Shipwreck Mystery SOLVED After 154 Years

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What you're looking at right now has
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been hidden for 154 years.
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I'm Dom Robinson and today you're
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joining me on what might be the most
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fascinating wreck discovery of my diving
0:12
career.
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December the 3rd, 1869,
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the steamship SS Greek left the Clyde
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with 23 crew bound for Rotterdam
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carrying fire bricks and general cargo.
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She vanished, never to arrive.
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For over a century, the SS Greek was
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just another mystery swallowed by the
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sea. Until September 2024, when three of
0:37
us from the Darkstar team dropped onto
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an unknown mark almost 100 m down,
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midway between Cornwall and Ireland.
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What we found down there was absolutely
0:49
incredible. And you're about to see the
0:51
complete dive footage from the day we
0:53
identified the SS Greek. Every moment of
0:56
discovery, every artifact that confirmed
0:59
her story. And I'm also going to share
1:00
the research journey that over 12 months
1:04
later finally brought her lame back into
1:06
the light. It should have been really
1:08
easy to identify. We had the crockery
1:11
with the really clear markings from the
1:15
Anglo Greek Steam Navigation Company. We
1:17
also knew roughly what era it was. We
1:19
knew what size it was. We had the cargo.
1:22
But at this point, unfortunately, the
1:24
records led us down. The Anglo Greek
1:27
company only existed for a small period
1:29
of time, and the records on it were
1:31
really, really sketchy. Just when I was
1:34
giving up hope of ever identifying the
1:36
wreck, I put out some of the information
1:38
on my various social media channels. And
1:41
I'm really pleased that loads and loads
1:43
of people stepped in and offered uh
1:45
thoughts and suggestions and some of
1:48
those were what cracked the case. So for
1:50
everybody who contributed, I just want
1:52
to say thank you very much for all your
1:54
efforts and identifying this wreck is as
1:58
much the results of your work as it is
2:00
of mine and uh the other people who
2:02
dived it. So thank you very much and
2:05
award yourself a big pat on the back for
2:07
all your help. Now you've probably seen
2:10
that I've shortened the descent sequence
2:11
of this video a bit, but you join me
2:14
here with Will. We're uh we're just
2:16
setting up the lazy shot there. Will
2:17
likes to get it down as uh as absolutely
2:20
deep as he can. And you see we've got
2:21
our tags already uh installed on there.
2:23
That blue rope, that's a prok. We're
2:26
just going to check that we're all good.
2:28
Yeah, we're both good. So, we're going
2:29
to head on uh down in a moment. The
2:32
third member of the dive team is is
2:34
following us in after this. Now, this
2:36
bit of the dive is actually really
2:38
really exciting. So, we know for certain
2:40
nobody has ever dived here. It is just
2:42
so far out that you you just cannot get
2:45
the the boats and stuff. The only reason
2:47
we're doing it is because we are taking
2:49
uh the boat Darkstar from Cornwall to
2:52
Ireland. So we are going across the uh
2:54
the Celtic Sea. So that's given us the
2:56
opportunity to dive this. Uh really
2:58
really fantastic. But we have literally
3:00
no idea what is going to be down there.
3:02
So it's really really exciting. The
3:06
other thing that I'm really excited
3:07
about is you may see I've got a new
3:08
overlay on this video. So bottom left
3:11
hand side you will see my uh AP
3:13
inspiration handset. So, you're getting
3:16
the actual P2s in my uh in my sensors as
3:19
I'm descending down here. One of the
3:21
interesting things is you can see I've
3:23
uh my set point is 1.3, but they're up
3:26
around nearly 1.5. And that's obviously
3:28
because I'm going down so so rapidly
3:31
much quicker and we're going to be into
3:32
oxygen spike territory. You can also see
3:36
that not even got to the bottom already
3:38
nearly in decompression. You know,
3:40
that's just what happens when you do
3:42
these kind of dives. So, big shout out
3:44
to Eric Sto who's produced this overlay,
3:46
continues to develop it. If you're
3:48
interested in doing it yourself, there's
3:50
a link in the description and up above
3:52
me there. Right, so returning to dive.
