Carpathia sank in 1918, six years after going to the aid of the Titanic. Graham Jessop, from the company Argosy International, said the ship was found three days ago in 600ft of water, 185 miles west of Land's End, using a sonar probe.

"We will continue to explore the wreck but we have been blown in by the tail-end of the hurricane which is still there at the moment," he said.

"As soon as the weather allows we will be returning to the wreck to do more extensive work.

Carpathia went to the rescue after an iceberg sank "the unsinkable"

"She is in reasonably good condition for a wreck of that age. She is in one piece and she is sat upright."

The 13,000-tonne Cunard Line ship rescued the survivors from the Titanic disaster after its wireless operator picked up a distress signal from the ship.

The ship's captain managed to push the ship to a speed of 17 knots - two knots faster than its capacity - in a desperate race against time to reach the ailing boat.

But Carpathia went to its own watery grave after being torpedoed twice by a German U-boat off Ireland's south coast while travelling from Liverpool to America. Five people died, but 215 people escaped.