TIRANA, Albania — Using undersea scanning devices, archaeologists from the U.S. and Albania think they have found the wreckage of an Italian ship that British forces torpedoed during World War II when Albania was occupied by Mussolini’s Fascists.
The remnants, found just off Albania’s coast last weekend, probably were part of the 8,000- ton Rosandra freighter, which was hit by a British submarine June 14, 1943, the team said Monday, the 67th anniversary of the sinking.
Six people died in the attack on the Axis vessel, which was carrying 400 tons of food and military supplies to Italian occupation forces in neighboring Greece, but 173 were evacuated.
Albanian archaeologists and the RPM Nautical Foundation of Key West, Fla., have found 18 wrecks from ancient, medieval and modern times off the Balkan country’s coast.
The expedition is creating an underwater cultural heritage map of the Albanian coastline with the aim of opening an underwater archaeological museum in Porto Palermo in what is regarded as Albania’s Riviera.
