DIVING THE GERMAN U-BOAT U-853 - SQUALUS MARINE DIVERS
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ส.ค. 2016
- Explore a piece of world history as we take a brief dive on The U-853. One of the last of German's U-Boats lost at the end of WWII. The U853 was lost in May 1945 just east of Block Island in Rhode Island USA.
My grandfather served on the USS Arizona in the 1930s. After leaving the Navy he was in a motorcycle accident where he lost his middle toe. After Pearl Harbor was bombed he when to reenlist in the Navy but they wouldn't take him because of his toe. So he joined the Merchant Marines wear he was first mate on a supply ship that spent 4 years hauling supplies to England, from New York. During his tour they never saw any u- boats. He was placed on another ship to come home and that ship hit a mine and had to return to port. Some day I would like to find out what ship he served on and what her fate was. A side note, while on the Arizona he made a belt buckle in the machine shop. As long as I can remember my dad wore it everyday. Two years ago today my dad passed away and I now wear it.
Dan W My grandfather served on a tanker in the pacific. Wish I knew the ship, but I never met him. Wearing the buckle sounds like a great way to honor your father.
This U Boat was sunk on the 7th May 1945, the day before WWII ended will all hands. One day later the war would have ended, and all the crew would have gone home to their families, and lived to a ripe old age. Instead they all died in their prime. Its all very sad no matter what side you are on!
That was the European war not the pacific war that kept going till August 1945
@@norms3913 The U Boat was German though.
RIP WHOM EVER YOU ARE. SEEMS LIKE NUTTY LEADERS BRING ABOUT DISASTERS
A blast from the past. I probably had at least 50 dives on this puppy.
It looks like the bow has really taken a beating. For decades, the bow portion of the outer hull (the fairing) had really held its shape, but now it seems to be a skeleton. We used to be able to go to the sand under the bow and get great camera shots of that striking bow profile; like the opening shot in the movie Das Boot. I know the movie Uboat was a Type 7 and the 853 was a 9C-40, but the effect was still the same.
Back then, it wasn't uncommon to get frequent flyer miles swimming between the Control Room, through the two Mann Diesel engines, to the Electric Motor Room, where the aft damage hole had broken the stern askew.
On one of my charters around July of '87, we got out there and there was no current and no wind, at all. The water was crystal clear from one of the northern eddies that spun off the Gulf Stream, and once we got down 20 feet, the ENTIRE length of the 252 ft sub could be seen; the WHOLE thing ....... at once. It was all tropical water. I never saw those conditions again. Good memories.
damn I wish we had your vis - - that kind of visibility reminds me of going down on the Duane in the keys and it was a vision compared to what we get here in New England - - with our lights and wreck reels the dive master in Florida asked us " what do you guys normally dive in - - mud "
gary doyle Yeah where I dive in the LI sound the visibility is usually 5 feet. Water is green/brown, mud floor, etc.
You earned my respect by honoring this gravesite. I hope our submariners get the same treatment wherever they may be. The Squalus nearly took her crew for the long patrol. "Those Terrible Hours" told the story of a unique rescue and how Swede Momsun's "lung" came into being.
🙏
I dove this wreck, I think, around 1970 or 71. It was an amazing dive and have never forgotten it. It looked a lot better back then, as time sure has had it's effects. Brings back memories. Thanks.
Why hasn't anyone returned the dead inside to their country? The possible descendants may want or need that closure. Just a thought.
@Alexander Challis Thanks for those links. I dove this back in the early 1980's. It does look worse for wear. A haunting dive knowing people were still there. I also dove the blackpoint (the freighter U853 sank), and there were remains there as well. Will never forget those dives.
How deep is the wreck?
@@averagegolfer89 as I remember 110' to the sand, wreck starts at 85'. might be off a little it was a long time ago :)
Except the Stainless Periscope.
That is still as good as new.
It's a war grave. They showed respect and left the sailors rest.
