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Home > Scuba Diving News > Scuba Divers Discover Wreck of World War II German U-Boat near Massachusetts, US
Scuba Divers Discover Wreck of World War II German U-Boat near Massachusetts, US
Published: 31-Jul-12 16:57:00
Source: Global Adventures
Author: Anna
Related: 10-Apr-10 23:11:09
A group of divers have located a World War II German submarine during a wreck scuba diving excursion 70 miles off the coast of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts in the United States. The U-550 sank after it was attacked during a battle in 1944 and after several years of searching for its wreck, it was finally discovered earlier this month.
A German World War II submarine has been found by a group of scuba divers in the United States.
The U-550 was discovered by a team of seven divers who found the sunken vessel during a wreck diving expedition 70 miles off the coast of Nantucket Island in Massachusetts earlier last week.
The submarine was built by the Deutsche Werft in Hamburg and commissioned on 28th July, 1943. In February 1944, the U-550 left Kiel in Germany and set off on a journey in the North Atlantic Ocean. The vessel was hit by a Consolidated PBY Catalina, an American flying boat, on 22nd February, 1944 and though two crew members lost their lives, the submarine escaped the attack.
On 16th April, 1944, the U-550 was armed with 22 torpedoes and its crew torpedoed the SS Pennsylvania, one of the largest tankers in the world, which was en route to Great Britain.
USS Joyce detected the U-550 on sonar and launched an attack on it, severely damaging the ship. After surfacing long enough for 13 of the crew members to escape from the ship, the U-Boat finally sank after further attacks by the USS Gandy and the USS Peterson, taking the remaining crew members with it to the bottom of the ocean.
After years of searching for the vessel, the team of divers located its whereabouts using sonar equipment and they are planning to take a scuba diving excursion to the site to explore the ship which now lies in deep waters.
Wreck diving is becoming an increasingly popular activity for divers and the world’s oceans are home to hundreds of thousands of sunken wrecks including medieval ships, wartime aircraft, submarines, and ancient boats.
Divers recently located a medieval ship off the coast of Sturkö near Karlskrona in Sweden. Sweden is one of the top scuba diving destinations for divers searching for historical wrecks and its waters are home to thousands of sunken vessels including the 12-century Foteviken ships; Vasa, a Swedish 64 gun battleship; Ringaren, a merchant ship; Elefanten, a Swedish warship; and Emmy Hasse, a 79-metre-long British steamer.
Wreck divers can also enjoy scuba diving holidays in warmer waters such as the Caribbean where they can explore the artificial reef which was created by the sinking of the USS Kittiwake off the coast of the Seven Mile Beach on Grand Cayman Island last year.
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- Incredible Marine Creatures Spotted on UK's Southern Coast
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- Scuba Divers Discover Wreck of World War II German U-Boat near Massachusetts, US
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