Researchers use collaborative data to uncover century-old wreck of British WWI ship HMS Stephen Furness, sunk in 1917 off the Irish Sea.
A Historic England project has allowed researchers to find what they now believe is the wreck site of HMS Stephen Furness, a ship sunk in 1917 during WWI.
The ship was sunk along with over 100 of her crew, and has since spent over a century at the bottom of the Irish Sea.
It was discovered after existing documentary resources were combined with new scientific datasets. The collaboration was made as part of Towards a National Collection, an £18.9m project from the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
It was set up to connect separate collections, unifying data in what it calls a digital ‘hyper network’ across the UK’s museums, galleries, libraries and archives.
The ship was found as part of the Unpath’d Waters project, one of the Towards a National Collection projects.
Sonar data collected by Bangor University’s research vessel Prince Madog was used to examine the dimensions of all known wreck sites in the region. Combining this information with other resources, including an account of an attack position contained in a U-boat Kriegstagebuch from a war diary, meant that identifying the likely resting place of HMS Stephen Furness and several other vessels became possible.
Unpath’d Waters is one of five large-scale Discovery Projects in the Towards a National Collection programme.
A major conference in Manchester this November will share and celebrate the research outcomes of all five Discovery Projects, as well as launch two key resources for the heritage and collections sector.
“It’s exciting to see such a tangible example of what happens when disparate historic collections and datasets are brought together in pursuit of new knowledge and scientific innovation,” said Sir Roly Keating, Chair of the Steering Committee, Towards a National Collection, and CEO of the British Library.
“All too often, through lack of investment in digitisation, skills and common infrastructure, the UK’s collections have remained fragmented and, in many cases, hard to access, even for dedicated researchers. But their untapped potential – for society, innovation and economic growth – is colossal.”
Barney Sloane, Historic England, Principal Investigator: Unpath’d Waters: Marine and Maritime Collections in the UK, added: “The likely identification of HMS Stephen Furness is a brilliant and moving example of the potential of the UK’s maritime heritage data and a testimony to the Unpath’d Waters’ team’s collaboration and excellent detective work.
“The UK’s maritime heritage is incredibly rich, and our project aimed to explore how we can access, link and search this heritage in new ways to create new knowledge and stories. This result is a remarkable example of just how important such an endeavor will prove to be.”