3:55
You can see just getting really close to
3:57
the bottom here. It's 96 m and I'm about
4:01
to have one of those moments that is
4:03
kind of like really really
4:05
disappointing. So you can see there the
4:07
shot is lying on the seabed and there is
4:11
no there's no wreck to be seen. Now
4:14
unlike the other video I've shared where
4:16
this happened, I do at least bother to
4:17
put my strobes on this time and uh the
4:20
reason is obviously we're going to be uh
4:22
we're going to be going and doing a
4:23
search. But initial thoughts, no wreck.
4:27
I mean this can happen for loads of
4:28
reasons. It could be that the um the
4:30
skippers missed the wreck. It could be
4:32
the shot has been pulled off the wreck.
4:34
Whatever it is, it's uh it's not good
4:37
news. And you can see me looking around
4:38
there. So, for those of you who've seen
4:40
other videos where this happened, you'll
4:43
know that I'm um looking for fish or
4:46
signs of anything on the on the bottom.
4:48
And frankly, there's none of that. The
4:50
only thing I've been able to see is had
4:51
a quick look around there. You see I saw
4:53
my buddy and I saw the strobes. But
4:56
leaping forward a bit. In fact, two
4:58
minutes, which is a long time at this
5:00
depth. You can see there I've just
5:02
started to see something on the seabed,
5:04
which is uh which is really good news.
5:07
Bodess well. And then there's more
5:08
stuff. So, you know, I I think we've uh
5:11
we found the wreck, which is absolutely
5:14
fantastic. And you know, when you spend
5:16
2 minutes looking around and then you
5:18
see this a big wall of steel or iron in
5:21
front of you, that is that is really
5:23
really good news. And you can hear me
5:25
there calling uh calling Will my buddy
5:28
and uh over the top and then brilliant.
5:30
You know you this is instantly you know
5:32
this is going to be a good dive because
5:35
this is you know there's so much here.
5:37
You can see the cross beams. You can see
5:38
all sorts of stuff. I mean look in there
5:40
you can see that big stone jar in there.
5:42
So clearly some sort of galley or stores
5:45
area or something like that. So the next
5:48
challenge is of course to figure out
5:49
exactly where we are on the wreck. And
5:51
you can see me, you can see my buddy
5:53
there, Will. He's he's joined up as
5:55
well. And we're both thinking the same
5:56
thing, which is which is where's the
5:59
bell? So, we're looking uh looking
6:01
there. And you can see I mean, that's
6:02
really interesting. That's a load of
6:04
bricks. And we come back to how we
6:06
identified the wreck the wreck. You'll
6:07
have seen one of the things in that
6:09
newspaper article was was bricks. Might
6:11
have just seen here. Okay. So, this is
6:13
the engine. You can probably just seen
6:14
on the left hand side. There's a
6:16
two-cylinder engine on its side. That
6:18
big thing there on the left, that is uh
6:21
actually the boiler. Doesn't look uh
6:23
much like one, but it's a really old
6:25
one. It's not round. It's kind of um I'm
6:28
not even sure what sort of shape it is.
6:30
Kind of like half dome shape. I don't
6:32
know, but we we'll come back to that
6:33
later on because clearly once you've
6:35
seen the engine, you've seen the boiler,
6:37
you know, the front of the ship is
6:38
further forward. So, this area here
6:40
probably, you know, gone past the
6:42
bridge, but there's just a whole load of
6:44
uh whole load of bricks. Oh, Will's
6:46
found something. better go and have a
6:48
look and see what it is. He's This kind
6:52
of area could be some sort of bridge
6:53
gear or something like that. Actually,
6:55
it isn't. And I have no idea at all what
6:57
this is. See, I've just switched to the
6:59
uh camera on the front of my scooter
7:01
there. And there you go. If anybody has
7:04
any idea what that thing is, I would
7:06
love to know. What it isn't though is
7:09
the bell or something that's going to
7:10
allow us to identify the wreck. So, here
7:12
we go. Carrying on moving forward.
