AT A GLANCE, the search appears to be just another deep sea mission driven by the human obsession with huge vessels, such as with the doomed Titanic.
The Argentine warship ARA General Belgrano lies at a depth of 4,200 metres on the sea bed of the South Atlantic ocean. It once had the reputation of being 'the luckiest ship in the navy' for its uncanny ability to escape every battle pretty much unscathed.
However, shortly into watching The Sinking of the Belgrano - National Geographic Channel's highlight for June - I realised that the programme was about more than just a hunt for the wreck of a legendary vessel.
The Belgrano met a tragic end. Argentina had intended to turn the 44-year-old American-made cruiser into a floating museum, but the Falklands war turned that plan on its head.
On May 2, 1982, hundreds died as the 'lucky ship' was torpedoed and sunk by the British submarine Conqueror.
There were 1,093 sailors on board, and the surviving crew members, shell-shocked, had to fight for their lives in the icy waters.
The documentary not only relives the tension similar to that in the Hollywood movie, The Hunt for Red October, but also people's distorted images of life and of the horrors of a war 'that most people hoped was avoidable but was then being fought in earnest'.
