Author Topic: Divers find sunken German U-boat off Massachusetts coast  (Read 1323 times)

Offline MarineUS

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Divers find sunken German U-boat off Massachusetts coast
« on: July 28, 2012, 04:19:45 AM »
Didn't see a post on this...but this story seems rather familiar. Maybe these guys are behind in the news or I'm losing my mind. Either way it was a neat read.


http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/27/12997423-divers-find-sunken-german-u-boat-off-massachusetts-coast?lite

BOSTON -- Divers have discovered a World War II-era German submarine nearly 70 years after it sank under withering U.S. attack in waters off Nantucket.

The U-550 was found Monday by a privately funded group organized by New Jersey lawyer Joe Mazraani.

"They’ve looked for it for over 20 years,” Mazraani, a shipwreck diver, told The Boston Globe. “It’s another World War II mystery solved.”
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In the second trip in two years to the site by the team, the seven-man crew using side-scan sonar located the wreck listing to its side in deep water about 70 miles south of Nantucket.

Sonar operator Garry Kozak said he spotted the 252-foot submarine during the second of an exhausting two days of searching. Kozak said the team asked him if they'd found it, then erupted in joy without a word from him.

"They could see it with the grin (on my face) and the look in my eyes," Kozak said.

The crew had searched 100 square miles of ocean, the Globe reported. Traveling at five knots, the ship scanned the vast expanse for signs of the sunken vessel, a tedious process crew members likened to “mowing the lawn.”

Mazraani dove down to confirm the discovery with pictures, the Globe said.

On April 16, 1944, the U-550 torpedoed the gasoline tanker SS Pan Pennsylvania, which had lagged behind its protective convoy as it set out with 140,000 barrels of gasoline for Great Britain, according to the U.S. Coast Guard website and research by Mazraani.

The U-boat slipped under the doomed tanker to hide. But one of the tanker's three escorts, the USS Joyce, saw it on sonar and severely damaged it by dropping depth charges.


The Germans, forced to surface, manned their deck guns while another escort vessel, the USS Gandy, returned fire and rammed the U-boat. The third escort, the USS Peterson, then hit the U-boat with two more depth charges. The crew abandoned the submarine, but not before setting off explosions to scuttle it. The submarine hadn't been seen again until Monday.

The U-550 is one of several World War II-era German U-boats that have been discovered off the U.S. coast, but it's the only one that sank in that area, Mazraani said. He said it's been tough to find largely because military positioning of the battle was imprecise, and searchers had only a general idea where the submarine was when it sank. Kozak noted that the site is far offshore and has only limited windows of good weather.


The other team members were Steve Gatto, Tom Packer, Brad Sheard, Eric Takakjian and Anthony Tedsechi

Mazraani is cagey about the vessel's precise location, saying only that it's in deep water. Mazraani's said his best estimate was that the team spent thousands of dollars of its own money on the expedition. He joked that no one on the team, whose members range in age from the mid-20s to mid-50s, stands to make money from the find unless someone writes a book.

Mazraani said the next step is to contact any sailors or their families from the escort vessels, the tanker and the German U-boat to share the news and show the pictures. Another trip to the site is coming, he said, adding the investigation has just started.
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"The history behind it all is really what drives us," Mazraani said.

This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.
Like, ya know, when that thing that makes you move, it has pistons and things, When your thingamajigy is providing power, you do not hear other peoples thingamajig when they are providing power.

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Offline rpm

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Re: Divers find sunken German U-boat off Massachusetts coast
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2012, 04:36:45 AM »
I read about that earlier. There are some wanting to try and raise it to make a museum, but it's a war grave.
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Offline MarineUS

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Re: Divers find sunken German U-boat off Massachusetts coast
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2012, 04:52:28 AM »
I read about that earlier. There are some wanting to try and raise it to make a museum, but it's a war grave.
And if left, it will eventually wear away into nothing.

I personally don't care either way. If I were a sailor/submariner I'd want them to raise it and get whatever piece of me they could (even if unidentifiable) and put my remains back on land, in my country.

And if I remember correctly, the article said the crew bailed but rigged it before they did.
Like, ya know, when that thing that makes you move, it has pistons and things, When your thingamajigy is providing power, you do not hear other peoples thingamajig when they are providing power.

HiTech

Offline zack1234

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Re: Divers find sunken German U-boat off Massachusetts coast
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2012, 04:55:53 AM »
There is one in Liverool, its massive and on dry land :old:

The crew scuttled it and it contained those programmable torpedoes :old:

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Offline Chilli

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Re: Divers find sunken German U-boat off Massachusetts coast
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2012, 05:39:19 AM »
I read about that earlier. There are some wanting to try and raise it to make a museum, but it's a war grave.

I read the same that it was abandoned and scuttled with charges.  Still, there may have been some that weren't able to abandon ship.  Records would show hopefully.  It doesn't seem as though it were like the Titanic, where we know passengers were unable to abandon before it sunk.

