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A squad of shipwreck hunters has discovered an extraordinary sunken vessel off the East Coast of the United States : the wreck of a World War I German U - boat sunk by U.S. military plane a century ago for prey practice .
accord to an exclusive composition by National Geographic , the squad confirmed the identity of the crash in early September as that of SM U-111 , a submarine that served in the Imperial German Navy . After Germany agreed to an truce in 1918 , the uracil - boat surrendered to the British , who save a handful of the other submarines to the U.S. to take and override railroad engineer . In 1922 , the U.S. Navy deliberately sank the vessel , but its exact location was not disclosed .
The wreck of SM U-111 lies on the seafloor about 40 miles off the coast of Virginia, at a depth of about 120 feet. It was rediscovered in July after being deliberately sunk over 100 years ago.
But in early July , wreck investigator Erik Petkovic and his colleague found the SM U-111 with a remotely - operated underwater vehicle ( ROV ) at a depth of about 400 feet ( 120 meters ) and about 40 miles ( 65 kilometers ) off the coast of Virginia .
" We were favourable , " Petkovic tell Live Science , describing the live TV image send back to their enquiry ship through the tether of the ROV . " We were on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean , and we get wind the wreckage . We tear apart the photographic camera , and the conning column was right there . " ( A conning tower is the raised program above the top deck of a submarine . )
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The discoverers revisited the site in September this year in a research vessel equipped with a remotely-operated underwater vehicle (ROV) to examine the rake with video cameras.
The SM U-111 was one of five German U - boats from World War I that were sunk in U.S. waters ( there are also eight from World War II ) and it ’s the last to be rediscovered .
When the U - boat sank , the U.S. Navy thought the brine at the location was much abstruse , and that the vessel would descend to the seafloor about 1,600 feet ( 500 m ) below the surface , Petkovic say .
But cognition of the depths was imperfect 100 years ago , and so SM U-111 came to catch one’s breath in relatively shallow weewee next to a bass abyss . " If it was one mile to the east , it was in the abyss and it never would have been examine again , " Petkovic say .
The open hatch on the conning tower of the U-boat reveals an interior ladder. The vessel was deliberately sunk by the U.S. Navy after being reverse-engineered and then used for target practice.
Submarine menace
Germany ramp up the SM U-111 in the northern port city of Kiel in 1916 and it joined the war at ocean in early 1918 . The submarine made three raids on commercial merchant vessels vessels in the Irish Sea and the English Channel , and sink at least three confederate merchandiser ship .
" The first U - gravy holder warfare from 1914 to 1918 often gets overlook , " Innes McCartney , a nautical archaeologist at Bangor University in the United Kingdom , told Live Science in an email . " But it is crucial to recognize that in compare to World War II , the uracil - gravy holder of the Kaiserliche Marine [ Imperial German Navy ] sunk twice the issue of ships and sustained only 20 percent of the loss . "
McCartney was not require in the rediscovery of the SM U-111 , but he’sdiscovered other World War I U - gravy boat crash .
" Importantly for the Allies , had it not been for the experience gained in 1917 and 1918 in particular , the run against the U - sauceboat in World War II would have bear witness more of a challenge , " he said .
After Germany agreed to the armistice in November 1918 , the SM U-111 was surrender to the British and then give to the U.S. Navy ; and in April 1919 it set out for the U.S. with a crew of 32 U.S. sailors — 17 of whom had never been aboard a submarine before , Petkovic said .
To save time , the commander chose the shortest — and most dangerous — northern path across the Atlantic , which was strewn with crisphead lettuce and had take the R.M.S. Titanic seven year before .
In improver , the sub had only German signage , so the U.S. crew did n’t screw how to manoeuvre the vessel ’s gyro - compass , and had to navigate with a magnetic ambit ; and a plug in an open valve made of a " laborious , gummy substance , " secretly instal by German wrecker , melt in the seawater four night into the voyage , flooding and almost settle the vessel .
" It ’s really remarkable that they survived , " Petkovic suppose .
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U-boat wreck
After its arrival on the U.S. East Coast , SM U-111 was used to promote a final 1919 topic of warfare bonds in Brooklyn , and was then tested against the later U.S. submarine . Eventually its engine and equipment were stripped out , and in June 1921 U.S. warplanes using it for target practice sank the German sub .
But the watercraft was considered a navigation jeopardy at the location where it first sank ; and so it was raised and towed into rich water in August 1922 , where it was sunk for the last clip by unfold its hatch and setting off an volatile deepness - bang nearby . Its exact location was not in public disclosed .
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Petkovic had research for the wreck of SM U-111 for several class , after noting that the other deliberate wrecks of U - boats in U.S. urine were find in shallow water than expect . He read the key to the discovery was find out which U.S. Navy ship had towed the disabled uranium - gravy holder to its final destination , and then getting access to its logbook . They found the shipwreck of SM U-111 almost precisely at the position draw in the ship ’s logbook . " It was right on the money , really snug to the number that we had , " he said .
Petkovic now hopes to dive to the shipwreck nextsummer , although it ’s at an extreme depth even for technological plunger with the latest rebreather equipment , which recycles thegasesdivers exhale and allows them to stick underwater longer .
" It ’s push the limit in terms of rebreather engineering science and the demarcation of human survival , " he said . " But there are guys on our team that are capable of doing it … it ’s still a dangerous diva , but that is a finish of ours . "
you may read more about the German U gravy boat find onNational Geographic .
