It is amazing what one can buy online these days.  Recently, Dom Robinson, 53, a diver and shipwreck aficionado from Portsmouth, Hampshire, saw an ad on Facebook Marketplace for a World War I shipwreck for sale for just £300. He couldn’t resist, so he snapped up the wreck of the 3,000-tonne SS Almond Branch.

SS Almond Branch, a steam-powered cargo ship built in 1896, was torpedoed by German submarine UB-57 near Mevagissey on November 27, 1917, and has rested 58m underwater off the coast of Cornwall ever since. 

Every shipwreck has a legal owner. In Britain, the government sold a number of them into private hands to be salvaged after the end of the Second World War.

Robinson, who has a YouTube channel called Deep Wreck Diver, contacted the seller, who happened to live nearby. “I’ve bought bikes off Facebook Marketplace with more hassle,” he said. “I was like: ‘Bingo, this is my opportunity to own a shipwreck.’ ”

After he paid the seller, Robinson received a letter from a government official known as the Receiver of Wreck, who is responsible for managing the ownership of shipwrecks. The letter listed Robinson as the legal owner of the SS Almond Branch.

“The government stopped selling shipwrecks twenty-odd years ago, but I always quite fancied owning one,” Robinson said.

Robinson understands that there is no money to be made from the wreck, but is still pleased with his purchase.“It’s a relatively well-known wreck in the local area, so I’ve dived it before. I knew what I was getting when I bought it,” he said.

“It’s still a pile of rusting iron, but you’re swimming around a pile of rusting iron and going: ‘Yeah, this is my pile of rusting iron!’ ”

Not everyone is as pleased with Dom’s acquisition. His wife Suzi, 53, was ‘furious‘ after finding out he bought the shipwreck.  She said, “What a waste of money – I just hope he doesn’t bring it up and put it in the garden”.’

I bought a SHIPWRECK on Facebook Marketplace

Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.