If I were gonna die in a submarine. Id want them to get my body and bring me back home
I dove the U-853 in the 80s. I went there on the RV Wahoo with Capts Steve Belinda, Janet Bieser & Hank Garvin. Absolutely fantastic!
hi Richard I dove on a private vessel as well as on the Scuba Shack boat out of Stonington about the same time. what memorable times !!! So glad I got to see this and the Blackpoint a few times :).
Tough business to be a German sailor on a U-Boat with a 75% death rate ,still there was never a shortage of those who wished to volunteer for U Boat service even until the last days of the war...Anybody interested in the U Boats about the American east coast during WW ll , I should suggest reading 'Operation Drumbeat'...
If you're still interested, you should watch "Greyhound" 😉, it's based on Operation Drumbeat.
@@PharaohEagleOwl few nice CGI scenes but overall bad movie
My best friend, Enjoyed watching this video my friend Really awesome views Thank you Stay connected
Thanks for visiting
Great narrating. Thank you!
I dove this wreck in the late 80’s, amazing how much it’s deteriorated, but that’s to be expected. At the time our itinerary was to dive the 853 in the morning and then the Black Point in the afternoon since the second dive was much shallower. The thing I recall at the time we dove was the current, had to do this as close to a slack tide as practical. Made for a great day.
Uboat captains when encountered by an attacking destroyer, usually crash dived to a deep depth (160 meters to 210 meters) in an attempt to evade, and ordered the motors, to run silent to avoid detection. In the early years of the war 39-42 this was not a problem. Allied sonar, radar, and hydrophones weren’t that advanced.
But by May 1943 the battle of the Atlantic and technology was tilting into the Allies favor. By 1944 going out on patrol in a uboat was nearly suicidal.
The fact that this uboat was merely in 38m of water, and close to land. The skipper knew if they were spotted or heard via hydrophone, or if they were an issue in the area ( sinking ships). Their chances of being sunk were extremely likely.
FYI a uboat’s max under water speed was 7 knots for a type 9. And would be extremely noisy.
Most likely they would want to travel at a quiet .5 - 1 knot.
A destroyer in WW2 varied, but could usually travel 20 - 32 knots, and in 1945 it would be like putting dynamite in a fish barrel. Especially in 38 meters of water.
God rest the souls in that old sub. They deserve their peace.
SUPERB video ! Thanks for sharing your dives. This is fascinating stuff !
Glad you enjoyed it
Really enjoyed this
First time watching one of your videos and I really enjoyed it Liked and Subscribed Cheers
Awesome footage.
Awesome dive!
great video...music fitting..and respectful narration...war..war never changes.....
Great video. Thanks for making and sharing it. I plan to dive a Uboat site in NC soon. Hopefully, I'll have so decent video to post as well.
Safe diving!
the problem talking about how tight a space there was inside is the Captain was like 6' 4" and quite young something like 25 years old - - a guy I dove with did a bunch of research and wrote a book about it. He actually met with and talked to the Captain's sister who gave him a picture of the crew on the outside of the sub before they left on their final mission. He also talked with a carpenter working on a roof in Point Judith when the 853 torpedoed an American vessel as he could see the ship explode from his vantage point. The 853 had the bad luck of a convoy escort group in the area having crossed the Atlantic with a convoy - - they then located, attacked and sank the 853 when they got the news of a vessel ( I think was the Blackthorn) being torpedoed. Back in the 90s you could actually do a penetration dive but with a wreck reel as the least little disturbance reduced your vis to zero. The fact that there were so many German subs operating and sunk right off of our coast was pretty much kept from the public during the war so as not to create a panic - - it took years for the truth to come out. It has always given me an eerie feeling to see a vessel on the bottom whether it came from an act of war, an accident or mother nature and the elements ganging up to bring about its demise especially when you know lives were lost in the sinking. I also ask anyone diving such sites be respectful and take pictures but nothing else - - if everyone grabbed a souvenir there would soon be little left
Great comment, Oldrbutnowisr....but the "Blackthorn" was a USCG ship sunk in a collision in Tampa Bay, FL, in 1980...near my present home. You're of course thinking of the Black Point (as to the Battle of Point Judith). I also agree with your opinion against the desecration of war graves. There happens to be a certain civilian diver living in CT who doesn't seem to get the concept and seems proud of it.
