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Divers reached wreck of German submarine

Rebreather divers from the Orkney-based 'Valhalla' were the first to descent to the German mine-layer submarine 'UC-55' on July 21, 2023 at a maximum depth of 104 meters. The 415-tonne UC-11-class submarine was commissioned into the German Imperial Navy in Nov 1916. 50 metres long, it carried 27 crew and was fitted with six 39in mine-tubes with 18 mines; one stern and two bow 20in torpedo-tubes with seven torpedoes; and a 3.5in deck-gun. Over six patrols, the 'UC-55' had already been credited with sinking nine merchant ships and damaging two more, as well as the destroyer HMS 'Albacore', in the months before it met its end off Shetland on Sep 29, 1917. The submarine had been about to start laying mines about eight miles south-east of Lerwick, in the convoy channel between Orkney and Shetland, when a trim problem led it to dive beyond its 50 metre operating depth. The forward compartment flooded as a result, forcing the U-boat to surface but leaving it unable to manoeuvre because the batteries had failed. Two Royal Navy destroyers, HMS 'Tirade' and HMS 'Sylvia', and the armed trawler 'Moravia' shelled and finally depth-charged the German submarine. It sank with the loss of 10 lives, including its commander Oberleutnant zur See Horst Ruhle von Lilienstern, and 17 men were taken prisoner. The wreck-site had been picked up on a side-scan sonar survey in 1985, lying upright to 5.6 metres off the seabed, but because of its depth it would have proved challenging to dive at the time. The technical dive-team had spent a decade planning their dive to check out the wreck. The divers were Jacob Mackenzie, Toni Norton, John & Tracy Timperley, Craig Stevenson, Thomas Zloch and Martin Mako Janećek, all diving on closed-circuit rebreathers except for Tracy Timperley, who was back-up diver and on open-circuit. Their efforts on the day were backed up by the 'Valhalla' crew of Helen Hadley and Brandon Rowlands, with the support of wreck-researchers Kevin Heath and Wayne Allen. The team enjoyed a bottom-time of around 35 minutes on the wreck and succeeded in putting its identity beyond doubt. Details of the damage inflicted on the 'UC-55' had been recorded by the crews of the British warships, which had struck first the conning-tower and then the hull. The divers spotted many live torpedoes and mines, and the video footage captured by Mackenzie shows many details of the well-colonised submarine, including the deck-gun and hatch openings. The divers decompressed on a trapeze at 6m, and the overall dive lasted 3,5 hours. Report with photos: https://divernet.com/scuba-news/wrecks/valhalla-divers-identify-ww1-u-boat-at-104m/