7:14
Still, this is the the scooter view. And
7:16
you can just see there's a huge huge
7:19
pile of uh bricks. Must have been the
7:22
cargo. You've already seen from the
7:24
newspaper article I showed you that the
7:27
SS, the Greek, was carrying a load of
7:30
bricks. And this was really the final
7:33
thing that allowed us to confirm this
7:36
identity as being the uh the Greek. So,
7:39
we were able to find information out
7:42
from a website called Teasebuilt Ships,
7:45
which listed the four ships built for
7:47
the Anglo Greek Company. So, it was
7:50
simply a case of uh going through those
7:52
all and trying to find out what what
7:54
happened to them. There was two of them
7:56
that it wasn't uh particularly certain.
7:59
So, almost certainly it was one of those
8:01
two. In fact, oh, there you go. There's
8:02
a beautiful um anchor there. Old old
8:06
pattern anchor. So, you know, everything
8:08
about this ship screams old steamship,
8:11
and that that anchor is definitely a bit
8:13
of it.
8:14
So, it was simply a case of uh we had
8:17
those two ships that we weren't certain
8:20
what happened to them. One of them was
8:23
shown as um being lost. In fact, they
8:26
were both shown as being lost. What we
8:28
weren't sure of is where they were lost
8:31
or any details about what they were
8:33
carrying. Well, we know where this wreck
8:34
is. We know it's in the middle of the
8:36
Celtic Sea and the Greek as it turns out
8:39
was traveling from the Clyde on the west
8:42
coast of Scotland to Rotterdam in the
8:45
Netherlands. So that route would have
8:48
taken it down over this exact area and
8:52
we had the confirmation from the
8:53
newspaper article that was found by one
8:56
of the people who was looking at my
8:58
YouTube and my Facebook posts. So once
9:02
you put all those things together, we
9:04
can't say for 100% certain certainty
9:07
that this is the Greek, but all of those
9:10
things align. You can say, I think with
9:13
a very very strong probability that it
9:15
was in fact, okay, there we are back at
9:17
the anchor and you can see that is
9:19
absolutely a beast. You can also see
9:21
there's these big pile of bricks. Now,
9:23
we've dived um other wrecks before that
9:26
are carrying very heavy cargos, things
9:28
like bricks and iron, and what you tend
9:31
to find is that if it goes down a tall
9:35
bow first, then all the cargo just goes
9:38
forward and smashes the bow area. So, my
9:41
gut feel is that the bell for the Greek
9:44
is somewhere underneath all of these
9:46
bricks um and therefore unlikely ever to
9:50
be found. So, uh, it's unfortunate that
9:52
there's probably nothing that's going to
9:54
confirm for absolute certainty that this
9:56
is the Greek. So, we're just going to
9:58
have to go with what we found in terms
10:00
of those three things. So the crockery
10:04
that says uh Anglo Greek Steam
10:05
Navigation Company and the size of this
10:09
which is about the same sort of size uh
10:11
as the Greek and also the fact it's an
10:15
old steam ship and the fact that it's
10:17
car got a whole cargo of uh bricks and
10:20
the fact that it's in the right area
10:23
where it would have been. So that's how
10:26
we identified the Greek and I hope my
10:29
logic is sound. I hope you can all
10:31
follow it. Uh if you can't, then please
10:34
or you want to challenge it. You think
10:36
that's a load of rubbish, then please
10:38
feel free to leave something in the
10:39
comment. Now, I'm about to come up to
10:41
the boiler here. You can see it in front
10:43
of me. You can also see it's resting on
10:46
its right hand side, and you can see it
10:48
has that dome shape that I was talking
10:50
about. So, it's a really old boiler, and
10:53
I don't think I've seen one that shape
10:55
before. So, so that is really
10:57
interesting as well. So, you know, if we
10:59
consider when this was built, the ship
11:01
was built at 18 early 1860s and I think
11:04
this is right at the beginning of the
11:07
introduction of steam ships into your
11:11
kind of widespread use. So, I guess it's
11:14
entirely reasonable that they hadn't
11:16
kind of got to the designs that would
11:18
become standard much later on. So, these
11:20
are you almost experimental. Now, in
11:23
front of us there, that is the remains
11:25
of the engine. It's actually toppled
11:27
over. It's toppled away from us. The two
11:29
cylinders are just there on the left
11:31
hand side. And then there's a whole load
11:33
of other kind of pipes and all sorts of
11:37
bits and pieces in and around here. You
11:39
can see what I'm doing is I'm absolutely
11:41
taking my time having a good look
11:42
around. And clearly I'm hoping that
11:44
something in there is going to give us a
11:47
clue, is going to reveal something, is
11:49
going to tell us what this is.
