Shipwreck history is riveting

WITH World War One being widely commemorated, most emphasis is on trench action. Battles at sea are often overlooked, but at least 2,000 Irishmen died on the waves and, in many cases, have no tangible monument or place to commemorate them because of the location of the wrecks, writes Donal Hickey

New technology however, is helping to reveal some of the secrets of shipwrecks lying around our coast. Equipment on the research vessel, Celtic Voyager, is providing the best information yet on World War One wrecks, some of which are too deep to be dived on and which have not been seen in 100 years.

A team of scientists led by Ruth Plets, school of environmental sciences at Ulster University, using a multi-beam system, has captured the most detailed images of the entirety of the wrecks ever. This is the first time scientists can examine what has happened to them during sinking and in the intervening 100 years.