The wreck identified as the CARTAGENA lies in 33m of water with its keel orientated 210 (bow)/ 110 (stern) degrees. It has a surveyed length of 41m, a width of 7m and a maximum height of 7m.

The wreck is substantially intact and lying with a slight list to port. The bows are to the northwest and have a raised forecastle. The port side anchor is still in place at the bow. The bulwarks have corroded away in several locations, and there are areas of the deck missing. There is a large winch immediately in front of the wheelhouse. The four sets of gallows on the port side have been damaged and are bent over. At the stern, the rudder can be seen over to starboard. The ship's bell, marked TR 4, was recovered in 1989 and is now held by the Maritime Forces Command Museum, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

This wreck was originally located and examined by the UKHO in 1987, with further survey in 2020. It was subject to a detailed survey by Bangor University in May 2017. Associated research was undertaken by Dr Innes McCartney (2022) for the Echoes from the Deep project, which corroborated the existing identification of the wreck as the CARTAGENA. Detailed diver reports were submitted to the UKHO in 2007.

Event and Historical Information:
The CARTAGENA was one of 60 minesweeping trawlers ordered in Canada for the Royal Navy during the first World War. They were copies of the British Castle Class trawlers based on the mercantile prototype designed by the Smith Dock Company, Stockton-upon-Tees. They were ordered by the Royal Canadian Navy in two groups - 36 vessels and then 24 vessels - but only 45 were built. The basic specification was 123ft length x 22 ft breadth x 12ft draft. They were powered with a single screw 480 IHP Steam Reciprocating engines. TR4 was built by the Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company of Ontario, being completed and accepted on 27 November 1917. Its first winter was spent at Quebec frozen into the Saint Lawrence River. TR4 was then sent on to Sydney, Nova Scotia, to join the East Coast patrol fleet operated by a Canadian crew. After the war ended, the crew were paid off and TR4 laid up in March 1919 to join 60 other trawlers and 86 drifters that were now surplus.The Anderson Company of New York were appointed to try and sell the vessels. Six were sold to the Mexican Navy, but US shipping laws prevented the others from being sold to US buyers. In 1920, an offer was accepted from the Rose Street Foundry & Engineering Co Ltd, Inverness, to bring some the trawlers and drifters to the UK for sale. Arriving in convoy from across the Atlantic, the TR4 was amongst those laid-up in the Muirtown Basin of the Caledonian Canal at Inverness. This being prior to sale and possible refit for classification as steam trawlers. Five years later, the TR4 was still languishing at Inverness despite the gun platform having been removed and a fish hold having been made forward of the bunker. It was eventually bought by the Boston Deep Sea Fishing & Ice Co Ltd, Grimsby. TR4's name was changed to CARTAGENA and it was finally given a Fleetwood fishing number (FD139). The CARTAGENA was then transferred to Grimsby for inspection by the Board of Trade and then sailed to Boulogne to eb surveyed to receive an international ship classification from Bureau Veritas. The CARTAGENA then returned to Fleetwood to allow the completion of the sale to the Brazilian Ministry of Marine in December 1927.

On 15 January 1928, the CARTAGENA began its long delivery voyage to Rio De Janiero under the command of John Rawlings of Grimsby. The 13 other crewmembers on board were Paul Petersen, First Mate; W H Grayson, Third Hand; Laurence Gratrix, Chief Engineer; M G Wilson, Second Engineer; Peter Brennan, Fireman; J P Monaghan, Fireman; Albert and Richard Taylor, Deckhands; J McFarlane., Deckhand; W A Stelfox, Deckhand, and N Robertson, Steward. The only traces subsequently found of the trawler were a drum of tar which she had been carrying on deck and her lifeboat both picked up at sea near Llandudno on the 16 January. Three weeks later, one of the trawler's lifebuoys was picked up near Carnforth in Morecambe Bay. In 1989, a wreck that had been charted since 1929 was dived and found to be an intact trawler. The bell was recovered marked `TR4?. Members of Chester British Aqua Club (BSAC) have adopted the wreck through Nautical Archaeology Society's Adopt-a-Wreck scheme and its continues to be researched and surveyed by club members. The ship was included in the multi-beam surveys undertaken by Bangor University and used for an underwater fieldschool in 2018, as part of the Royal Commission's HLF-funded Partnership Project - 'Commemorating the Forgotten U-Boat War around the Welsh Coast 1914-18'.

Sources include:
Fleetwood Chronicle, February 1928

Larn and Larn shipwreck database 2002

Lloyds Register of British and Foreign Shipping 1 July 1927 - 30 June 1928, number 07558 in C

McCartney, I., 2022. Echoes from the Deep. Leiden: Sidestone Press. https://www.sidestone.com/books/echoes-from-the-deep

UKHO ID 7430: Contains public sector information, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0, from UK Hydrographic Office.

Western Morning News, 29 March 1928, pg9

J. Whitewright, RCAHMW, January 2025.

Site Record

Cartagena (UKHO 7430)