Sardinia, April 10th 1943

[Taucher-Tom]

15.10: an Italian convoy leaves port Cagliari. Three merchant ships, the Entella (2691 GRT), the Isonzo (1357 GRT) and the Loredan (3390 GRT) are heading East towards Madalena.

Pics: Isonzo and Loredan



15.50: the British submarine Safari under Cdr. Ben Bryant gets in contact with the convoy.
The P211 Safari is a S-class submarine, 66m (217ft) long, armed with 6 forward 21-inch torpedo tubes, patrolling the Mediterranean Sea, looking for prey.


17.15: Safari getting in position close to Torre delle Stelle

17.19.25: first torpedo fired and hits the bow of the Loredan

17.19.43: second torpedo fired and hits the bow of the Isonzo

17.19.55 third torpedo fired; it misses the Entella because of a hazardous maneuver which made her run aground 30 seconds later

17.20.15: Safari descending and leaving the scene.

April, 11th

09.53: first torpedo fired at the Entella, hitting the stern

09.55: second torpedo fired, hitting her midships. The stern of the Entella brakes away immediately and two minutes later the rest of the ship sinks.


Today the remains of the Entella are scattered in shallow waters close to the shore. A track of coal shows the way she slid down the rocks, but not much is left of the ship. This is an easy dive for a new wreck diver.

Much more interesting are the Isonzo, laying at almost 200ft and the Loredan at 220ft. Both are in a very good condition.

Descending the anchor line to dive the Isonzo, you can see the wreck from a depth of about 100ft and reaching the hull you are at 140ft. The wreck is laying on its starboard side and the line is tied in close to the bridge.
We usually explore the exterior of the wrecks first and take pictures. Both the bow and the stern canon are still in place and make a nice shot. The bow with the anchor is a great place to look at, as well as the stern with the room of the rudder construction. This room makes penetration easy as well as the bridge, the top of which broke off in 2005.
Penetrating the hull through the cargo holds to the captains cabin or the engine room is a different story. Rooms partially collapsed by the exploding torpedos and iron bars beeing tossed and turned. Cable of the electrical system dangling around like in every other wreck and rust raining from above makes it difficult to get good pictures.
Finally after all pictures are taken it´s time to put the camera aside and go for some artifacts.













The hull of the Loredan is covered with an incredible variety of sea fans in all colours of the rainbow. The twisted hull of the wreck is laying on its starboard side too. Penetration the main holds is easy because of the stern beeing blown away by Safari´s third torpedo. Nevertheless the bulkheads are tight and you have to take care of the sea fans which grow almost everywhere.

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