In the summer of 1931, the HMS Poseidon, Britain’s most advanced submarine, collided with a cargo ship off the coast of China. Though 21 men perished, the wreck of the Poseidon also marked the first time sailors escaped from a sunken submarine using proto-scuba equipment, changing nautical safety forever. Their story hit newspaper headlines worldwide and inspired a feature film. The submarine, however, gradually sank into obscurity.

Nearly 100 years later, Beijing-based journalist and part-time scuba instructor Steven Schwankert was looking for interesting wrecks to dive in northern China when he found the HMS Poseidon on a list of unexplored dive sites. His interest grew into a six-year project to find the lost submarine, a quest that would challenge official accounts and reveal the hidden history of the Poseidon.

The Poseidon Project documents Schwankert’s investigations into the Poseidon and the circumstances surrounding its wreck. Schwankert will attend the UCCA screening and participate in a Q&A session.

Steven Schwankert (Author of Poseidon: China’s Secret Salvage of Britain’s Lost Submarine)