# U-Boat sunk by sea monster found



## Brian G Turner (Oct 19, 2016)

At first glance, a great discover for history and marine archaeology: Wreck of German U-boat found off coast of Stranraer - BBC News

However, if this is UB-85, it also has some remarkable folklore attached to it:



> Experts believe the vessel could be the UB-85, a sub sunk by HMS Coreopsis in 1918, according to official records.
> 
> However, naval folklore suggests it may have been attacked by a "sea monster".
> 
> ...


----------



## Boneman (Oct 19, 2016)

Or... they didn't want to fight any more, and made up the monster story so they wouldn't appear cowards?


----------



## Toby Frost (Oct 19, 2016)

It's a good plan - right up to the "avoiding being ridiculed" bit!


----------



## Boneman (Oct 19, 2016)

All that stale air in the sub... probably seemed like a good idea at the time.


----------



## Brian G Turner (Oct 19, 2016)

Boneman said:


> Or... they didn't want to fight any more, and made up the monster story so they wouldn't appear cowards?



I dunno. Put a group of anxious sailors in an "iron coffin", then submit to extreme physical and mental pressures, and all it could take is a minor technical failure to spark some form of hysteria. I can very well believe that they may well have been genuinely terrified. A whiff of rich sea folklore might easily colour such perceptions.

I've read a few books on submarine warfare, and though I don't recall any instances of meeting sea monsters, certainly there's a long-standing sense of being surrounded by the utter unknown. Mysterious and inexplicable sounds are a routine part of deep sea monitoring, even these days.


----------



## Toby Frost (Oct 19, 2016)

I remember a story about a cursed submarine, which was apparently followed by ghosts in the water. And if you're going to encounter something weird and new on this planet, the bottom of the sea is probably the "best" place to do it.


----------



## Venusian Broon (Oct 19, 2016)

Ah! time for the megalodon and U-boat piccy...



 

That's 64 feet dorsal fin to tail, so the real size of the creature is probably around 80 feet...






...alas a fake! Made up by Discovery channel.


----------



## HareBrain (Oct 20, 2016)

Oh dear, this thread has made me want to see _The Film That I Should Have Forgot_ again. Must ... resist ...


----------



## Brian G Turner (Oct 23, 2016)

Well, so much for my romanticism - apparently the U-boat commander was cold and had a heater set up in his room, but the cable prevented the hatch for the conning tower to close properly - so after diving, the sub started to flood and was forced to resurface. And that's when the British found them:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...oat-condemned-depths-savaged-sea-monster.html


----------



## 2DaveWixon (Oct 23, 2016)

Brian G Turner said:


> I dunno. Put a group of anxious sailors in an "iron coffin", then submit to extreme physical and mental pressures, and all it could take is a minor technical failure to spark some form of hysteria. I can very well believe that they may well have been genuinely terrified. A whiff of rich sea folklore might easily colour such perceptions.
> 
> I've read a few books on submarine warfare, and though I don't recall any instances of meeting sea monsters, certainly there's a long-standing sense of being surrounded by the utter unknown. Mysterious and inexplicable sounds are a routine part of deep sea monitoring, even these days.



Maybe I'm being a bit "thick," but I have a difficult time understanding how the crew of a WWI U-boat could have seen the monster that allegedly attacked them...although their captain is reported to have said that the encounter took place at night ("moonlight"), meaning that the sub was likely surfaced at the time, he made no mention of any crew member having been injured. And even surfaced, only a few of the crew would have been on deck (outside) and in a position to actually "see" the monster.
This lends credence to hypotheses like "mass hysteria" or "mass desertion."
(Add to that the unlikelihood that men inside a sub which has just been attacked by a "monster" on the outside, would then leave the shelter of the sub -- to escape by fleeing to where the monster was last seen?)

More: if you're trying to desert, why make up a story like that, which would certainly subject you to the suspicions of your leaders back in Germany? There are a lot of mechanical things that could plausibly and unprovably go wrong on a sub of that era, why make up something so outlandish? Just drawing attention to yourself, right? So my thinking is maybe a problem with the air inside the sub, depriving the crew of oxygen in some way... (which might also serve to explain the seriously unlikely story about running a heater cable between the captain's room and the outside of the conning tower, and then leaving it in place when they tried to submerge...)(I'm pretty sure that there would have been electrical outlets closer to the captain's room...)

(You may take it from my remarks that I lend little credence to those post-action reports to the crew's superiors in Germany...)

Still, it's kind of a fun story; thank you for passing it along, Brian!


----------



## Toby Frost (Oct 24, 2016)

Once again, reality disappoints.


----------

