats and finishes the SS Armenian off.  Some of the mule handlers decide to stay with their animals and go down with the ship.  This would be the last time the SS Armenian is seen.  Or is it?

McCartney continues his exploration of the wreck and finds bones.  Initially thought of as human, he realizes these bones are too big to be human.  Perhaps this is the Armenian.  They bring up several bones to help identify the wreck.  If these bones can be identified as animal, and particularly mule bones then historians and scientists are closer to identifying the SS Armenian.  Do these bones belong to the mules that were on the SS Armenian?  What about the second potential wreck?  Will the SS Armenian ever be found?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

Wow, this is a terrific look at a virtually unknown history story.  I was both sad and outraged that the mules could not have been saved.  It also speaks to the persistence of Innes and his divers to try to find and identify this wreck.  Innes McCartney was very good to listen to because he is very knowledgeable and it is nice to hear Eric Grove again.  The discussion on the United States in World War I was also interesting and it leaves you wondering what would have happened if the United States got into the war after the SS Armenian sinking.   This could be a good documentary for independent study students and could potentially be shown in a high school history class.