11:51
Unfortunately,
11:53
not really getting anything other than
11:55
you can see a whole load of bricks to
11:57
me. seem to have come forward again. And
11:59
once again, these bricks seem to have
12:00
smashed into the engine area. So, no
12:03
doubt a whole load of bits and pieces to
12:05
do with the engine. You know, maybe the
12:06
maker's plate or whatever are buried
12:08
under those bricks, which is which quite
12:11
um disappointing, but hey, it was the
12:14
bricks that gave us the final clue. Now,
12:16
I'm just going up on the starboard side
12:18
here, which is the very close to where I
12:21
actually came onto the wreck. I didn't
12:24
come onto the wreck on the starboard
12:25
side. I came over on the port side, but
12:28
I did travel down this uh bit at the
12:30
beginning. You may remember that was
12:31
there was that big stone jar. And if you
12:34
have a look here, you can see that I've
12:35
spotted all sorts of other things. And
12:37
of course, what I'm going to do is get
12:39
them out and see if any of these can
12:42
give us any clues because of course this
12:44
is what we're trying to do. We've got no
12:47
idea what this shipwreck is. We want to
12:49
identify it. And crockery like this
12:51
plate that's just coming out there, you
12:52
know, are kind of hoping that that's
12:54
going to have something on it. And
12:56
immediately I do. I can see it's got a
12:58
big crest in the middle of it. So that
12:59
is absolutely fantastic. Now I'm going
13:02
to pull other things out as well. And
13:03
the viz is going to kick up here. So
13:05
what I'm going to do is every now and
13:07
again I'm going to cut the film and kind
13:08
of move on a bit. So this is a good
13:10
example there. You can see that's uh
13:12
that's something that's come out. I've
13:13
just cut. And there you go. You can see
13:14
they're both uh they're both up on
13:16
there. There's there's more stuff in and
13:18
around. And once again, it's going to be
13:21
coming out. So there's there's a whole
13:23
load of stuff in this area. It wasn't
13:25
just me who found uh plates and stuff
13:27
with the logos on it. Both the other
13:30
divers found stuff as well. And you all
13:33
had the same all had the same markings.
13:35
So the Anglo Greek thing. So it's a
13:37
really good indication it wasn't just a
13:39
kind of random plate on a random ship.
13:41
This this ship was carrying Anglo Greek
13:45
crockery or you know was equipped with
13:47
Anglo Greek crocker crockery. And given
13:49
the fact that this company only existed
13:51
for a short period of time, it's I think
13:54
inconceivable that they would have been
13:56
on on another vessel. There you go.
13:58
There's another diver over there. Uh
14:00
that looks like Will. He's clearly uh
14:02
he's clearly found something and he's
14:04
kind of digging it out. So just going
14:06
over and uh to have a have a quick look
14:08
at what he's got.
14:10
Uh in fact, there you go. You can see
14:12
there's another another bit of crockery
14:14
there. So there's absolutely tons of
14:16
this stuff down here. We didn't we
14:18
didn't bring it all up. We just brought
14:19
a few bits and pieces so that we could
14:22
uh confirm and you know we had more than
14:25
one item. So that gives you a bit of
14:27
confidence. There's that stone jar that
14:29
I uh I showed you right at the
14:30
beginning. Uh if anybody wants a stone
14:32
jar, there's there's still one down
14:34
there. They're really common to kind of
14:36
see on shipwrecks.
