A cargo ship which sank without trace in the Atlantic has been located by Keighley-born deep sea diving expert Graham Jessop.

Mr Jessop and his team discovered the German ship, the Isis, when combing the seabed off the coast of Cornwall for the Carpathia.

"It's a sad story because of the 40 crew on board only the cabin boy survived," said Mr Jessop, who has been in touch with the German Press in an attempt to trace victims' relatives.

Mr Jessop, who runs the deep sea exploration company Ocean Point, has been commissioned to find the Carpathia, the Cunard liner which rescued passengers adrift in the Atlantic after the Titanic sank in 1912. It was sunk by a German U-boat in 1918 and lies in 600ft of water about 185 miles west of Lands End in the Atlantic Ocean. The Isis, which sank in November 1936 in strong gales, was found as his team searched the seabed using sonar.

"The last message from the Isis was that it was taking water in quickly and that its bow was smashed in," said Mr Jessop.

"It sank and 39 people lost their lives, only the cabin boy surviving. Its last know location was 20 miles from where we found it."

The Red Star liner Westernland, which was in the area, steamed to the rescue and picked up the young lad from a lifeboat.

Also in the area was the Queen Mary, which responded to the last SOS message from the stricken ship, but was beaten to it by the Westernland. On board the Queen Mary was 1930s heart-throb Douglas Fairbanks Junior. The Press at the time reported he was in tears at the plight of the boy, Fritz Koethke, said Mr Jessop.

"There could be a chance the cabin boy is still alive. He'd be in his 70s now and there could be other relatives of the drowned crew," he said.

"We have the exact location and we're willing to give it to any relatives so they know where the grave of their loved-ones is - that's the whole point of locating the ship."

The location of the vessel has also been given to the Ministry of Defence, which keeps a record of wrecks, and the German authorities have also been informed.

The tragedy was recorded in The Times on November 10, 1936. It reported that the vessel was bound for New York from Hamburg when it foundered in a gale. The last message from the ship said the crew were taking to the lifeboats.

Mr Jessop and his partner Gary Goodyear, whose exploration vessel Dawn Venture is based in Grimbsy, plan to resume their search for the Carpathia in the spring, using a special unmanned deep sea diving pod.

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