U-86 - U-boat In Perfect Viz

By Paul Webster

It's a wreck-diver's dream - a suspect sounding leading to the discovery of a 'lost' U-boat, all in visibility you could only dream of. Words and photographs by Paul Webster.

At a glance - Launched: 7 November 1916 - Type: Mittel U - Patrols: 12 - Sinkings: 33 ships - Surrendered: 20 November 1918 - Sank: in 1921 in the English Channel on the way to being broken up

SUB SCENE: a diver examines the breech
of the forward gun

INFAMY: U-86 was responsible for the
sinking of the hospital ship Llandovery Castle

The 'lost' U-Boat

PERFECTLY PRESERVED: detail of the
port side of the conning tower

The Duke of Buccleuch's
rudder and propeller are intact

The SS Moldavia's starboard side rises to 28m

It's a wreck diver's dream - a suspect sounding leading to the discovery of a 'lost' U-boat, all in visibility you could only dream of. Words and photographs by Paul Webster It was the fourth day of the Stockport Underwater Diving Group's annual trip down to Littlehampton, West Sussex, to dive some of the finest Channel wrecks. Divers had come and gone as the week progressed: as commitments dragged some of them away, so others arrived to fill the spare places. For the previous three days our boat, the Michelle Mary, had been full, but on the fourth day there were only four of us diving, and even our organiser, Paul Green, had taken the day off. Ivan, the Mary's skipper, gave us the option of choosing which wreck we would like to dive next.

Having dived the SS Moldavia and the Duke of Buccleuch, both excellent wrecks in their own right, we chose to dive something different. One option was to dive an unknown sounding at a depth of 56m, about 20 miles southwest of Littlehampton. We all understood the possibility that the target might amount to nothing (and what a waste of a trimix fill that would be), but there was always the chance that it might just be something worthwhile, and that we would return to Littlehampton in triumph.

The weather was excellent and the visibility superb as we dropped down the shot, spot on slack. Even so, as we hit the flat sea bed all we could see was gravel (the shot having just missed the target). We made a sweep of the area, and then in the distance we could make out the shape of something manmade. A long, low-lying tube started to appear. It didn't look much like a shipwreck, so our initial thoughts were that it was barrels or some pipe. When the bow gun became visible it was obvious that I was looking at a submarine, sitting perfectly upright as if on display in a museum. This was a major find.

Starting at the bow, we began to explore. Forward of the pressure plate, the bow was completely broken up, with two torpedo tubes visible in the vertical steel plate. Swimming along the hull, the first thing that struck me was the fact that all the thin steel of the outer hull had corroded away - so rather than the usual sleek outline that you might expect of a submarine, there was a network of tubes, pipes and cylinders, both attached to the hull and lying on the sea bed. As we were using a trimix blend of 18/20 and 70-per-cent nitrox as a decompression gas, we had a bottom time of 20 minutes and a run time of about an hour.

The bow gun was still intact, with the hatch just behind. Without the 'skin' it was easy to see the structure that attached the gun to the pressure hull. The conning tower looked gaunt and emaciated without the outer hull. To say the wreck was covered in life is an understatement: while there were no anemones at that depth, there were plenty of sea firs, ling, shoals of bib and every single hole or tube contained crabs, lobsters or congers. Each of the periscope tubes contained crabs.

With no plankton and a bright day, the light levels were amazing, which meant all my photographs could be taken with ambient light and no flash. Looking at a scale drawing of a U-boat after the dive, I estimated visibility at 25m. Past the conning tower there was much more debris, plus more tubes and pipes, in some parts obscuring the sleek lines of the hull. There was also evidence of fishing with both line and nets.

Passing further back along the hull towards the stern, there were more hatches and the stern torpedo loading hatch. The propellers and rudders were also intact. On surfacing and back on the boat, the skipper and trip organiser Paul were both interested in what we had found. I'm sure they thought we were teasing them when we told them we had found a U-boat. In fact, no one really believed us until I showed them the photographs of a virgin submarine wreck in near-perfect visibility.

