MS Argo

ex HMS Flint, former Royal Navy Isle class trawler
Length – 54,5 meters
Width – 9,2 meters
Beam – 5,9 meters
Tonnage – 507 GRT
Sunk due to mine

Min depth 42 meters
Max depth 49 meters


Argo was a former Isle class trawler, probably HMS Flint build in 1942 in  Quebeck, Canada for Royal Navy. Isle class trawlers were used as an escort vessel. After 2ndWW HMS Flint was sold to a Norwegian shipowner Waldemar Skogland in Haugesund and rebuild into reefer/cooler/freighter at Rosenberg Mek. Verkstead in Stavanger. A hull rebuild was minor. A steam engine was replaced with a diesel engine. More information’s I found on warsailors.com website.  The only photographic is from the book “Vare motorskip”. Argo was delivered to the owner in May 1947. Its first trip was on charter to Statens Fisketransport, Ålesund, and left Haugesund for Northern-Norway to load fish filets for the Continent.

In January 1948 ARGO was on her way from Venetia to Rijeka carrying tomatoes when she went on a mine and sank in the Kvarner bay. Only 1 man from the crew of 12 survived.
In contact with Venetian archives, I’m trying to receive the Crew list.

Argo sucked in a mine in the same minefield were Swedish ship Sirius sunken in 1947. Sirus was recovered in 1956 by Brodospas. Rebuild and in service under name Mosor.

Today Argo is lying on 49meters depth. From explosion scraped in two parts almost same size, 25 meters each. Distance between the bow part and stern part is around 80 meters. We put a line in between some years ago. The bridge is disintegrated by an explosion and lost somewhere in between.
On this dive, we usually have very good visibility, sometimes more than 30 meters. Both bow and stern parts are nice to dive. Frequently you can find big congers, lobsters and lots of fish.

The wreck is well known by local fishermen for years, but only recently identified. On stern and bow parts there are some nets left. This summer we are planning to clean it up from nets and do some more intensive research and mapping the wreck.

Special thanks go to Trygve Eriksen for his contribution in this story.

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Video by Visionaries a team of divers participating on DOC CON 2015 in Krnica

ARGO