Depardieu, Guilain

In the third chapter of "Investigations in deep waters", French archaeologists move their research to World War II. The Italian ship "Francesco Crispi" was sunk in 1943 by the British submarine "Saracen" in Mediterranean waters. Underwater surveys carried out in the vicinity of the island of Corsica allow researchers to identify the Crispi and recover the memory of the more than 900 Italians who lost their lives when it sank.

This is the second instalment of this series that explores the seabed to locate sunken ships. On this occasion, the surveys carried out by the DRASSM lead archaeologists to Batz Island, in the French region of Brittany, where they locate a Roman wreck with a shipment of more than 800 tin ingots. Through an exhaustive study of the type and layout of the ingots, they will obtain valuable information about the tin trade in the 3rd and 4th centuries BC.

The series "Investigations in deep waters" includes the most advanced underwater archaeological explorations carried out by the French Underwater and Submarine Archaeological Research Department, better known as the DRASSM. The depth at which some wrecks are located impedes diving, so the Department uses robots to prospect, locate and identify wrecks from very different eras. This is the case with this wreck from the Roman era with an impressive load of amphorae that provides with interesting information about shipping routes and trade in antiquity.