The SS Cornwallis had already been sunk once before. In September 1942, the 400-foot-long (120-meter-long), 5,458-ton merchant steamer had been torpedoed near Barbados. But there was a war on, and so, after refloating and repairs, the Cornwallis once again departed Barbados bound north, ferrying bags of sugar and barrels of molasses—until a German U-boat sank the unlucky cargo ship for the second and final time.

The final resting place of the SS Cornwallis , as well as the bodies of the 43 crew members who lost their lives in this fatal December 3, 1944 torpedo strike, had remained a mystery for over 80 years. All that was known for sure was that the merchant vessel had been sunk somewhere off the coast of Maine.…