The bow of a Regia Marina coastal submarine sunk by the British during World War Two has been found by a Greek dive team.
The new discovery, located by Kostas Thoctarides and his firm ROV Services, concerns the 1932-built Jantina, one of seven Argonauta-class submarines. Just one of this class survived the war and coincidently Jantina’s sister, Salpa, was sunk by HMS Triumph, the wreck of which Thoctarides previously discovered (See BAW, November 2023).
The 202ft long Jantina was lost on July 5, 1941 after she was torpedoed by the Royal Navy submarine HMS Torbay.
Thoctarides’ team discovered the majority of Jantina’s hull in November 2021 to the south of Mykonos at a depth of roughly 330ft, lying on the seabed with a 53° slant to port and her conning tower and Cannon 102/35 Model 1914 deck gun visible. However, her bow section was absent.
Two-and-a-half years later, Thoctarides located the missing piece approximately 340ft under water, resting on its port side, some 220 yards from the rest of Jantina. He told BAW: "We are talking about two parts of the wreck, the bow and the rest. While the bow sank immediately, the rest of the submarine continued to sail for a considerable distance and sank later.
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