Introduction

The true story of a search for a missing fleet of German warships, sunk by the Royal Navy off the Falkland Islands in December 1914, during one of the first great sea battles of the First World War. The Scharnhorst was an armoured cruiser and Admiral Graf von Spee’s flagship.

This is a follow on for the 2015 documentary ‘Falklands 1914: The Hunt for Germany’s Lost Battleships.’

Outline

In December 1914 a decisive encounter took place in the South Atlantic. The British Navy took on its German counterpart off Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, and sank four vessels, including two armoured cruisers, with the loss of more than 2,000 lives.

A century later, Falklands native Mensun Bound, a maritime archaeologist, puts together an expedition to find the wreckage of the flagship SMS Scharnhorst. The location is not precisely known; using sonar “fish” to track a huge stretch of seabed is, Bound says, like “mowing a gigantic lawn”. And this is the stormy South Atlantic, not the placid Med.

Five years later, Bound is back at sea. Can more hi-tech (if more temperamental) equipment succeed where the 2014 attempt failed?

Production & Filming Details

• Director(s): Matthew Wortman.
• Producer(s): Charles Thompson, Matthew Wortman, and Thea Wrobbel.
• Editor(s): Jason Wood.
• Production: TVT Productions.
• Distributor(s): TVT Productions.
• Release Date: 17 October 2015.
• Running Time: 60 minutes.
• Country: UK.
• Language: English.