Excellent video 😊
Everything in the conning tower is duplicated in the hull too, the periscope is one of the most critical items on a submarine so it makes since why it's made out of strong stuff. Also fun fact in WW1 the British Navy had people go out and beat periscopes with a hammer. If they spotted a sub, they also trained seagulls to land on them.
Looks like a relaxing, shallow dive in comparably warm waters... Sad, the camera is shaking most of the time- but I guess there may have been casual currents?
Thanks for sharing!
If you consider 130' shallow, what do you consider deep?
@@richardberger414 130' is just about 40m which is a recreational depth that can be achieved within the NDL- didnt mean to express negative emotions with it- though i sometimes do deep and long CCR decompression dives to >100m (300'), it is a huge advantage to find well preserved dive spots that you can just jump in and enjoy.
Sadly, most areas of the world (and especially wrecks!) until 40m is quite looted and destroyed by tourists and pollution ;( Hence, i truly enjoy videos where comparably shallow spots are still intact and as well captured on stunning videos...
A great book to read about the German perspective is by Werner and it’s called “Iron Coffins”. Older book but the author was a U-boat captain in the German Navy.
You gotta have nerves of steel for this
Wooden decks cover most of this stuff normally on subs of this vintage. It all rots away exposing the tanks and gear that was external to the hull.
Lost on 6. May 1945 by USS John D. Ericsson, USS atherton, USS Moberly. Whole 55 crew died.
platterhof 2 of the crew got proper burials after a diver revived their bodies. The German government should be able to claim the bodies for identification since it technically was their army.
I’ve dove on the U-185 in the Outer Banks, the water up in RI is too damned cold for my taste :-) Great dive, thank for the video.
U-85, off of Nags Head?
@@jdog3708 Thanks for the correction, it's been at least 17 years
Great film Guys, thanks, and also great narrating Denis! The best to you! Just “Sub”scribed !🌈
Best video I ever seen very good photograph in the good thing about explain everything very nice
i have always wanted to dive here
The U-Boat was sunk in May 1945 and Germany surrendered on May 7 1945.
Poor guys were killed days before the war ended.
Sub appears to be in poor overall condition. Years in warm salt water have certainly taken their toll, unlike a U Boat sunk in the Baltic Sea near Norway (looks almost new in the video). Considering the condition the Titanic is in, I have to assume the cold water acts as a preserving agent?
16 hour depth charging according to Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Point_Judith
Respect to the sailors of these boats, regardless of nationality.
Thank you
Did this dive need a decompression stop other than the safety stop?
nope
Awesome was hoping to dive that wreck after more certifications and experience without Tec training. Great videos btw added to my inspiration to get OW certified a start diving the Li sound.
No.
At high tide on the 853, (126 ft); you're on the 130 ft table (Group H), which ALSO requires a 3 minute deco stop at 15 feet. You have 10 minutes MAX, but in reality, it's more like 5 min, so you'll probably want to stay in a certain area. Don't plan on doing the bow and stern on the same dive. If you're an anxious breather, you might not even make it to 10 minutes before your time's up at that depth. Don't attempt to swim down current at the beginning of your dive, because you'll be having to sweat bullets swimming against the current on your way back to the down line or anchor line.
ALWAYS carry a backup tank. I used to use a 14cuft pony tank years ago. It tucks neatly between the plane of your back and the side of your main tank. A very low cross-sectional drag profile. Doing twins on the 853 almost invariably involves deco stops because your cross-sectional profile in the water is much larger, ESPECIALLY in a dry suit, so you use up more air and go everywhere slower. It's a Catch-22.
I bet there is an armory with a few pistols and sub machine guns. MP40s k98s or MP44s
Should of wiped the periscope clean. Would have honored the boat in a small way.
Shame how much stuff has been looted off the ship.
I’d loot it if k went down there. I’d take treasure too from ships I would t care.
"Gonna stay out of here out of respect for the dead" BUT LET ME JUST STICK MY CAMERA IN HERE!
Nice video... Vis isn't bad at all.
