A Century After This WWI Sub Sank, Experts Finally Solved The Mystery Of Its Top-Secret Cargo
It’s November 1917 and WWI U-boat captain Günther Wigankow and his crew are cruising in the North Sea. They’re on the hunt, looking to find and destroy British shipping. The sub surfaces to make radio contact with base. Big mistake. A Royal Navy patrol boat spots the German vessel and speeds at full tilt towards her, ramming into her side. Wigankow knows his vessel is doomed. But what secrets will sink to the seabed with her?
Setting sail to the past
More than a century later, Dr. Rodrigo Pacheco-Ruiz of England’s University of Southampton leads an expedition to explore the wreck of the long-lost submarine. The stricken sub lies 150 feet deep but a team of hydrographic surveyors and maritime archaeologists score a notable first. They capture the first images of the German submarine UC-47 ever seen since it slipped beneath the waves in 1917.
Utilizing technology
The experts actually used two underwater robots to survey the rusting remains of the sunken submarine. This allowed them to take video footage of the wreck and to create stunning three-dimensional images using advanced echo-location devices. Now we can all view astonishing images of UC-47 in her final resting place deep below the surface of the North Sea.
Finding treasure
Dr. Pacheco-Ruiz and his team hoped that their exploration of the wreck would help to solve a 103-year-old mystery. After the submarine sank, according to some accounts British naval authorities made determined efforts to salvage something from the wreck. The German military authorities certainly seemed to have believed that the British found something: an item of extremely high value.
Identifying the Ffnds
But just what was it that the Royal Navy was so anxious to retrieve? Dr. Pacheco-Ruiz and his experts believed they might be able to solve the puzzle. In a press release from the university’s Centre for Maritime Archaeology, the team leader described the work that went into their survey of the UC-47 wreck.
