This wreck just felt right. Yes, it was heavily damaged, missing the stern and with the bow a mess. However, it just fitted. The size was right. It had a lot of portholes and brass fire extinguishers. The boilerengine combination worked. There were piles of ammunition. The helm had a small bell, just like Tampa’ s. The anchor matched the correct pattern. The washroom tiling was correct. There was the stump of a mast. The smashed stern could be explained – she had depth charges fitted, which may have detonated when the torpedo struck. Put this together and it couldn’ t be anything else. There were no other wrecks nearby like this, and it had been a spectacular dive: flat calm, excellent visibility at depth, minimal current and a fascinating virgin wreck covered in artefacts.
So why were we diving 50 miles off Newquay in April 2026? And why did we consider the 12-hour trip to be routine, let alone even contemplating 90-100m dives in what most divers consider the‘ off season’.
The search
How to find a shipwreck? The Tampa is just one of hundreds of deep wrecks off the Cornish coast. Many of these are un-dived due to depth and distance. Searching needs time and effort, here spearheaded by the formidable team of Steve and Barbara Mortimer.
In short, the route of the convoy, Tampa and the UB-91, were researched from the archives and original logs, while maritime historians and the US Coast Guard( USCG) chipped in with further material. Local knowledge from skippers and divers also played a part. Despite this, as there are errors and corrections in the logs, times and tidal calculations, there was still a large search area containing ten possible targets cross-referenced with the UK Hydrographic
Searches covered an area 50 miles north of Newquay
Office’ s databases of known obstructions, focusing on those of suitable size.
The USCG themselves were involved from the start and provided a lot of material to assist in the search – the Tampa was far from forgotten, and the USCG was very keen to find her final resting place. Steve and Barbara approached them early on to gain their support, culminating in an invitation to fly to Washington to brief the USCG brass in person and receive a medal before the final dives were made!
US Coast Guard medal presented to Steve Mortimer
The diving
UKDIVING
It sounds simple, but we dived – and mostly identified- nine other targets before hitting the jackpot, targets sorted by probability based on the research, though at times this was amended with new interpretations to reshuffle the deck.
It can be hard to explain to recreational divers exactly what 90-100m dives are like. If you look at the mounds of equipment you may think that it is a physically demanding hobby, needing years of training and
Getting comfortable on the long boat run
Newquay Harbour is notoriously tidal
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