Steamship Principe UMBERTO
During a voyage from Puglia to Albania to visit the ports of that country, we traveled the route that on June 8, 1916 was undertaken towards Italy by the steamship Principe UMBERTO loaded with infantrymen of the 55th Regiment of the Royal Italian Army for a total of over 2600 men. The ship sailed in convoy with others and was escorted by some destroyers.
The Austro-Hungarian submarine U5 managed to sneak in and launched two torpedoes from a short distance, one of which hit the stern of the steamer. The ship sank in a few minutes taking with it more than 1900 men, the most shocking marine disaster of the First World War.
The sonar of the DAEDALUS catamaran signaled the presence of the large wreck on a depth of 930 meters in international waters. We therefore tried to lower our Multipluto to identify the wreck, but in three successive appearances the attempts were frustrated by the strong current typical of the Otranto canal. Finally, with special experimental measures, we were able to film and photograph the ocean liner placed on the seabed and this happened by chance on June 8, 2022 exactly 106 years after the sinking.
The wreck is fairly intact, sunk deep in the mud for over 5 meters, it has lost its superstructures and the hull is cracked about halfway through the ship due to the impact with the bottom. It has been completely colonized by white coral and drips of rust in the shape of stalactites similar to those of the Titanic can be seen.
The wreck is the tomb of the 55th Regiment made up mostly of Venetians from Treviso and must be considered a Military Memorial.