Nazi spies landed on US soil days before German U-boat sank Canadian ship off Maine in 1944; 82 years later, divers find wreck 400 feet underwater

A German submarine secretly landed two Nazi spies on American soil in November 1944 before torpedoing a Canadian merchant ship off the coast of Maine just four days later, killing 43 people aboard. More than eight decades after the World War II tragedy, divers have finally located the long-lost vessel nearly 400 feet beneath the Atlantic Ocean.

The discovery of the SS Cornwallis, reported by Smithsonian Magazine, has brought renewed attention to one of the lesser-known episodes of Nazi espionage along America's eastern coastline.The wreck was discovered on July 11, 2026, by the Nomad Exploration Team, a civilian technical diving group based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The team had spent seven years searching for the missing ship before locating it near Mount Desert Rock in the Gulf of Maine.

Using side-scan sonar, historical shipping records and the vessel's original blueprints, the divers identified the wreck in approximately 400 feet of water.The discovery was formally announced in October, more than 81 years after the ship disappeared beneath the sea.