I do not think it's disrespectful to visit the wreck. It depends on individual approach. This after all is sort of a monument that needs to be recorded for posterity. If you're going there to pillage mementos for your mantel piece, that's sacrilege. Imagine how you would feel if tomb robbers pillaged the grave of your family
Fun fact: A diver actually died here while filming a documentary a few years back. It was due to a health issue
There has been quite a few divers die on this wreck, i heard of quite a few in the 80's and 90's
Did you notice the fish there too?
any U-Boats sunk in LI Sound Connecticut ??
keoki22 U-Boat 853 Is by block island, RI. Just outside the LI sound. Worth checking out, but few people get to see it.
Cole Sullivan thank you I never knew and always asked divers and they never knew
Is the Black Point diveable?
sure is! Its in two pieces though!
Its crazy how close the Germans came to the US mainland...
Well actually they were on the mainland as prisoners of war.
There’s a u-boat right off Mississippi I believe U-166
I wanna get down there and clean all that moss and barnacles off with some paint scrapers.. wire brushes.. steel wool.. sand paper
Id want like 20 other divers with me.
just so you know the skipper of the 853 was 6' 4" tall and I believe, if memory serves, only 25 years old so the sailors were not necessarily small men - - a guy I dove with from RI met with the skipper's sister and she gave him a picture of the crew before they embarked on their final mission. He was writing a book about the U 853 - - he also interviewed a carpenter doing some repairs on a roof in Point Judith when the Black Point was torpedoed and could see the smoke. We dove on it back in the late 1980s so it really has fallen apart considerably since I was last on it
staying out of the sub out of respect... okay i get that.... staying out of the sub bc it’s crazzy dangerous .... ive seen people in gear go into that torpedo loading hole, CRAZZY
I heard that they welded it shut because people were taking bones from the wreck
Mesothelioma it was looted years ago when it was discovered. It sucks because the bodys should begiven back to the German government for identification
Panzer Waifu they should but that would be disturbing them
Mesothelioma better then then being stolen.
Sick bastards i bet they had rib fest afterwards.
55 souls inside.
Actually, 53. In the early '60s, diver Burt Mason recovered two of the bodies and they were interred in the cemetery off Van Zandt Ave behind what is now Dwyer's Point Garage, near the base of the first exit ramp off RT 138 east. Two flat grave stones marked "Ein Unbekanntur" at separate positions in the cemetery.
BR549guy are the two sailors known? I’m sure only 15-20 years after the war they still had family left, were they notified?
@@BR549guy there could not have been much left of them except bones.
Its a war grave,let them rest in peace
spring 0509 uh yeah he is.. literally said he wasn’t going in out o respect
Why are all the hatches open?
Paul Grimm years ago, some dudes went in and looted it. They took belongings and parts of the ship. If they weren’t opened by the crew to escape, then they were most likely opened by them.
@@panzerwaifu4171 they were grave robbing the dead
If past lives are real. All the bodies of our former selves.. even if they've turned to dust. Is still somewhere on this planet. And if we've had many lives. Then, if we knew who and where we lived and died. .. we could take a world tour to the gravesites of all our former selves. Wow. What a chance to learn your spiritual lessons of your past experiences. Imagine if one of us were one of these uboat sailors in our past lives. And we could go down there and find our own bodies
Than how does the world population go from 4.3 billion in 1980 to 8 billion today?
Those men led a hard life and awful deaths in those tin cans . Their hulls are scattered all over half the world
He sounds like john chatterton
Actually we don't know Jack squat about our universe.
✝️🛐кто за вас ещё помолится,мои мальчики🛐
So if the sailors on board had lived,
they would average in their 90's these days.
Worse
The U-Boat was sunk in May 1945 and Germany surrendered on May 7 1945.
Poor guys were killed days before the war ended.
I think the crew of this U Boat were very slim. No McDonald's during WW2.
Nah they had rice and beans back then.
dude that water is so murky... arent you afraid of great white sharks? definitley a place for them to hang around..
