We watched a WWII submarine show last night. I often wonder what it would be like to bring one of those to the surface, one that was still in tact. Would there still be pockets of air that would preserve history? Are they in good enough shape to restore as a museum piece. It’s just fascinating.
According to last nights movie, the German captain was also a submariner during WWI, and he stated that back then when they went down there would be no guarantee they would come back up. He was referring to how unreliable they were. If true, then I bet somewhere there is a very restoreable one.
Das Boot (”The Boat”) - in German, with English subtitles -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pzKyeIex2Y
http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/u-505/
As ct mentioned, the U-505 was captured during WWII and someone figured out how to drag it to the Museum of S&I. I took that tour circa age 12, and was struck at the amount of valves and gauges and of course how cramped the thing was. Those were formidable weapons, and had the WWI uboats not been so effective, the Third Reich might have had more of a surface navy. Not sure, but I believe the naval Enigma machine on display at the Air and Space museum (go figure) in DC came from the U-505. The A&S museum display is the only place in the world where both the army and naval versions of Enigma can be seen. Not too sure there are many displays of either one, anyway.