The submarine was sunk in 1942 during the siege of Malta, in 115m of water, six miles from Valetta. The dive team - leader Mark Powell of Dive-Tech in Britain, and Stuart Jones and Jonathan Thomas of Tec Deep Blue in Malta - made the successful dive on 7 May, and found what was clearly a submarine, largely intact.
The discovery was the culmination of years of research carried out by Jones and Thomas into this and other wrecks around the island. After ruling out a number of locations, the site where the submarine was found was elected for investigation based on information including UK Hydrographical Office records.
Although visibility was poorer than usual for deep Maltese waters, and an unexpected current added a further challenge, the divers were able to observe a number of features consistent with the layout of HMS Olympus.
Positive identification was not achieved but, based on their observations and research, the divers think that the wreck can be none other than the British submarine. They plan further dives to positively identify the wreck and survey it.
HMS Olympus, which with other submarines brought in supplies and protected merchant shipping during the German and Italian blockade of Malta, went down after hitting a mine while cruising on the surface at night. She was carrying more men than usual, as she was transporting many of the crews of the sunken submarines HMS Pandora, HMS P36 and HMS P39.
Most of the men managed to leave the submarine before it sank, but were faced with a very long swim to shore in cold, difficult sea conditions and, with Malta's wartime blackout, directional guidance only from the explosions of German bombings. Of HMS Olympus' complement of 98 men, just nine survived.
Related links
Discovery of famous British wreck confirmed
Holland V dive opportunity
Aussie cruiser found
Black Sea U-boats found
Elusive U12 found at last |
