11/08/2026
One of the most important wreck discoveries I have been involved with was confirmed by the name on a bell.
For 105 years, it had lain hidden in darkness at the bottom of the Atlantic. Then, on 11 August 2022, 60 miles south of Newlyn and 115 metres down, Rick Ayrton photographed it.
The word “Jacob” confirmed that the team had found USS Jacob Jones.
The previous day we had dived the first of several possible targets, only to discover a First World War era collier. On our second day we descended another shot line, unsure what would be waiting for us on the seabed.
This time we had hit the jackpot.
USS Jacob Jones was a 96 metre Tucker class destroyer, commissioned into the United States Navy in February 1916. After America entered the First World War, she crossed the Atlantic and began escorting convoys and patrolling from Queenstown, now Cobh, in Ireland.
During her short wartime career, Jacob Jones became particularly notable for rescuing hundreds of people from ships sunk by German submarines.
On 6 December 1917, she was returning from Brest when she was spotted by the German submarine U 53.
Its commander was Kapitänleutnant Hans Rose, one of the most successful U boat commanders of the First World War.
There was already an extraordinary connection between Rose, U 53 and the United States Navy.
In October 1916, while America was still neutral, Rose had sailed U 53 openly into Newport, Rhode Island. He went ashore in uniform, paid courtesy visits to senior American naval officers and entertained visitors aboard his submarine.
He then sailed back into the Atlantic and began sinking Allied ships just beyond American territorial waters.
A little over a year later, America and Germany were at war.
Rose stalked Jacob Jones unseen before firing a single torpedo from around 1,000 metres. It struck the destroyer on the starboard side, causing devastating damage.
As the ship sank, her depth charges exploded beneath the men struggling in the water.
USS Jacob Jones disappeared in only eight minutes. Sixty three members of her crew lost their lives, making her the first United States Navy destroyer to be sunk by enemy action.
What Rose did next was remarkable.
He surfaced U 53 and took two badly wounded American sailors aboard as prisoners. He then transmitted the position of the survivors so that rescue ships could find them, asking only for enough time to clear the area before they arrived.
For more than a century, the final resting place of USS Jacob Jones remained undiscovered.
Then, on 11 August 2022, six of us from the Darkstar team reached the wreck.
Finding the bell so soon after arriving on the seabed was an extraordinary moment. As Rick’s photograph shows, the name was still clearly visible.
We spent around twenty minutes exploring the wreck, seeing her boilers, steam turbines, torpedo tubes, propeller and the damage that had carried her to the seabed. That was followed by an ascent lasting almost three hours.
Nothing was removed and the discovery was reported to the United States authorities. Subsequently the bell was recovered by the Royal Navy and is now back in America.
It remains one of the most historically significant and unforgettable dives I have ever been part of.
We went down hoping to identify an unknown wreck.
We came back having found USS Jacob Jones.
Photo by Rick Ayrton.
