Probably not.

... sank off the Italian coast ...

...sank before reaching the coast

#2 if somewhere quite close to the Italian coast is meant.

"before" has a time element, eg #3, before reaching....but not simply "before the coast"

It usually has a time element, but not always: he went before the judge, e.g. - that doesn't mean that he went and then the judge went. Although it could. :-)

LOL... dude, you're right of course... but anything even slightly legally tinged is in its own world....as you well know :) :)

I wonder if there is a dated, perhaps mostly nautical expression here. We saw two ships before the coast? Cf. Two years before the Mast.

Still, #1 and #2.

before the door geht manchmal wohl auch:

Siehe auch: Herzinfarkt für Englischlehrer