Illinois shipwreck

US Tanker Illinois
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The US tanker 'Illinois' departed from Port Arthur, Texas, USA on February 17th 1917, with a cargo consigned to England was on her return trip laden with ballast. On March 18th Northwest of Cherbourg and approx. 20 miles north of Alderney in the very heart of the English Channel and effectively the center of the war zone between England & Germany she was sunk by German U-Boat.

Today the wreck lies on the edge of a shipping lane in what has become the busiest water way in the world. The Illinois was first discovered by the late Weymouth boat Skipper Andy Smith and the Kingston Sub Aqua club on August 5th 1989. The wreck lies in a depth of 70m on a hard sand/single seabed totally upright with a minimum depth of 55m to the decks. When she was sinking the German crew of UC-21 took photographs which where later circled for propaganda reasons.

It would not be until August 23rd 1997 that the wreck would give up her prized artifact her bell, for 8 years since the wrecks original discovery divers had searched for her bell. It was an August bank holiday and both Weymouth dive charters Skin Deep the dive boat that originally made the discovery and Wey Chieftain II where on site to witness her huge bell lifted from within the wreck. Read the full on line article by clicking on the link above to read more about these exciting times undertaken by British wreck divers. To date the UK receiver of wreck government agency has worked with the divers to locate the owners without luck, again full details are within the online article above.

Visiting divers to the wreck of the ‘Illinois’ will not be disappointed and the long journey out to the wreck makes worthwhile. The wreck as reported above rests on a sand gravel seabed of 70m 33 miles south of the Bill of Portland and other than her supposed torpedo damage is completely intact sitting upright on an even keel with her decks reachable at 55m. The wreck was originally a three-island vessel with two decks and two masts and today is effectively one of the largest intact wrecks within the area.

The diver will find there is no need to drop to the seabed only to view the huge prop and will find most of their dive on top of the wreck within the shallower levels .Working from the very stern the visiting diver will note that for reasons unknown a small section appears to have been broken off or simply missing.

click here to downlaod a large image of this painting

Click here to see this sketch of the wreck by Leigh Bishop giving a good idea to visiting divers how she is today.

As we know from the photographs she sank bow first so the damage was not a result of seabed impact. The accommodation block will be found at the stern castle where the diver can freely swim around the remains of various rooms and corridors. Immediately behind the accommodation block is the ships huge engine room which is easily attainable by swimming divers.

Please use the navigation bar at the top of the page to guide around the deepimage pages of the wreck of the Illinois. Leigh Bishop would like to thank all those that have helped him over the years with the photography modeling work and especially Tony Perrin who helped with the 3d model drawing of the wreck as she is today. © Leigh Bishop 1997-2005

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