The German submarine captain saw his target’s silhouette against the evening sky off the coast of southern England and gave the command to fire a single torpedo.
It was the last anyone would see of the US Coast Guard Cutter Tampa and its 131 crew members for more than 107 years.
Three minutes after that German torpedo struck the vessel amidships, the Tampa was on the bottom of the Atlantic with all crew lost, the largest naval loss for US forces during World War I.
On Wednesday, the Coast Guard announced a team of British divers had located the wreck of the Tampa last weekend at a depth of 300 feet (91 meters) some 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the Cornwall coast.
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