When the story hits the media on September 25, 2021, the impact will be huge. In diving circles, this is very unusual, a large steamer that is at a diveable depth for most sports divers, relatively close to land. It is also seemingly well preserved as it appears to have settled quietly and nicely on the bottom. Over the next few days, social media, online groups and the media are abuzz. 

Wreckage unknown

People are clamoring for a chance to dive on the wreck. It doesn’t take many hours before the wreck report is out and the likely identity is established. – Dodona – which ran aground on the evening of November 27, 1913. But when we start diving on the wreck in October 2021, Simon Kenttä and his dive buddy Mikael quickly realize that it is not Dodona but the steamer Annie that sank in 1891. 

When Jacob Hägg sails over her with his Sonar, Annie has been at the bottom for 130 years after the sinking. But why has no one looked for her? Logically, it would have been a trophy for most divers to find such a fine steamer, but it’s as if the wreck has been a ghost all these years. No one has looked and when we search the archives at Umeå University, there is not a line written in the newspapers about the sinking. Nor do we find anything about her in the pilot’s logbooks.

Annie’s cargo and roadmap

The British steamer Annie had loaded timber in Sävenäs outside Skellefteå and was traveling to Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire, England. On board were 18 crew members including the master William Walter Burn and mate Elija Marshall. Annie was just over 70 meters long and was owned by Fredrick Gordon and Co. 

Sloppy navigation

Sloppy and unclear navigation resulted in the ship running aground east of Ängesön outside Umeå. Annie suffered bottom damage that caused her to take on water. A salvage steamer started towing but the damage was too great and Annie sank. The crew was rescued.