The catastrophe in 1916 took the lives of about 1.9 thousand infantrymen of the 55th Regiment of the Royal Italian Army, while there were over 2.6 thousand men on board.
Azionemare, a nonprofit maritime research organization, reported June 9 the discovery of the wreck of the Italian steamer Prinz Umberto, which had been sunk by an Austro-Hungarian submarine during World War I in the Strait of Otranto.
The Strait of Otranto is between Italy and Albania. Researchers repeated the route of the Prinz Umberto, simultaneously exploring the bottom with sonar. When the scientists detected the presence of large debris at great depths, they lowered the search robot to the bottom. With its help they took some pictures of the wreck and made a video recording.
The images showed that the hull had split almost in half upon hitting the bottom. The wreck was sunk more than five meters into the mud and was virtually undamaged, but covered with coral and rust growths.
The steamship Prinz Umberto carried more than 2,600 men in early June 1916, escorted by four destroyers and a scout cruiser. These were infantrymen of the 55th Regiment of the Royal Italian Army. The ship was attacked by the astro-Hungarian submarine U5, which was able to fire two torpedoes at the hull from a short distance. One hit the stern and the Prince Umberto promptly sank, taking the lives of 1,926 people.
This maritime disaster is considered the largest during World War I in terms of loss of life.
The passenger steamship Prinz Umberto was built in 1908 and before World War I it made voyages to the ports of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, as well as to North and South America. From the first years of the war the ship was used by the Italian Army as an armed merchant cruiser to transport men and equipment. The ship sank on June 8, 1916, while en route from Albania to Italy.