Bravo for these divers who respected the site as a War Grave...! Unlike John Chatterton who didn't give a damn about the dead sailors of U-869 and got inside the wreck removing everything !
Really? I gotta check that video on youtube if they posted it on there.
@@1998gst4611 - I watched it and recorded it on a VHS cassette around 2009...I don't know if anyone uploaded it on YT
This U-boat was sunk after Germany surrendered.
This is incorrect. Germany had not yet surrendered, although Donitz had already issued orders for the U-boat fleet to surface and surrender. The U-853's captain either didn't get that message (more likely) or he ignored it. Reports on this incident variously place its date as either May 5th or 6th (time zone differences?)....and Germany formerly surrendered on the 7th.
It actually was sunk one day before Germany surrendered. It was sunk May 6th. Germany surrendered on May 7th, 1945. This boat sunk the American Merchant ship, SS Black Point on May 5th, which lead to the hunt for this ship, and her destruction. My Great Uncle was Captain Charles E. Prior, the Captain of the SS Black Point.
And I remember him very well...a great man.
The Germans had launched two acoustic torpedoes against the Black Point. The first one went for the loudest noise and blew the stern off, which sank in 85 ft of water. The second one went for the next loudest noise and that was the still running triple expansion steam engine. The second torpedo blew a little larger than a patio door into the port side of the Black point, which meant that the 853 was hiding up the bay, not out toward the open sea as many have suggested.
The crank-throws on the steam engine crankshaft were large enough to swim through with all your gear on.
Dawn Winn do you by chance live in gansett? I do and always wanted to know more about it
It's been looted since the 50s.
No respect whatsoever to those who perished on that Uboat and to their families back in Germany. This is mass grave and should be treated as such. It’s against a law ..ditto
Jack Torrance exactly what I’ve been thinking reading comments. These men had no respect or morals in life. I wouldn’t deliberately disrespect their bodies, but they had the idea that they were superior to everyone else, so how much do they deserve
@@jarrodkeiser9458 That's quite an assumption to make. German men of that generation weren't given much choice and an individual soldier is just a small piece in a long chain of command. Serving in the kriegsmarine or whatever didn't automatically turn men into blood-thirsty fanatics, not to mention that not every man actually supported the doctrines and actions of the Reich.
@Jack Torrance Agreed. You can't respect people who declared war on innocent countries, killed millions of defenseless people. These U boats killed thousands of sailors and civilian ships. No such thing as respect for their dead. Bravo to the looters. If you have the nerve and skill to make the dive, finders keepers !
Creepy as shit
In 1999, I dove the 853 with a group from Long Island.....What a trip !!!!....I also noticed the shiny Periscope.....While inside the wreck, I really kicked up a LOT of silt, & rust !!!....I think those Sailors were sleeping on the torpedoes back in the day....Crazy !!!......While searching the ribbed area of the bow, I found a plumbing ferole .... It was so blacked out, I couldn't see it, but I felt it....Not thinking any thing of it....It dawned on me....it could be a RING.....SO....I put it in my glove....After getting back on the dive boat "Jean Marie".....I inspected my find.....It WAS a ring !!!.....Inscribed with the name "RUUIP".....Several weeks after the trip, I was tormented by some German Extremists wanting THAT ring !!! Many 2:00 am phone calls......I will never give it up !!!
Brown a
sad way to die
The intro was cheesy af
Why not why can net you see everything in sight that is very exciting why they always have some stupid law day already dead
*Докуя трындят, реаль-но смотреть со втОро й мин,да и то как бы смотриш в куй а на тебя...*
i would go into the boat and take as many souvenirs as possible. i don't care about the skeletons and they don't care either. they're dead!
Read the comments
There are people here mentioning the dove the same wreck in the early 70s and 80s when it was in much better shape.
The sub was picked clean a long time ago.
Basically your grave robbing the dead of their possession
@@norms3913 and what are they going to do about it
@@Crashed131963 Is that where you get your facts from buddy? youtube comments ?
@@Crashed131963 there is a beer called johm smiths. have you tried it ? like a smooth ale
Cool interesting I think all of the sub American and enemy as well as ships this is history and to find out what happened