A team of divers have found the wreck of a French liner that killed 300 people when it sank off Menorca, Spain, in 1942.

9 May 2008

MADRID - A team of divers from Spain and Italy have found the wreck of a French liner that sank off Menorca in 1942, killing about 300 people, a member of the expedition told AFP Thursday.

The remains of the Lamoriciere, built at Newcastle, northeast England, were found at a depth of 156 metres some 10 kilometres northeast of the Spanish Mediterranean island, said Luca Laudati, a journalist for Italian diving magazine SUB which organised the mission.

The liner, which belonged to the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, was carrying 272 passengers and 122 crew members from Algiers in north Africa to the French port of Marseille when it sank during a storm on January 6, 1942.

Among the victims of the accident was Polish mathematician Jerzy Rozycki, who cracked the German army's Enigma code in 1933 along with two others.

Ninety-three people were rescued by several other French ships which answered a distress signal.

The Lamoriciere itself had altered its course to give assistance to the cargo liner Jumieges which was in trouble off the Balearic Islands.

Milan-based SUB is run by Italian diver Guido Pfeiffer who has found several other wrecks in waters around the Balearic islands, which are a top tourist destination.

The magazine will publish several photos of the wreck of the Lamoriciere as well as details of its discovery in its July edition.

[AFP / Expatica]