Anyhow, being discovered near Nantucket, and the information that she actually destroyed an American tanker carrying petroleum to Britain, is not exactly invasion statistics, but really brings it home to how very close at home, American lives came in contact to Nazi innovation.

Offline MiloMorai

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Re: Divers find sunken German U-boat off Massachusetts coast
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2012, 07:00:28 AM »
U-550
Type IXC/40
   
Ordered   5 Jun 1941   
Laid down   2 Oct 1942    Deutsche Werft AG, Hamburg (werk 371)
Launched   12 May 1943   
Commissioned   28 Jul 1943   Klaus Hänert
Commanders    
28 Jul 1943   -    16 Apr 1944        Kptlt. Klaus Hänert
Career
1 patrol   
28 Jul 1943   -   31 Jan 1944     4. Flottille (training)
1 Feb 1944   -   16 Apr 1944     10. Flottille (front boat)
Successes   1 ship sunk, total tonnage 11,017 GRT
Fate    

Sunk 16 April, 1944 in the North Atlantic east of New York, in position 40.09N, 69.44W, by depth charges and gunfire from the US destroyer escorts USS Gandy, USS Joyce and USS Peterson. 44 dead and 12 survivors.

Offline icepac

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Re: Divers find sunken German U-boat off Massachusetts coast
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2012, 08:25:47 AM »
Dang......7 million gallons of gasoline.

Offline BERN1

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Re: Divers find sunken German U-boat off Massachusetts coast
« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2012, 08:56:20 AM »
I read about that earlier. There are some wanting to try and raise it to make a museum, but it's a war grave.
a war grave didnt the report say the sailors abandoned it and set off charges to scuttle it?

Offline Maverick

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Re: Divers find sunken German U-boat off Massachusetts coast
« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2012, 10:05:07 AM »
a war grave didnt the report say the sailors abandoned it and set off charges to scuttle it?

They were in active combat including surface action. That combat involved a collision at see as well as impact by munitions. Do you really expect that no one died on that boat under those circumstances?  :huh
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Offline rpm

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Re: Divers find sunken German U-boat off Massachusetts coast
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2012, 10:30:04 AM »
a war grave didnt the report say the sailors abandoned it and set off charges to scuttle it?
44 dead and 12 survivors.
Didn't see any reports about 44 bodies recovered before she was scuttled.
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Offline GScholz

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Re: Divers find sunken German U-boat off Massachusetts coast
« Reply #10 on: July 28, 2012, 10:40:49 AM »
It's not a unique boat so there isn't really a good reason to disturb a war grave for it. U-505, another Type IX, is fully restored and on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. U-534 was salvaged in 1993 and is on display in Birkenhead, UK.


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Offline Bodhi

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Re: Divers find sunken German U-boat off Massachusetts coast
« Reply #11 on: July 28, 2012, 10:41:15 AM »
Several bodies were recovered at the scene and surrounding area over a couple of days.  The majority of the crew was lost with U-550.

It is a war grave and should be treated as such.  If these guys have any shred of respect, they would document the exterior and leave it be.  The problem is, everyone has to have a "souvenir" and these types usually penetrate these graves and loot from them.
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Offline MiloMorai

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Re: Divers find sunken German U-boat off Massachusetts coast
« Reply #12 on: July 28, 2012, 03:13:48 PM »
In other U-boat news,

German U-boat wreck may be at bottom of Churchill River in Labrador.

"Brian Corbin says it might sound far-fetched but he’s 100 per cent sure there is a German U-boat lying on the bottom of Labrador’s Churchill River more than 200 kilometres from the coast.

Rumours of a World War II German submarine at the bottom of the river have been around for years, but a grainy sonar image seems to show the outline of the type of sub that terrorized the North Atlantic during World War II."

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1232162--german-u-boat-wreck-may-be-at-bottom-of-churchill-river-in-labrador

Offline xbrit

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Re: Divers find sunken German U-boat off Massachusetts coast
« Reply #13 on: July 28, 2012, 10:04:43 PM »
There is one in Liverool, its massive and on dry land :old:

The crew scuttled it and it contained those programmable torpedoes :old:


If it's in Liverpool I bet it's up on bricks by now.

Offline Babalonian

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Re: Divers find sunken German U-boat off Massachusetts coast
« Reply #14 on: July 30, 2012, 12:53:53 PM »
Several bodies were recovered at the scene and surrounding area over a couple of days.  The majority of the crew was lost with U-550.

It is a war grave and should be treated as such.  If these guys have any shred of respect, they would document the exterior and leave it be.  The problem is, everyone has to have a "souvenir" and these types usually penetrate these graves and loot from them.

My hope rests ultimatley in that they don't disclose the wreck's location.  If they do, and a year or two after things settle, that's when souvenir divers will begin to swarm (some may search for it themselves without the location now that they know roughly where it is, that it does exist, and that it's within diving depths).
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