The wreck of the ANTEROS lies in 95m of water and is orientated 215 (bow)/035 (stern). The wreck is 117m in length and lies on its port side. The height of the hull from keel to upper deck is c.12.5m.
The wreck was originally categorised by the UKHO as 'Unknown'. Research by Dr Innes McCartney (2022: 130) for the Echoes from the Deep project, following a detailed survey by Bangor University, identified the wreck as being dimensionally, positionally, and archivally consistent with the loss of the ANTEROS, and its record has been updated to reflect that new research.
NOTE: The update to the location of the wreck of the ANTEROS means that it no longer lies within Welsh Waters, and is to the west of the Wales/Ireland median line in the Irish Sea. As such, the wreck should not be considered as an active part of the National Monuments Record of Wales. It has been retained within the overall NMRW for completeness.
Event and Historical Information:
The ANTEROS was a 4271gt steel-hulled steamship built by Dunlop, Bremner & Co Ltd, Port Glasgow, in 1917 (official number 139190). At time of loss on 24 March 1818, the vessel was owned by the Egypt and Levant Steam Ship Company Ltd. ANTEROS was on passage from Manchester to Port Talbot when it was torpedoed by German submarine UB-103. The vessel sank in just 3 minutes with the loss of two lives. The name commemmorated on the the Hong Kong Memorial is Ah Ming, 2nd Boatswain. The name commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial to the Mercantile Marine is Thomas Edmund Stephens, age 27, Second Engineer.
Sources include:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
HMSO, 1988, British Vessels Lost at Sea 1914-18 and 1939-45, p.85
Larn and Larn Shipwreck Database 2002
Lloyd's Confidential War Loss Record 1914-1918, p.208
Lloyd's Register Casualty Returns, 1 January - 31 March 1918, p.9 (i)
McCartney, I., 2022. Echoes from the Deep. Leiden: Sidestone Press. https://www.sidestone.com/books/echoes-from-the-deep
Tennant, A.J, British Merchant Ships sunk by U-Boats in 1914-18 War, p.193
U-Boat Project: Commemorating the War at Sea
UKHO ID 7091: Contains public sector information, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0, from UK Hydrographic Office.
J. Whitewright, RCAHMW, May 2023
This record was enhanced in 2020 with funding from Lloyd's Register Foundation as part of the project ‘Making the Link: Lloyd's Register and the National Monuments Record of Wales’. Visit Lloyd’s Register Foundation Heritage and Education Centre for more resources.