ROME — A French battleship sunk by a German submarine during World War I has been discovered in remarkable condition on the Mediterranean seabed off Sardinia, officials say.
The Danton, a 410-foot-long warship that was one of the largest French naval vessels of her era, was spotted by a company conducting an underwater survey for a gas pipeline between Algeria and Italy.
The Galsi pipeline builder said in a statement Thursday that the battleship was in “remarkable” condition with many of its gun turrets still intact.
It said the Danton was sitting upright under more than 1,000 yards of water on the Mediterranean seabed 22 miles southwest of the Italian island of Sardinia.
The Rome-based Fugro Oceansismica first discovered the wreck while conducting a geophysical survey for Galsi’s Algeria-to-Italy pipeline in late 2007. It’s high-tech equipment allowed officials to construct a digital 3-dimensional model of the ship and surrounding seabed.
Galsi said subsequent talks with French naval authorities confirmed the wreck was that of the Danton, which was built in Brest in 1910.
The Danton sank with 296 sailors aboard in 1917. Galsi said that according to naval historians, the ship’s captain made no attempt to leave the ship as it went down.
Galsi says it will reroute the pipeline to keep it far from the wreck.
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