German U-boat may be at bottom of Labrador river

http://www.google.ca/url?url=http://...GzbhMixYyF1aiQ

More incredible underwater war history (not confirmed yet) in Canadian waters, looking forward to more on this story.
Jim

There's all sorts of U-boats in the Gulf of St Lawrence and the areas around NFLD. I don't think this one more should surprise anyone...the only place they haven't appeared is the Battle River.

but? I do not see it??????

Neither can I....................

Well if that's a submarine, I have seen more convincing pictures of the Loch Ness monster - also sonar. And of the spurious "Nazi gold" in the Toplitzer See - also sonar. Sonar pictures are as open to wild interpretation as those shadow pictures you make with your hand on a wall or Rorschach ink blots. There is no scale on the picture, so does it cover a width of an inch, a mile, or what?

And could someone even suggest why a U-boat should be 60 miles up a river in Labrador. Were they looking for the North-West Passage?

You're right there Pat.......... Mr Corbin should have put his pictures directly onto this form for some straight talking common sense comments first! The nearest thing I can 'identify' is the cockpit area/windscreen/glass of a flying fortress with a collapsed forward and rearwards section (top centre section of pic). But, without scale, Uboat/Flying fortress........, what's the difference!

It reminds me of the 12 Spitfires 'found' buried in Burma. 11 months to go to find if I loose or keep my £20 wager

But keep us informed Blazer............

[QUOTE=Peter Laidler;230667]You're right there Pat.......... Mr Corbin should have put his pictures directly onto this form for some straight talking common sense comments first! The nearest thing I can 'identify' is the cockpit area/windscreen/glass of a flying fortress with a collapsed forward and rearwards section (top centre section of pic). But, without scale, Uboat/Flying fortress........, what's the difference!

...snip..QUOTE]

He claims it's exactly 150' long, the pressure hull on a Type VIIA was 140', however the total length was 202'

The Type VIIC (most common) was 160' pressure hull and total length of 214'

While most salt water wrecks have lost the fairing portions of the hull, the clean cold river should preserve it, so the sonar signature should be closer to 200'

I read that of course L-E, l but what part of the photo shows the pressure hull or is the WHOLE photo part of the pressure hull.

I read a follow-up story today, (you can google it if interested) still sounds pretty interesting, i'll be following it.
cheers

I just re-read the original story and a key picture is no longer there, as noted by others. gotta be a reason for this....?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blazer91

...incredible...not confirmed...

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I think those are the key words.

If that is supposed to be a U-boot, why does it have what looks like a pair of davits (about 15% of the way in from the top left)?
Note that they are higher than the supposed "conning tower", which would have been much more decay-resistant than any mere davits.

It is supposed to be in a river, not at the bottom of the Atlantic. And this is supposed to be summer. So a scuba diver could have taken a look almost immediately. The lack of this simple verification increases my scepticism.

My quess: when someone does dive down, they are going to discover a long sunken and forgotten river barge.

Has anyone got any other comments on the sonar picture, i.e. what you can actually see, not the fanciful interpretation?

Length claimed is ~150 ft. That would make it a Type II sub. Very strange.

And the image in the linked article? I have absolutely no idea what they're trying to show.

here's another;

Explorers find downed German U-Boat off Massachusetts nearly 70 years after it sank

no pictures either but at least there is documentation, see what shows up here

Yup the U-550. The local fisherman have know where it was for a long time as it's in a prime fishing area. They had better be careful what they do on this wreck as the Navy and the State Department could very well step in and tell them to leave it alone and not touch it as it's a war grave site and the German government has asked that all U-boats be left alone because of that. Past stripping of a U-boat during which three German sailors were brought up and returned to shore started it and that created a huge problem for the State Department and the Navy.

Quote:

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Hard Aground is the story of Ralph Eraser, a Canadian who was posted to Goose Bay, Labrador, during World War II. In 1965 he returned to Labrador to get to know the people better and to solve a wartime mystery.

Why had his station received messages from a German submarine/located inside Labrador? Ralph is joined by two others who are also seeking the answer to the riddle — ex-airman Frank Baird and Karl Runsted, grandson of the submarine's commander.

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http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/cmarchive...rdaground.html

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bruce McAskill

Yup the U-550. The local fisherman have know where it was for a long time as it's in a prime fishing area. They had better be careful what they do on this wreck as the Navy and the State Department could very well step in and tell them to leave it alone and not touch it as it's a war grave site and the German government has asked that all U-boats be left alone because of that. Past stripping of a U-boat during which three German sailors were brought up and returned to shore started it and that created a huge problem for the State Department and the Navy.

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Thats very interesting Bruce, I,m always concerned when people start to plunder War Graves etc, being a Merchant Seaman myself, plus serving an Apprenticeship in a shipyard building Submarines I know a little about ships etc, and I can see both sides of the coin, bringing them sailors up I think was the decent thing to do, and I,m sure if anyone ever stopped and asked the relatives of these lost semen would it be ok, then I would say the answer would of been yes, but was it about these seamen, or more to do with the cargo in the way the vessel was stripped?

It was approx 12 years ago when I was visiting U 534, I met an ex Submariner who had sailed on a sister submarine to U 534, I never got the Gents name but it was one of those meetings that you never forget.

It had all started when I booked a visit to U 534, I was at the time about a mile away (as the crow flies) from U 534 looking after a vessel that was laid up.

At the start of the visit we were all told of the dangers etc, and that we must sign a disclamer regarding the fact if ayone did suffer any accident, then it was not possible to sue the company at the time.

once on board U 534 we all gathered and at the time the curator asked if anyone had been on a sub before, I stuck my hand up and explained that I had during my time in the ship yard etc, the guy in charge then asked someone behind me, " and you sir, what is experiance " the reply was "I sailed on one of these", it was the gents accent that threw me as it was Welsh !!!

At the end of the tour we assembled in a large area that had a lot of artifacts from the vessel, it was then I introduced myself.

We talked about the sub etc, and he described the time they left port, he said he was 17 at the time and it was very similar to the film "Das Boat" were it was crammed with fresh food, and this was first on the menu, at the end of a patrol he said things were grim, and the diet was canned fish and condensed milk.

I asked about the accent and he had a Laugh, it was just before the war ended the sub had surendered and he was taken as a POW, the POW camp was in Wales and when the War ended he had an option to stay, he said there was nothing left in Germany for him to return, so carved out a new life in Wales.

The visit had brought back many memories of his friends, most of them all lost at sea.
I never got to get his details as I had to make a call at the time and when I returned he was leaving with his Daughter and Son in law, it was a shame as I would of loved to have a few beers with him.

Going back to U 534, When I visited it was still in one peace, but the trust who owned it, had gone broke and closed, the land was to be sold for development, U 534 was bought my Merseytravel and cut into sections and moved to form part of a small museum.

I think the following link says it all, I just dont think enough was done to preserve it as it was.

Irish Sea Shipping - What's New July 2008