The wreck was subsequently identified as a First World War German submarine, U-86. This was a type Mittel U. These boats had excellent seagoing abilities and generally handled very well. The boats had various arrangements of deck guns. Some had only one 88mm gun while others had a single 105mm gun - but most had both originally. In 1917 some of the boats were refitted with a single 105mm gun (220 rounds).

An infamous history

By summer 1918, much of Germany was in rebellion, and the government began to move toward armistice. It was during this period that U-86 was involved in one of the worst atrocities of the First World War.

About 116 miles southwest of Fastnet (Ireland) at around 9.30pm on 27 June, Oblt.z.S. Helmut Patzig, against international law and standing orders of the Imperial German navy, sank the hospital ship Llandovery Castle.

The Llandovery Castle had been commissioned as a hospital ship in 1916 for the transfer of sick and wounded Canadians from Europe to Nova Scotia. She was clearly identifiable since all lights were burning, with the large Red Cross insignia prominently displayed amidships.

In an attempt to hide the evidence, Patzig ordered his U-boat to shoot the survivors. Only one lifeboat escaped saving 24 lives, including the captain. In all there were 234 victims, all non-combatants, including 14 nursing sisters, medics and crew. Patzig seems to have been convinced that the Llandovery Castle was being used for transporting troops and munitions. After the torpedoing and sinking the ship, he repeatedly questioned the crew of the Llandovery Castle about what cargo and passengers were being carried to try to justify his action.

After the war, trials of suspected war criminals began. Implicated in the Llandovery Castle atrocity were First-Lieutenant Helmut Patzig and the first and second officers of the watch, Dithmar and Boldt. Patzig fled from justice after the war. The Germans arrested Dithmar and Boldt and put them on trial at Leipzig. The Court found Patzig guilty. Dithmar and Boldt were held to be accessories, and they were sentenced to four years imprisonment, but they both escaped soon after. A fourth implicated party, the first boatswain's mate, Meissner, died before coming to trial.

SS Duke of Buccleuch
four-masted steamer, Duke of Buccleuch was built in 1874 by the Barrow Shipbuilding Company for the Eastern Steamship Company, initially for the service between England and Calcutta. In 1882 she was chartered by the British India SN Company for its Australian service. On Monday 7 March 1889, with a crew of 47, she was bound from Middlesbrough via Antwerp for Madras, with a cargo that included 600 tons of hand-painted Belgian china and glassware plus 2,533 tons of iron rails and machinery.

On that night she was involved in a collision with the 1,478-tonne sailing ship, Vandalia, off nearby Bognor. All of the crew of the Duke were killed. The crew of the Vandalia, captain and first officer (father and son) blamed the Duke's captain for the accident. Subsequently, when the wreck was found and the damage noted, a court of enquiry reversed the decision, clearing him of blame.

The Duke sits upright in 58m, with the top of the wreck at 48m. The rudder and propeller are still intact, but all the superstructure has gone. The stern and amidships are intact, but the bow is fairly broken up. Parts of the wreckage are still festooned with fishing nets, though glassware and pottery can still be seen.

SS Moldavia
Built in 1903 for the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company as a passenger cargo vessel, she was requisitioned in 1915, converted to an auxiliary cruiser and commissioned by the British Admiralty. Later she was used as a troopship after the USA joined the war.

On 23 May 1918, while carrying troops to France, she was torpedoed by UB-57 off Beachy Head, but didn't sink immediately. The initial explosion killed 56 US troops of the 58th Infantry Regiment of the 8th Infantry Brigade who were on the lower deck. The rest of the crew and troops escaped.

The Moldavia lies on her port side in 45m. The top of the wreck is at 28m. One of the 6in stern guns on the starboard side points straight up to the surface. The mast and anchor remain, but the propellers have been salvaged.