| In the field |
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Danny Allan's divers found the Cornwallis on the last pass
A German U-boat sank the freighter Cornwallis off Maine in 1944. Of the 48 aboard, 43 died, and divers from New Hampshire found the wreck in July.
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On July 11, Danny Allan's dive team passed within 300 feet of the wreck it had hunted since 2019. The ship showed up on their side-scan sonar, a tool that draws the seabed with sound. And the whole crew looked right past it.
They caught it on the second pass, in the last 100 yards of the last line. Jeff Goodreau, one of the divers, says they were resetting the GPS when the shape popped up. And Allan says a miss would have meant writing off that whole patch of sea.
The shape was the SS Cornwallis, a 400-foot Canadian freighter. A German submarine, U-1230, sank her in the Gulf of Maine on December 3, 1944. Of the 48 people aboard, 43 died. Five men got away on rafts. Then a Portland fishing boat picked them up.
The wreck sits nearly 400 feet down, about three times the limit for sport divers. So the team from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, went down to touch it and be sure. They told the world on Tuesday, October 27. |
| The Cornwallis in Saint John, where she was headed. Photo: Ingenium. |
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The legend
The FBI files on the two spies make no mention of the atomic bomb.
The Cornwallis story starts with spies. Four nights before the sinking, U-1230 put two German agents ashore at Hancock Point, Maine. One was Erich Gimpel. The other was William Colepaugh, a Connecticut man thrown out of the American Navy.
Gimpel later wrote that their target was the atomic bomb project. And the divers tell it this way: the sub hung around Maine to cover the spies, then torpedoed the Cornwallis as she came by. But the FBI's records never mention the bomb.
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The evidence
Colepaugh walked into the FBI on December 26, 1944, and Gimpel was caught four days later.
On November 29, 1944, U-1230 landed the two agents at Hancock Point. In 2003 the beach joined the national list of historic places.
On December 3, 1944, the same boat sank the Cornwallis about 10 miles southwest of Mount Desert Rock. Papers at the time said she carried sugar and molasses. The master, 35 crewmen and seven gunners died.
Colepaugh turned himself in to the FBI on December 26, 1944. Gimpel was arrested in New York four days later. Both got death sentences. Then President Truman cut them to prison terms.
On July 11, 2026, the Nomad Exploration Team found the wreck. The divers matched it to the ship's own blueprints. Then they announced it on October 27.
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What's still down there
The hold carried sugar and molasses, so the prize here is a name on a chart, not a pile of coins.
A 400-foot steel hull from 1921, lying in cold, dark water with strong currents. On the first dive, Don Ferrara's light died, and he finished it nearly blind.
The cargo was sugar and molasses. So the treasure crowd gets a dead end, and 43 families get an answer. More than a third of the dead came from Nova Scotia, and Allan calls the find closure for their families.
The fair doubt is identity, since a sonar shape can fool you. So the team settled it the hard way, with dives to match the hull to the blueprints. They plan to go back once a year to track how fast it falls apart.
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What's true
Eight claims. Five are documented. Three are campfire stories.
Legend
The spies came for the atomic bomb secrets.
The U-boat stayed off Maine just to cover the spies.
A fisherman once hauled up the ship's compass housing.
Evidence
U-1230 landed two agents at Hancock Point. American Navy interrogation report.
U-1230 sank the Cornwallis on December 3, 1944. Portland Evening Express, August 30, 1945.
Of 48 aboard, 43 died. uboat.net loss record.
The landing beach is a listed historic site. National Register, 2003.
Divers found the wreck on July 11, 2026. Nomad team release, October 27.
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Where it is
At nearly 400 feet, the wreck lies deeper than the Statue of Liberty stands tall.
Mount Desert Rock is a bare islet in the Gulf of Maine, about 29 miles south of Bar Harbor. The wreck lies about 10 miles southwest of it. That water is nearly 400 feet deep, about 100 feet more than the Statue of Liberty with its base.
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| Portsmouth to the wreck is about 137 miles, a bit farther than Washington to Philadelphia. Map: Treasure Hunt. |
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Ground report
Gold traded near $4,027 an ounce on Tuesday, about 28 percent under its 2026 peak.
Tuesday, October 27, Maine. The Nomad team went public with the Cornwallis and plans a dive there every year. And it treats the wreck as a grave.
Wednesday, October 21, Germany. Ronny Krause, who led a dig in Thuringia in central Germany, found 11 small Celtic silver coins under an old sports field. The state calls it the region's biggest hoard of its kind. It also warned that a coin dug with no recorded spot loses most of its story.
Tuesday, October 27, the markets. Spot gold sat near $4,027 an ounce, about 28 percent below this year's high of $5,599. So gold finds sold by weight bring less this week than at the peak.
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Happy Treasure Hunting!
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P.S. Allan grew up about 10 miles from the home of one of the Cornwallis crewmen. That is why this wreck was personal for him.
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Sources Portland Press Herald, Oct. 27, 2026; Bangor Daily News, Oct. 27, 2026; Divernet, Oct. 27, 2026; uboat.net; HistoryNet; National Park Service; Fox News, Oct. 21, 2026; USAGold, Oct. 27, 2026; Ingenium
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