Z.592 Hosanna at sea, undated photograph. Photo: Mutiny Diving
A wreck lying in the Dover Strait has been identified as the Belgian-built fishing vessel Z.592 Hosanna, which disappeared with all five people aboard in February 1980. The announcement, made on 30 September 2026, ends 46 years of rumour about what happened to her.
The vessel
Hosanna was a 25-metre steel fishing vessel built in Zeebrugge in 1965. She was registered in Belgium as Z.592 and run by the Belgian company De Pax, with Germain Ackx closely linked to her as skipper. In the 1970s she became known beyond the fishing industry. According to Mutiny Diving’s research and offshore radio accounts, she helped supply the offshore radio ship Mi Amigo, used by Radio Caroline and other pirate broadcasters.
Shortly before she was lost, she was sold to a British company, Minerva Fisheries Ltd, and given the fishing registration GU5200.
Her last voyage
She left Plymouth on 14 February 1980, at about 18:30, bound for the Netherlands. Five people were on board:
- Skipper Germain Ackx
- His son, Piet Ackx
- Hector Snauwaert
- Pieter Guijt
- Pieter’s 14-year-old nephew, Pieter Albertus Guijt
At 21:28 UTC on 15 February, someone tried to connect a ship-to-shore phone call between Germain Ackx on Hosanna and his wife in Belgium. The call was not completed, but it shows Hosanna was still in contact that evening. No Mayday is known to have been sent, and no survivors were found.
At about 09:20 on 16 February, a liferaft linked to the vessel was found near the Goodwin Sands. A search followed, but Hosanna and the five people aboard were not found.
Decades of rumour
With no wreck, theories filled the gap. Some claimed sightings of the boat as far away as Morocco, Spain and Greece. Others spoke of smuggling and deliberate disappearance. Another long-running theory said she had been in a collision. Her past, including the offshore radio link and the recent change of ownership and registration, gave the stories room to grow.
None of it produced Hosanna.
How the wreck was traced
The new investigation was led in the Netherlands by Cees Meeldijk, chairman of Stichting Onderzoek Maritieme Vermisten (SOMV). He is a fisherman and maritime historian, and the foundation looks into long-term maritime disappearances using archive research, historical records and modern technology. Dutch producer Mary Kragtwijk and her team from public broadcaster EO followed the search. In Britain, Mutiny Diving wreck researcher and diver Mark Lewis studied the old records, the 1980 search details and the geography of the Dover Strait.
The search records often mentioned a Channel Separation buoy known in 1980 as CS2. That turned out to be a trap. The modern CS2 buoy is in a different part of the Channel. The Dover Strait shipping lanes and buoy numbering were changed, with new traffic separation arrangements brought in during 1982. So the 1980 references could not simply be plotted against the buoy that carries the same name today.
Once the old position was understood, attention turned to an unidentified fishing vessel wreck off Dover. Mutiny Diving runs wreck-diving charters from Dover and Folkestone, and works from its charter vessel Maverick. The firm says it had the local tidal knowledge, wreck-diving experience and access needed to reach a deep wreck in one of the busiest shipping areas in the world.
Two dives
Mutiny divers made a first investigation dive on 10 August 2026. They found the wreck upright, with the working deck at about 47 metres and the seabed around 52 metres. The wheelhouse is gone, which removed one of the most obvious places where identifying features might have survived. Divers found a lamp among the remains and filmed the accommodation area. The footage suggested there was still evidence that could identify the vessel, and it gave a clear reason to go back.
The second dive, on 24 September 2026, was planned to settle whether the wreck really was Hosanna. Divers worked from Maverick and focused on areas picked out during the first dive. The evidence from that dive gave the confirmation that had been missing since 1980.
Mutiny Diving is not publishing all of the underwater images, video or identifying features for now, because the television programme is still in development.
Family on the water
Members of the Guijt family, relatives of Pieter Guijt and Pieter Albertus Guijt, travelled to Dover. They went out on the boat Renegade with the Dutch television crew during the dive. Afterwards they laid flowers on the sea above the wreck. Mutiny Diving says a pod of dolphins appeared alongside the boats as the flowers went into the water. The firm offers no explanation for it, saying only that it made an emotional day especially memorable for those there.
For the family, there is now certainty on one basic point. Hosanna did not vanish to Morocco, Spain or anywhere else. She sank in the Dover Strait.
What the people involved said
“Every unidentified wreck has a story. With Hosanna, five people and their families were at the centre of that story. We had the boats, the local knowledge and the divers needed to investigate what was down there. To be able to play our part in confirming her identity after 46 years was a real privilege.”
Chris Webb, Mutiny Diving
“The wreck itself wasn’t newly discovered. What had been lost was its identity. The research was about taking records written in 1980, understanding what they actually meant geographically and then comparing that evidence with what we could see underwater. When those two sides of the investigation began matching, the case for Hosanna became increasingly difficult to ignore.”
Mark Lewis, Mutiny Diving wreck researcher and diver
“For me, one of the most important breakthroughs was realising that references to CS2 in the original search records could not be interpreted using today’s buoy positions. Once the historic changes to the Dover Strait buoy system were understood, the geography of the case started to make much more sense.”
Mark Lewis, Mutiny Diving wreck researcher and diver
Still unanswered: why she sank
Identifying the wreck does not explain the loss. No Mayday is known, and the order of events in her last hours is still unclear. Further study of the wreck and more archive research may help, and the investigation continues.
Documentary
The investigation is being followed by Dutch public broadcaster EO (Evangelische Omroep) for the second series of Op zee gebleven, a documentary series about fishing vessels lost at sea and the families left searching for answers. It will cover Hosanna, the search for answers and the Guijt family’s story, and is expected to air in the Netherlands in June 2027.
More information
Mutiny Diving has published the full story at mutinydiving.com. More on SOMV is at stichting-omv.nl.
Very interesting. Was there nothing to suggest why she might have gone under? The person who posted the link to this page suggested it might have been hit by a much larger boat but that seems unlikely given the evidence shown here. Do we know what the weather was like?