Minesweeper Wreckage Becomes Underwater Monument to WWI

A remarkable well-preserved piece of history.

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The City of York, a different but similar trawler.
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The remains of a sunken World War One minesweeper, the HMT Arfon, have been afforded special protections by the British government.

The Arfon was a steamboat trawler, the type of ship often used in fishing. Built in 1908, it joined the war effort as the rest of British fishing industry did. In fact, so many trawlers were being used as minesweepers between 1914 and 1918 that there was a shortage of fish in England. Rather than the standard superlative of "His Majesty's Ship," the Arfon has the since-retired HMT, which stands for the less impressive "Hired Military Transport."

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Both the Allies and the Germans had come to recognize the value of the English Channel during the Great War, with the former mining it heavily. In 1917, the Arfon hit a mine laid by a superior U-boat and sunk. Ten out of thirteen of its crew died.

It's laid untouched at the bottom of the English Channel ever since. Discovered in 2014, it's remarkably preserved. Historic England, the government's historical wing, says that the Arfon's mine-sweeping gear, deck gun and engine room are all intact. Jon Flatman of Historic England said in a statement how ships like the Afron represent "a type of vessel once very common around the coastline of Britain but which has now entirely disappeared, surviving only in documents and as wrecks like this one."

The ship is being government protections to protect from "uncontrolled salvage," treasure seekers or tourists who would be more than happy to take a piece of World War One history home.

Source: BBC

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