LColombo wrote:Notice that the Tarigo convoy wrecks were "visited" in the early 1950s by the Italian salvage firm MICOPERI, that partially or totally scrapped the wrecks of Arta, Tarigo, Baleno, Mohawk, Iserlohn and Adana. Something of them remained, but if the wreck is intact (and with cargo still in the holds in good condition, as I see), it is extremely unlikely that it belongs to one of these ships. Aegina and Sabaudia, apparently, were not found by the salvagers.
MICOPERI also worked on the wrecks of Antonietta Lauro, also sunk in the area, and Leverkusen herself (the deepest wreck they worked on during that campaign), though I do not know the extent of the salvage work on these ships.
Very good info and point again Colombo, thanks. I have the same info on the salvages carried on by MICOPERI on those wrecks. I took the info from Lino Pellegrini book "SUB", of 1964 or so. He visited MICOPERI during these salvages, and dived on some of the wrecks. He reports that Leverkusen has been the last and deepest of the wrecks on which MICOPERI did some salvage, at a depth of some 50 meters. If I remember well, then they had to move to Suez or in any case to stop that operation. One of the elements which brought me leaning toward Leverkusen is that the wreck is at 50 m. Other reasons:
I visited the wreck 3 times only, as it is very far, some 80 nm from Lampedusa island.
The wreck is surely of a ship bigger than 3 or even 4.000 tons. It has a big superstructure, surely that of a mixed cargo and passenger ship. In the stern section, so astern from the superstructure, the wreck has 2 cargo holds, each on 3 floors or levels .
we recovered a dish with the logo WL, which was that of the Woermann Linie then Deutsche Afrikan Linie of Hamburg.
we filmed a water filter made in Germany, plus it was carrying all German equipment.
Furthermore, the list of German freighters sunk in the area is limited, and none of the other - few - possible sunken ships seems to match for one or another reason.
I'd like to go back on the wreck and take some measure, but it is in a hot area at the moment due to terrorism and war in Libya. It is some 10 miles off shore the former position of buoy# 5 of Kerkennah. The position is compatible. It is just some 5 miles away from the the official report position, and we found this error - average 5 and in some case up to 10 miles off - on most of the wrecks we found in the area, German, Italians and British.
This is it. Then I have three elements which could help identifying (or excluding) if someone can have access to blue prints of the L, or of the San Francisco class of mixed cargo-passengers ships, as I read somewhere the L was a building of this type.
the most appealing is a very peculiar stern direct steering wheel system, composed by two big bronze wheels, separated of some 5 meters one from the other, with a steering mechanism moving on a circular rail. I will try to send some pics of this.
second is the shape of the stern, and other hull details I can take from the more of one hour of videos we shoot on the wreck.
third is the propeller which has 3 blades.
