Local History

Cornwall's coastline bares testimony to the dangers of the sea - it's littered with shipwrecks, many of which remain unexplored.

Built in 1895 by Harland and Wolff for the Leyland line the Armenian was used as a passenger liner until the outbreak of war when she was taken over by the White Star Line and converted to a mule transport ship.

On 28 June 1915 she was on voyage from Newport News in the USA to Avonmouth with around 3,000 mules on board for the war effort when she was spotted by a German U-boat off Cornwall's North coast.

The former passenger liner tried to outrun the submarine but failed. As a result the Armenian's crew were forced to surrender and were allowed into the lifeboats before the U-boat fired two torpedoes into her and the vessel sank. Twenty people dies during the ordeal.

She remained forgotten on the bottom of the seabed until she was discovered 50 miles west of Newquay upright and intact by a dive team from Newquay, which included Chris Lowe.

Chris was one of the divers on the team. He discovered her in the Easter 2007. They found a plate from the vessel.

The story of the Armenian will be show as part of the Deep Wreck Mysteries series. The is two half hour programmes about the discovery of the Armenian on ITV starting on Thursday (20th) at 7.30pm.