14:38
But before that, I just want to check
14:40
and make sure there's nothing
14:41
interesting written on it because these
14:42
things sometimes have uh manufacturer's
14:45
names or, you know, contents or anything
14:48
like that. So, I've just pulled it out
14:50
of the mud there and you can see I'm
14:51
having a quick look at it and there's
14:52
nothing of any interest on there. So,
14:56
there you go. I'm kind of abandoning it
14:58
and uh and leaving it. But, I guess in
15:01
these days they had no means of keeping
15:03
anything cool. So, they must have kept
15:05
everything uh pickled. Also, they would
15:07
have had no uh been very difficult, I
15:09
guess, to store water and you know, beer
15:12
or spirits or whatever you want. So,
15:14
they must have had loads and loads of
15:16
these on board any ship. There you go.
15:18
There's some more some more crockery
15:20
there. That looks like a sink. We've
15:22
seen that before. You know, once again,
15:25
you really clear evidence that this has
15:27
never been dived before, I think. But
15:30
also, you know, shows the signs of the
15:32
people who lived here. there's a bottle
15:34
of wine or something like that of people
15:36
who lived and worked on this uh on this
15:38
ship. So, really interesting to see that
15:40
kind of stuff. What there isn't though,
15:42
which is quite unusual, is any sign of
15:44
anything brass. So, I've not seen a port
15:46
hole or anything like that. I think at
15:49
this point I decide that the time is
15:51
right to go and head to the stern and
15:54
see um what we can what we can find back
15:57
there. Cuz once again, sterns are
15:59
interesting. You can find out
16:02
information from looking at features
16:04
such as the screw, you know, how many
16:06
blades has it got on it? I mean, how
16:08
many screws are there? There's also
16:10
sometimes other interesting things. And
16:11
you can see there that I've kind of
16:13
spotted something there. That thing
16:15
that's sticking up. It's kind of an odd
16:17
shape. Um, I've no idea what that is.
16:20
I've just turned it over. The top of it
16:22
looks brass, but hey, I have no idea
16:25
what that is. So, uh, it's still down
16:27
there if anybody's got any any clues.
16:29
But there you go. You can see there's
16:30
the screw. It's threebladed.
16:33
Quite old to my um you to my mind. No
16:38
sign of the rudder or anything like
16:41
that. Presumably it's somewhere down
16:42
there on the seabed. Maybe it's just
16:44
kind of fallen into the mud. Maybe it's
16:46
just completely rusted away. But there's
16:48
got to be one down here somewhere. Uh
16:51
and this is uh this is what I'm just
16:52
kind of having a look for. See if
16:54
anything else has fallen on the seabed.
16:56
Once again, you know, is really
16:58
surprising, I guess, that there's no
17:01
brass things. You know, once again, you
17:02
often get port holes and stuff in the in
17:05
the stern, but I've not seen any sign of
17:07
anything like that. Oh, just come back
17:09
up on the uh on the on on the boat.
17:12
That's a uh that's uh Lee Lee Bishop,
17:16
famous uh shipwreck explorer. He's
17:20
probably dived more virgin shipwrecks,
17:22
probably identified more shipwrecks than
17:25
anybody um alive today. But so, uh it's
17:29
kind of it's actually, you know, he's
17:31
bit of a a hero of mine. It's an
17:33
absolute privilege to get to dive with
17:36
him. Uh and there's another there's
17:38
another kind of hero of mine, somebody
17:40
uh been very persistent. That is Will
17:42
trying to get out uh whatever he's he's
17:45
got in there. And actually, what he gets
17:47
out turns to be absolutely lovely. It's
17:49
a uh a meat a meat tray once again with
17:52
that beautiful Anglo Californian logo on
17:55
it. So uh his persistence does pay off.
17:58
And there you go. You can see it in its
18:01
glory going into his bag for uh for him
18:03
to carry up to the surface. So that's
18:05
that's a really nice find. Uh not really
18:07
sure what's what he's done with it, but
18:10
um no doubt his his girlfriend is super
18:12
super happy to have that in the house.
