Discovery of a Sunken World War II British Ship off the Coast of Israel

A British merchant ship, sunk by a German submarine during World War II in 1943, has been discovered. The ship was found about 12 miles west of Netanya.

Details about the ship's discovery were shared yesterday by Roni Sadeh from the "Yam-Yafo Maritime Projects" company in a conversation with 'Israel Hayom'. Sadeh mentioned that this is the largest sunken vessel found off the coast of Israel.

Sadeh revealed that in 2014, the company collaborated with an archaeological team from the University of Texas, led by marine archaeologist Professor Shelley Wachsmann. "He led an archaeological expedition aimed at finding ancient sunken ships in the depths off the coast of Jaffa," he said.

Yam-Yafo Maritime Projects is involved in activities such as maritime mapping and maintaining marine information databases. This expertise and extensive experience led to the collaboration with the marine archaeological team. According to Sadeh: "Since I assisted them by pointing out areas of interest and since they rented a recording robot from us for this purpose, I suggested they extend their project northward to Netanya to examine another interesting location, the ship."

The British ship 'Ethalmonarch' intrigued Yam-Yafo. The ship transported oil from Beirut, Lebanon to Port Said, Egypt as part of the British war effort during World War II. The ship is enormous, measuring 160 meters long and 25 meters wide. Due to its size, it could carry approximately 14,000 tons of oil. Sadeh located the ship at a depth of 182 meters beneath the sea surface with an oceanic robot, which documented the ship for the first time since it was sunk on June 15, 1943.

"What caught our attention," Sadeh explained, "was that it was a civilian merchant ship, yet it was equipped with gun stations. We immediately understood that it was a wartime vessel. It is unusual to install gun stations on a regular ship. The robot footage clearly shows the damage from the German torpedo hit in the bow. We can also clearly see the stations from which the lifeboats were deployed. From here, we began archival work which helped us in identifying the ship."

Sadeh found the original investigation of the incident in the British Admiralty's archives. First Officer Matthews, a survivor of the sunk ship, testified: "We were en route from Beirut to Port Said on June 15 (1943) with a load of 13,600 tons of oil. We left the port at 2 AM escorted by the Greek destroyer Itos. We were armed and the crew numbered 51, including military and naval personnel (British). We were aware of the hostile German submarine presence, as we saw survivors on rafts near Tripoli, but we had no specific warning. The sea conditions were ideal, and the southbound voyage proceeded without incident. We traveled at a speed of 9 knots. At 5:30 PM, I was in the salon and saw a quick flash. The ship was rocked by a strong impact, and thick black smoke began to fill it. We were about 35 miles from Haifa and 10 miles from the shore, and the ship began to sink rapidly. We hurriedly lowered the lifeboats and abandoned ship. It all took about 35 minutes before it disappeared beneath the waves. We were picked up by the escort destroyer, which started a pursuit of the attacking submarine."