U-111 was still undergoing repairs when the convoy set sail for the Azores on April 3, 1919. The last-minute exchange put Daubin and his 32-person crew behind schedule. A handful were saved for Allied forces to dissect and discover, by reverse engineering, the prized technology behind German diesel engines, periscopes, and gyroscopes. Sabotage and survivalĬommissioned by the German Imperial Navy in 1917, the 235-foot U-111 patrolled the waters of the North Atlantic, sinking three Allied merchant ships before the Kaiser’s surrender in November 1918.Īfter Armistice, all seaworthy U-boats were sent to the British North Sea port of Harwich, where most were cut up for scrap. But years of research led Petkovic to a different conclusion-and a historic discovery for the team of R/V Explorer. Navy records indicated that U-111 sank off Virginia on August 31, 1922, in 1,600 feet of water-far beyond the limit of any human diver. He’s one of a small number of so-called “technical divers” who explore depths wildly exceeding the standard 120-foot limit observed by recreational divers. waters, and the submarines hold a special fascination for shipwreck divers like Petkovic. There are more than a dozen German U-boat wrecks from both World Wars in U.S.
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