Nazi Landing in the US: WWII Shipwreck Found After 80 Years
For over 80 years, the location of the sunken Canadian merchant ship SS Cornwallis, sunk in 1944 off the coast of Maine (USA) by a German U-boat, remained unknown. In November 1944, World War II brought about an extraordinary secret operation. A German U-boat undetected passed through American waters and landed two intelligence agents on American soil.
A few days later, the same submarine torpedoed a merchant ship, killing dozens of sailors. Many years passed before researchers finally discovered the ship that had disappeared during that momentous event. Gizmodo reports this.
It was the SS Cornwallis, a Canadian cargo ship carrying sugar and molasses from Barbados to New Brunswick. Its final voyage began like countless others during the war. But the Atlantic coast was far from safe, and German U-boats were still operating dangerously close to North America.
On November 29, 1944, the German submarine U-1230 secretly dropped off two agents near Hancock, Maine. One was Erich Gimpel, a German intelligence officer. The other was William Colepaugh, an American sympathizer with Nazi Germany who had traveled there to spy.
Their mission was to gather intelligence on American military production and industrial facilities. The operation, known as Operation Elster (Wikipedia), was intended to provide Germany with information about its enemy. The agents eventually reached New York, where they remained for several weeks.
Their mission failed after Colepaugh surrendered to the FBI. Both were arrested and later sentenced to death, although President Harry Truman commuted their sentences.
Meanwhile, the U-1230 remained at sea.
On December 3, 1944, a German U-boat attacked the SS Cornwallis off the coast of Maine. A torpedo struck the merchant ship near its forward cargo hold. The damage was catastrophic. The vessel sank in less than ten minutes, killing 43 of the 48 people on board. Only five survived.
The tragedy was particularly striking because the Cornwallis had already survived a German torpedo attack in 1942 off the coast of Barbados. That incident damaged the vessel, but it was subsequently raised, repaired, and returned to service. A second encounter with a German U-boat proved fatal.
The exact location of the Cornwallis remained unknown for over eight decades. Civilian researchers from the Nomad Exploration Team began searching for it in 2019. Historical records, ship documentation, and maritime evidence helped them narrow the search area.
A breakthrough in the ship’s tracks occurred in 2026. Using side-scan sonar, the team discovered the sunken ship on the seabed at a depth of almost 122 meters beneath the Atlantic Ocean. Further dives confirmed that the discovered vessel was indeed the SS Cornwallis.
The wreck is located approximately 40 kilometers off the coast of Maine. Its discovery has once again drawn attention to a forgotten maritime tragedy and the dangerous proximity of German U-boats to American shores during World War II.
VIDEO. Nomad Exploration Team Finds the SS Cornwallis, Lost for More Than 80 Years Off the Maine Coast.
For the researchers, this discovery is the culmination of years of effort. For the families of the lost sailors, it marks the final determination of the burial site of a ship that disappeared during one of the most extraordinary episodes of the war.
It was previously reported that a Nazi submarine has been lying on the seabed off the coast of Norway for over 80 years. Its final mission during World War II continues to have dangerous consequences, as the wreckage of the U-864 lies on the seabed with a massive load of toxic mercury.
