0:00
identifying the wrecks of submarines is notoriously
0:05
difficult this is particularly true for those from the first world war they were built in large numbers and information
0:13
on their fate is often hard to
0:20
find usually you can tell what type of Submarine It Is by looking at the size
0:25
and then other features such as the number of guns number of torpedo tubes
0:40
hatches actually identifying the specific submarine can be much more challenging though normally the only
0:47
place it's possible to find a serial number is on the
0:56
propellers the propellers are often covered with over 100 years of marine
1:01
concretion removing it in order to read the numbers can be physically demanding
1:07
and time consuming work that is made worse when done at any sort of
1:17
depth look yeah okay this video is taken from the second
1:25
dive that we did on a first world war German submarine from the first dive we know that it's a
1:32
UC type 2 m Lane submarine the Germans built 64 of these
1:39
and they're widely recognized as the most successful submarine design in history according to Modern estimates
1:45
they sank more than 1,800 enemy vessels 46 of the 64 built were lost
1:53
during the first world war and there are four serious contenders for the identity
1:58
of the one that we about to dive on it's located approximately 40 m
2:05
offshore and in 85 M of water so getting to it is really challenging and the
2:11
Dives were two years apart I've put a link in the comments section if you want
2:17
to see the video from the first
2:25
dive a key observation though was that the port propeller was was buried in the
2:31
sand and so therefore was inaccessible this left only the starboard propeller
2:36
which was heavily covered in net even though we'd cut some of it away the
2:41
expectation was that there'd be a lot of work to do down
2:54
there here I am on The Descent with my buddy conditions look great and as you
2:59
you can see he's got a bag full of tools that we're going to use to clear and then scrub the
3:18
prop descending to 85 M takes a surprisingly amount of time as you can
3:24
see the water's getting darker and we decided we need our torches to light the way
3:49
there's quite large chunks of this video where nothing very much seems to be happening either I'm ascending
3:55
descending scrubbing props moving around a wreck I don't apologize for it it's giving you
4:02
a feel for what it's actually like to be on one of these Dives but just to let you know that there is more of this
4:21
coming so always a great moments when you've descended down a shotline and you
4:26
realize you're on the wreck next job is to fix our strobes to the shotline to
4:32
make it easy to find it realistically we probably don't need to do it on something like a submarine but it's
4:38
always nice to be able to see them and know that you've got a way home clearly
4:48
marked and there it is it's a beautiful wreck this one really intact I've dived
4:54
it before so I know where we are and which way to the stern
5:11
before we do that though I need to secure the shotline to the wreck this
5:16
just makes sure that it stays where it is doesn't get dragged off possibly by the tide or some of the other divers
5:23
that's what I'm going to use that bit of string for it's known as a waster
5:38
it can be difficult to find things on submarines to tie on to I'm in luck here as there's something sticking on the
5:55
hle I've been a bit of an idiot though that loop on the Rope is designed to make it easy to attach the waer so I've
6:02
got to go back and undo the knot
6:44
without piece of admin complete can now get on with the main job of getting to the stern and seeing what condition the
6:50
prop is it's actually really close and the first thing I noticed when I get there is that loads of the net that we
6:57
cut off last time has actually been moved away by the tides this is really good news makes it a lot easier to get
7:10
prop there's three blades on the prop and there's only going to be writing in
7:15
between one set of blades that means we need to scrub in three places so we
7:22
quickly divide up who's going to do what
7:33
the most difficult place to scrub is the place underneath it's quite tight that's
7:38
why I've taken off one of my bailout cylinders in order to make it easier for me to get in there
8:13
it's pretty tight though and I smash my head off the prop
8:35
not surprisingly as soon as we start scrubbing the viz disappears
8:59
we're using things that look like very large stiff brillo pads they're actually designed for exactly this task are you
9:07
removing concretion from brass propellers probably not used to dealing with this amount of concretion though
9:31
at this depth this is much harder than it looks and you get fatigued really
10:01
[Music] I've come out to give the other diver a go you can see the brill pad there it
10:07
also means that I can take some photos
10:45
with my video lights on it's much easier to see what's going on you can see one
10:50
