Sunk during World War I: Researchers have found the remnants of a ship that was torpedoed by a German submarine.

In the afternoon of December 13, 1917, the ship "Stephen Ferns" was navigating the northern part of the Irish Sea, heading towards Liverpool for repairs. The crew, aware of the potential threat posed by German submarines, maintained a cautious course, changing direction every ten minutes and traveling at a speed of 13 knots (about 24 kilometers per hour). However, their vigilance could not avert the tragedy, writes Phys.org.

At 16:15, the German submarine UB-64 launched a torpedo that struck the ship's starboard side. The explosion was catastrophic, sinking the vessel in just three minutes. Of the more than 100 sailors on board, only 12 survived. Lieutenant P.S. Simonds, one of the survivors, clung to an improvised raft until he was rescued two hours later and taken to safety in Holyhead, Wales.

For over a century, the exact location of the sunken ship "Stephen Ferns" remained uncertain. Lieutenant Simonds provided an approximate location in his report the following day, but it was never definitively pinpointed. Researchers now believe they have found the wreckage of the ship about ten miles off the eastern coast of Northern Ireland.

This discovery was made possible through a collaborative project with Bangor University, which employs advanced technologies to identify historical shipwrecks. The researchers working on the Unpath'd Waters project combined maritime archives with modern scientific data.

Utilizing multibeam sonar and historical records, particularly ship plans and the war diary of UB-64, they analyzed potential crash sites. The specific location matched the dimensions of the ship and aligned with the account of Lieutenant Commander Walter Good, the commander of UB-64, who reported torpedoing a green-painted steamer in that area.

Initially, it was believed that this was the Swedish cargo ship "Maya," which was also torpedoed a year later. However, updated sonar data and historical evidence suggest that the remains of the "Maya" lie further south, strengthening the case for identifying the wreckage of "Stephen Ferns."

The study also uncovered an incredible detail: several victims of the sinking were found on the coast of North Wales, nearly 100 kilometers to the south, about a month after the incident. To understand this phenomenon, scientists employed numerical modeling—a method typically used to track pollutants or marine debris.

By retrospectively analyzing marine conditions from December 1917 to January 1918, they reconstructed tidal and wind patterns to map out the likely drift paths of the wreckage. The data obtained closely correlates with the location and timing of the body discoveries, confirming the model's accuracy.

These advanced methods not only solve historical mysteries but also open new avenues for studying other maritime incidents. By integrating survivor accounts, archival data, and modern scientific tools, researchers can deepen our understanding of historical events while refining methodologies that can be applied in future studies.

We also reported on the evidence of unique skills of Neanderthals discovered by archaeologists.