 | ex HMS Flint, Royal Navy Isle class trawler
Sunken: Kvarner channel
Depth: 39 - 49 m
Navigation time: 40 minutes
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To local fishermen MS Argo is known as the ship of cape Lubenice while to most scuba divers as the hospital ship. Argo was an Isle Class Trawler, a former minesweeper and a submarines hunter. On last voyage was transporting tomatoes from Venice to Rijeka Unfortunately it ran into a mine and sank rapidly. First dive happened in year 2001. Number of nets, traps and other fisherman’s tools know decorate the ship. Argos’ clean up is a near future plan.
Argo was born as a HMS Flint in 1942, Lauzon, Quebec, Canada. During WW2 besides mine seeking, trawlers such as Flint, were used as an escort service for convoys and often exposed to attacks by German submarine fleet. HMS Flint is 50 meters long and 8,3 meters wide. Equipped with the 850 HP steam engine. After the WW2 HMS Flint like so many of its relatives were no longer needed by the Royal Navy and were sold for the best offer, in his case it was a Norwegian ship owner Valdemar Skogland.
Shipyard Rosenberg Verksted in Stavanger reconstructed the ship. Steam engine was replaced with the 460 HP diesel one. Beside engine replacement ship underwent slight upper deck changes. Refrigeration system was introduced in cargo area. An escort trawler became a refrigerator ship. One of its first assignments was the fish transport.
January 22nd, 1948 Argo was on his way from Venice to Rijeka. It ran into a mine, a leftover from WW2. Strong explosion tare ship into to peaces just behind the main bridge. Eleven, out of twelve, crewmembers lost their life.
Interesting fact is that the Swedish ship Sirius had the same misfortune in 1947. On his first voyage it ran at the mine and sank, almost at the same place. It was carrying cotton. It was no surprise for the local trawlers to catch a cotton balls in the net up to late 70’s. In the year 1956 Brodospas co. brought Sirius to the surface like many other ships after the war. Since ship owners weren’t interested in the wrack Brodospas repaired it and placed it in his own fleet under the name Mosor.
Argo now lays split in two at dept aprox 50 m. Bow and stern are 50 m apart. Both parts lie straight up slightly in the mud. The whole distance between the two half’s you can see parts of the ship and its equipment scattered on the seabed. On the bow side you can still see remains of a steal bed, old shoes and a toilet. Both encores are in place and cargo hoole is partially covered with nets. With extreme caution one can dive through the whole bow half. Of course, no tomatoes to be seen. Stern quarters, on the other side, are hard to reach. Narrow passages and ventilation shafts prevent us from exploring. One thing that has never let us down is good visibility. No meter the season water stays clear securing the so wanted factor for a nice dive. Like on most wrecks don’t be surprised if you ran into congers, lobsters…
Argo is relatively close to us, a good host that we like to visit when ever we can. There is a smaller part of the ship yet to be explored. Around 100 m from the original wreck there is a small part that calls for a more detailed exploration. Hopefully we’ll be able to complete the documentation including video and photo records and publish it on the web in the current year.
Fotogalery:
Fotka 7 |
Fotka 6 |
Fotka 5 |
Fotka 4 |
Fotka 3 |
Fotka 2 |
Fotka 4 |
Fotka 3 |
Biography:
Special thanks to Trygve Eriksen for help with historical data
Trygve Eriksen
Vare Motorskip
Stavanger museum
Shipyard Davies, Quebeck, Canada
www.warsailors.com
Archivi dei beni culturali, Venezia
http://uboat.net
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