Diving the German WW 1 submarine the UB38 - shown on the BBC

Diving the first world war German submarine the UB38 in the English Channel on the 10th April 2007. The submarine is to be moved away from the shipping lanes so soon will be further damaged. The film was shown on SouthEast today on an article about the move.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• submarine
• Diving
• scuba
• UB38
• uboat
• BBC
• WW1
• canterburydivers
• Dover
• England

[anubisdiverH]

well all i can say is that it cant be a danger to shipping, there arnt many ships out there with a draft of over 20mtrs, i have dived this sub, once before it was moved, as for the reply from 9 becks yes they may have dived it in 1918 but with a mark v diving rig how deep do you think they could get inside the wreck i cant understand why it was moved if not for the reasons i gave before.

[divingdebs]

@anubisdiverH

Yes they could get in WW1 wrecks - if you look at CanterburyDivers website (UB109 on the first page) there is a report of how divers got in and retrieved documents To get to their objective, divers had to negotiate a chain of five narrow apertures and the fore hatch was cleared of bodies, bedding, etc. and some personal material sent to the Admiralty.

[SuperSkeptiker]

Hmm, hier wird ein Seemannsgrab betaucht. Solange keiner in das Boot eindringt, ist das ja noch OK.

Obwohl nicht wirklich viel zu sehen ist.

[divingdebs]

Unfortunately UB38 was recently moved - it was stated by the authorities that it was on the edge of the shipping lanes and a hazzard to shipping. We were not happy with this but powerless to stop it.

While the submarine was being lifted into a deep trench she split in 2 and ripped apart - no remains have been seen by divers who have since visited the wreck.

[divingdebs]

Oddly the submarine is not designated an official war grave - however, most if not all divers do respect such wrecks .

[megatwingo]

How was the submarine sunk?

[divingdebs]

On the 8 Feb 1918 while trying to get through the Dover barrage she was sighted by the Drifter Gowan II and attacked by the Dover Patrol, 20 min after submerging she struck a mine and sunk.

[9becks]

@SuperSkeptiker

I agree, however, the wreck was regarded as a danger to shipping and was moved - not something divers agreed with

[9becks]

I find that a little hard to believe as it was dived by the UK navy just after it sank in 1918 so anythink 'interesting' will have been taken off it years ago. Apparently its not a very good dive now - deeper, broken up and covered with net

[anubisdiverH]

hi as far as i have heard from the commercial diving lads is, that there was something on the sub that the MOD did not want divers to see or find,

[megatwingo]

Thanks for this information, divingdebs!