18:14
Certainly my wife always always love
18:17
these loves these kind of objects.
18:19
Right. So you can see here I'm just I
18:23
know I'm coming to the end of my dive.
18:24
You can see there my TTS I've got a 106
18:27
minutes. You see my first uh uh
18:30
decompression stop is about 40 odd
18:32
meters. There's a whole load of uh stuff
18:34
in the water where where everyone's
18:36
obviously been digging out plates and
18:38
stuff. And you can see you probably just
18:40
saw the strobes there as well. So, this
18:41
is me uh heading back towards the shot
18:43
line which is off that port side of the
18:46
wreck. There's a couple of strobes
18:47
there. There's one uh the fairly decent
18:50
one and mine down at the bottom here.
18:52
And you this is uh you can see this
18:54
strobe is uh is not performing well. In
18:56
fact, neither of them performing well
18:58
cuz I do have have two of them on there.
19:00
So, I think one of them had a problem
19:02
with the battery and the other one was
19:05
just on its way out. These strobes don't
19:07
last forever. The highax one I had there
19:09
I think I'd been using for for many many
19:12
years and every now and again I just
19:14
needed to clean the contacts in it. I
19:16
think I was at cleaning the contacts
19:18
point. Luckily there you go. You can see
19:19
the other diver. That's Will above me
19:21
there with his uh with his bag with his
19:23
meat tray in it. And he's luckily his
19:26
strobe was working well. So we're both
19:28
we're both heading up now. Uh our dive
19:30
is done. Although at this point in time
19:33
we think we've solved the mystery cuz we
19:35
got those crockery that crockery. We
19:37
don't know when we get to the surface
19:39
that um it's not going to be quite as
19:41
easy as we think. For those who like my
19:43
deco profile, I like to see it. This is
19:46
obviously the sheer water cloud
19:47
download. You can see there 96 mish. So,
19:52
not a radically different dive from many
19:54
of the other ones I I do there. You can
19:55
see sort of 140 minutes TTS. When I
19:58
leave the bottom, I come up somewhere up
20:00
around here. I switch um from 1.3 to 1.5
20:04
P2. This is all really standard stuff
20:06
for anyone who's seen any of my other
20:07
dies. And there you go. Finish up uh
20:10
just under 2 and 1/2 hours. Little bit
20:12
of extra deco for the wife and kids. And
20:14
I get out. But before that happens, have
20:17
a particularly special moment. You can
20:20
see here I was uh I was reading my
20:22
Kindle on deco. And then all of a sudden
20:24
uh you get that happen. You get dolphins
20:27
coming past you. So you're in the middle
20:29
of the sea, middle of the open ocean.
20:30
These are completely and utterly wild
20:33
animals. and they just decide to come
20:35
and say hello, engage with you
20:37
absolutely on their terms, but it is uh
20:40
it's a stunning stunning moment and um
20:44
yeah really really special. So this was
20:49
great dive. You can see conditions were
20:51
great at the bottom. Although it was 12
20:54
months later, we still ended up
20:55
identifying the wreck and we then had
20:58
those dolphins come and just up to see
21:01
us really really closely and that just
21:04
made it even more special. So, what a
21:07
day diving something nobody's ever dived
21:10
before. Middle of nowhere, stunning
21:12
visibility, dolphins on decompression
21:15
stops and came up with some really
21:17
interesting artifacts. And the brilliant
21:20
bit is that 12 months later, with the
21:23
help of you guys who've commented and
21:26
gone digging and all that sort of stuff,
21:28
we have identified what happened to SS
21:32
the Greek ship missing since 1817.
21:36
Missing no longer. So, thanks a lot,
21:38
guys. Hope you've enjoyed this video. As
21:41
always, please give us a like, leave us
21:43
a comment, subscribe, and all that kind
21:45
of stuff. And the main thing I hope
21:47
you'll do is watch another one of my
21:49
videos. So, thank you.

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