The Daily Populous Saturday April 26th, 2025 morning edition
Authored by popsci.com and submitted by popsci

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Browse Facebook Marketplace and you’ll encounter an assortment of odd finds: vintage lamps, used socks, a car engulfed in flames. Dom Robinson found a 3,300-ton, 330ft long cargo ship that sank off the Cornish coast during World War I. And it was a bargain: only £300 ($400 USD).

Robinson purchased the wreck of the SS Almond Branch from someone who bought the wreckage from the British government in the 1970s. He told BBC Radio Cornwall that the original owner hoped to uncover something of value, but found it to just be a “big pile of rusting iron.” That didn’t bother Robinson, who is an hobbyist diver and had already done a dive visit to the site before acquiring the sunken pile of rusty iron.

The SS Almond Branch. Screenshot: Dom Robinson/YouTube

The SS Almond Branch was a British defense-armed merchant ship built in 1896 that a German submarine torpedo took down on November 27, 1917. The ship came to a rest in the waters near Dodman Point off South Cornwall.

In the UK, private individuals can purchase shipwrecks. Thousands of wrecks sit in the waters around the UK, and owners need to follow a set of guidelines set by the government to ensure safety and historical preservation.

Robinson took cameras along for his first dive of the wreck since finalizing his purchase. You can watch his dive, which took place in January 2025, in the video above. Happy exploring, Dom.

EchosOfLaughter on April 25th, 2025 at 21:19 UTC »

Steel dating from before the atmosphic atomic bomb testing period is supposed to be valuable for radioactivity free metal for sensitive medical equipment.... no clue if the rustiness will be too great to be useful for that purpose. Neat purchase tho :)

Majillionaire on April 25th, 2025 at 18:31 UTC »

Love this, thanks for posting

popsci on April 25th, 2025 at 17:49 UTC »

Hobbyist diver Dom Robinson found a 3,300-ton, 330ft long cargo ship that sank off the Cornish coast during World War I on Facebook Marketplace for just £300 ($400 USD). The original owner said it was just “big pile of rusting iron.”