Anglo-European Investigation Solves 46-Year Mystery of Shipwreck Off Dover Coast
The identity of a shipwreck off the Kent coast, which had remained a mystery for nearly five decades, has been definitively established. An Anglo-European investigation confirmed the vessel as the Belgian fishing boat Hosanna, which disappeared with its crew in 1980. The case was resolved through collaborative efforts involving Dutch maritime researchers and British wreck researcher Mark Lewis of Mutiny Diving. Two dives were conducted at the site, with Mutiny Diving first investigating the wreck in August and confirming its identity through a second examination last month. The Hosanna was a 25-meter steel fishing vessel built in Zeebrugge in 1965 and sold to British company Minerva Fisheries Ltd shortly before its disappearance. It departed Plymouth on February 14, 1980, bound for the Netherlands but never arrived. No distress signal was transmitted, and no survivors were found, though a liferaft was discovered near the Goodwin Sands on February 16, 1980. The missing crew included skipper Germain Ackx, hi...
