An online talk by Tad Taberer on the discovery of the shipwreck of the SS T.R. Thompson, of diving and recording the historic steamer and of the incredible connections that followed.

On Good Friday, 1918, at ten to four in the morning, the SS T.R. Thompson was torpedoed by a German U-boat, ten miles into the English Channel. 33 of her 36 crew were killed, three survivors could only remember an enormous explosion before finding themselves in the water.

The T. R. Thompson steamship was built in 1897 by Short Brothers of Sunderland and had been taking a cargo of iron ore from Algeria to Middlesbrough when she was torpedoed by the U-Boat UB-57, along the south coast during World War I.

The wreck's position had been known since the 1980s and it was adopted by Meridian Divers who explored the site and searched for descendants of the crew.

Tad Taberer was one of the divers and coordinators on the project to look into the T.R. Thompson and find out about its history. One of the main objectives alongside telling the story of the steamship, was the hope to find any living relatives of the unfortunate crew.

Tad will be telling us his amazing story of the shipwreck discovery, of diving and recording the historic steamer and of the incredible connections that followed.