A TEAM of archaeologists have been able to recreate a sunken warship following 'incredible footage' from the diving trip.

Volunteers and divers of the Maritime Archaeology Trust have made a 3D digital model of the World War One shipwreck, the John Mitchell, which sunk of the Dorset coast.

It was mine-sweeping when it hit another vessel and sank in November 1917, with no loss of life to the crew.

Now the wreck of the 85 foot (25m) long wooden, steam-powered fishing boat lies at a depth of 40m (131 ft) about 15 miles south of Christchurch.

Hundred of photos and hours of footage were captured during the unusually clear waters in June when divers swam down to see the ship first hand.

The new model forms part of the Forgotten Wrecks project - a four-year project to research some of the many, many wrecks on the south coast.

It's been funded through a £1.1m grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Project manager Amanda Bowens said: "We applied for it in 2011 but it started in 2014 and it will last until 2018, planned to coincide with the centenary.

"We have got a team of nine people and hundreds of volunteers who are the life blood of the project.

"The John Mitchell project is just one of 1,000 of wrecks we're looking at in terms of research.

"We've got about nine weeks of diving across the whole four years of the project. The splash we're making is that the conditions in June of this year were extraordinary and we have been able to get incredible footage from it.

"The deeper you get the less clear it is but this was so clear.

"This project is all about letting people know about the works being carried out along the south coast. People don't really realise what was going on off the coast, from small fishing boats to ammunition-carrying U boats."

Other wrecks include merchant and naval ships, passenger, troop and hospital ships, and crashed aircraft.

To see the model visit the Forgotten Wrecks site.