SMS M68 1917
Marker: recorded wreck position (First World War).
Key facts
| Name | SMS M68 | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1917 | English Wikipedia lead text (year following a loss verb, parsed) |
| Era | First World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | shipwreck | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | War action | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | Estonia | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Sea / ocean | Gulf of Finland | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | Finland | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 34 km from land |
| Position | 59.8697, 25.1474 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
SMS M68 was a M1916 type minesweeper built for the Imperial German Navy during the First World War. She entered service on 6 October 1917, but was mined and sunk off Latvia on 29 October 1917. The ship was salvaged by Latvia and entered service with the Latvian Navy on 10 November 1921 under the name Virsaitis as its first vessel. She was taken over by the Soviet Navy in August 1940 when the Soviet Union occupied Latvia in August 1940, serving as T-297 and was sunk by a mine on 2 December 1941.
Diving & visiting
In 2011, the wreck of Virsaitis was found off the coast of Finland near Hanko.
Location
- Recorded position: 59.8697, 25.1474 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Gulf of Finland
- Nearest coast: Finland
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article SMS M68 (revision 1373690093), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Wreck site”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- Russalka 1893 · 15 km
- Bungsberg 1943 · 51 km
- U-679 1945 · 101 km
- SMS Schleswig-Holstein 1944 · 109 km
- U-676 1945 · 113 km
- U-745 1945 · 114 km
Browse more: Europe wrecks · wrecks off Finland · Gulf of Finland · First World War