diver down there scrubbing the prop and you can also see in the left hand side of the video that's the remains of the
11:28
down on the SE next to my bailout cylinder you can see one of the
11:34
hydroplanes it must have come off at some point maybe when the submarine sunk
11:39
or possibly pulled off as a result of trolling or fishing action who
14:37
that the brill pads aren't making much of an impression on the concretion it's time to up the game a bit with a wire
15:42
I've scrubbed other one props before and I know where the number should be so I make sure the other diver knows to clean
16:54
we've decided there's nothing on the two spaces that are easiest to get to so the other diver is going to have
17:00
another go underneath and see what he can uh do there
21:05
oh I want to take okay
21:58
where really irritatingly I've somehow managed to lose approximately 4 minutes of my video which is why it suddenly
22:05
leaps from me taking photos of the prop to me taking photos of the deck gun
22:11
which is actually in front of the conning Tower worth noting though that the deck gun is pointing hard over to
22:17
the port side almost as if it's aiming at something behind it
22:30
as I continue to move towards the bow you can see the mine shafts they're all
22:36
empty which shows that this submarine almost certainly laid its Minds somewhere else it's also notable that
22:43
there's no significant damage in the bower area there are several instances where UC see submarines laid mines and
22:51
then fell victim to their own ones this doesn't appear to have been the case with this particular submarine
23:07
this is the ports torpedo tube which is broken off from the main pressure Hull
23:12
and is lying on the seabed
23:56
this is the very front of the pressure H the submarine you can see one of the hydroplanes on the left hand side of the
25:06
we're back at the gun now you can see it's clearly pointing to the port side
25:12
rear one of my theories about how this submarine is sunk is that it was engaged in a surface battle and I believe the
25:19
position of this gun supports my theory you can also see ready use ammunition there on the deck
25:45
the other thing that I think supports my theory about how it's sunk is that there are two large holes in the conning Tower
25:52
once again on the rear port side I.E the same direction that the gun is pointing
25:58
I believe that the crew were engaged in a battle perhaps the battle wasn't going so well for them and they decided to
26:05
withdraw as they were withdrawing they were hit in the conning Tower in two
26:11
places and as can be seen this would have clearly compromised the water Integrity of the submarine and I believe
26:18
LED it to its sinking of course it's equally possible that other things may have created these
26:24
holes some other man-made event such in bottom trolling perhaps then enhanced by
26:30
100 odd years of corrosion who knows but something's got to explain this sub
26:35
syncing and these are the obvious
26:55
contenders the other interesting thing is there's also other holes in the pressure Hull there's an example there
27:02
and the hatch that we'll see shortly is open the one at the front you may have
27:08
seen was closed perhaps the crew were hit in this pressure compartment and
27:24
knows that's the hatch I was talking about it goes into the engine room where the submarine's twin diesel engines can
27:51
found my dive is nearly up but before I return to the shotline I have a quick
27:56
look again at the prop where we can see there's a couple of divers still
28:04
working my bottom time's done so it's time to ascend I've got several hours of
28:11
decompression ahead of me and plenty of time to ponder as to what the identity of this submarine might be
29:03
so the question is what is the identity of the submarine
29:09
that you've seen on this dive and we've dived previously and the answer is
29:15
unfortunately we still don't know for certain the photographs that you saw me
29:21
take and that were taken by other members of the team who scrubed the props after us didn't reveal any numbers
29:29
or letters on the prop which was incredibly frustrating troll through German World
29:37
War I archives though revealed that one of the candidates for the identity of this submarine the
29:44
uc68 had problems with its props and had them changed shortly before it's
29:51
lost therefore our best guess is that the props that were fitted were unmarked
29:58
and therefore that's why we've not been able to see anything on them combined with other information
30:05
it's therefore our belief that this submarine is the missing
31:04
I hope you've enjoyed my video and found it interesting even if you probably share my frustration that we haven't
31:11
been able to come to a conclusive result please like and share and comment
31:20
and subscribe also don't forget I've got loads of other videos of Deep dive
31:25
similar to this one and I'll hope you take the the time to have a look at some of those as well in the meantime I've
31:32
got another hour or two of decompression to
