The team found that on the afternoon of 13 December 1917, HMS Stephen Furness was in the Northern Ireland Sea, about to undergo repairs in Liverpool, when she was hit by a single torpedo fired from UB-64, which had been patiently following the Irish Sea for some time. opportunity like this for a few days.

The impact of the torpedo caused an explosion that caused the ship to sink within three minutes.

Since then, the location of the attack and the final resting place of HMS Stephen Furness have remained a mystery.

The team also found that about a month after the sinking, four of the crew killed during the attack washed up off the coast of North Wales, almost a hundred miles to the south.

Archived meteorological data were used to understand how this happened and to examine what might happen in other similar scenarios.

New information from this discovery will allow researchers to explore beyond simple narratives about the blockade and U-Boat warfare and make direct connections with the people involved, the lives they lived and the sacrifices they made.