German WW1 destroyers found in Whale Island mud

Navy News ^ | 13 April 2016

[artichokegrower]

A tiny drone has scanned the wrecks of two German WW1 warships – forgotten and mostly buried by the sludge and mud at the southern end of Whale Island.

Marine archeologists hope to bring the two vessels - one a veteran of Jutland - back to life in 3D computer model form as part of centennial commemorations of the Great War.

[artichokegrower]

You think that over the last 100 years someone would have noticed the piles of metal sticking out of the mud

[artichokegrower]

Link to more detailed link

http://forgottenwrecks.maritimearchaeologytrust.org/jutland-german-wrecks

[Leaning Right]

The way the British navy is going these days, the UK might want to raise and refit these ships for active duty.

After all, Germans built things to last. Back in my steel mill days (late 70’s), we had machinery still in use stamped with the Kaiser's crown.

[Larry Lucido]

I often can’t find where I parked my car. I’m sure it happens with destroyers, too.

[Larry Lucido]

They made great air conditioners, too.

"Property of Erwin Rommel" is stenciled on it. :-)

[Leaning Right]

LOL, I remember that episode.

[Larry Lucido]

Only thing better is the Commando 8.

[Snickering Hound]

The German battlecruiser Seydlitz was so badly damaged at Jutland that the British battleline didn't fire on it while they passed her thinking she was about to sink anyway and to save ammo.

It didn't. It made it back to report and was repaired.

[Oatka]

“Link to more detailed link”

http://forgottenwrecks.maritimearchaeologytrust.org/jutland-german-wrecks

Thanks, very informative.

[mad_as_he$$]

I bet the local fisherman knew of them. Closer to you reminds me of the Macon. It’s location was a “mystery” until some one the local fishermen if they knew where it was.

Wiki:

The USS Macon (ZRS-5) was a rigid airship built and operated by the United States Navy for scouting and served as a “flying aircraft carrier”, designed to carry biplane parasite aircraft, five single-seat Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk for scouting or two-seat Fleet N2Y-1 for training. In service for less than two years, in 1935 the Macon was damaged in a storm and lost off California’s Big Sur coast, though most of the crew were saved. The wreckage is listed as the USS Macon Airship Remains on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

[ro_dreaming]

If they have remains in them, leave them there - they’re tombs.

Just like OUR sunken Navy vessels - they’re still property of the government that built them, and tombs for the sailors who died there.

[artichokegrower]

Actually nobody died on these two ships. They were towed to their present location after the war.

[alternatives?]

One of the interesting tidbits on the Scapa Flow scuttling is they still harvest steel from the sunken ships for medical instruments because the steel is not tainted by radioactivity. Producing steel requires lots of oxygen and all steel manufactured after the first atomic bomb tests is tainted to some extent by the production of steel.