A special ship is being rigged out with high-tech equipment - including a deep sea exploration vehicle - in a bid to explore one of the most historic wrecks off the British coast.

Keighley-born deep sea diving expert Graham Jessop has been commissioned to lead the hunt for the Carpathia, a Cunard liner which rushed to the rescue of stricken passengers adrift in the Atlantic after the Titanic sank in 1912.

The Carpathia was itself 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.

Mr Jessop and his partner Gary Goodyear, who run the Grimbsy-based company Ocean Point, are now converting a vessel especially for the project.

Dawn Venture, originally built for the German government, will sail to the site in the spring to start. It will explore three or four vessels, one of which they hope will turn out to be the Carpathia.

Mr Jessop is the son of Keighley-born millionaire diver Keith Jessop, who spearheaded the recovery of gold worth £50 million from the sunken HMS Edinburgh in 1981.

He said Dawn Venture was currently being equipped with special cameras and a remote operation vehicle.

"It's just like a human eye and has a small manipulator claw which we can use to lift small items to help with the identification," he said.

He said he and Mr Goodyear had invested in the new ship because they were planning to explore a number of other sunken vessels for the National Underwater Marine Agency, which had located some 65 historic wrecks.

Mr Jessop has been commissioned to find the Carpathia by best-selling author Clive Cussler, who wrote Raise the Titanic and plans to make a video documentary of the venture.

"It's a very exciting project and we are planning to do others with him.

"There is one in particular - which will follow on from the Carpathia - which is extremely interesting historically. I can't say yet what it is, but it is in UK waters," added Mr Jessop.

He plans to have Dawn Venture ready in time to return to the Atlantic in the spring. The project is likely to take several months to complete.

Under the captaincy of Arthur Rostron, the Carpathia sped at 17 knots - two knots faster than its believed capacity - to reach Titani , which had sent out a distress signal. She took on board all the Titanic's survivors.

Six years later, the 13,000-ton ship was hit and sunk by two torpedoes fired from a German U-boat. Five people died but 215 escaped.

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