Wow. Very interesting fact. Would have not thought that to be the case. Thank you.
What a ridiculous term.
The Nazis did have a nuclear program. But this sub had nothing to do with that. There is no uranium here. There is no radiation concern here. They really should have found a better catchphrase.
Saw a fascinating documentary once describing how the British submarine used some early sound detection technology to predict the German U-boat’s zig-zag pattern, and then, doing a quick calculation, fired its torpedo so that it would run into the U-boat as it, in effect, “turned into it” ... it was quite an accomplishment in the early days of sonar technology ...
And the ocean currents will never move this fill?
And the fill will prevent the mercury from migrating?
And all the silt stirred up in this process will settle back exactly where it came from?
Better to pay too much the first time, than doing it twice.
I read where those U-Boats used mercury as ballast and helped the boat to submerge faster.
The article was quite unclear. I wondered if U-864 was traveling on the surface, but it was not.
Little puddles of Mercury can be found in many gold bearing creeks in the western US. Early prospectors used it to capture fine gold from the creek bed gravels and they weren’t very careful about recovering any that spilled. If you leave it alone there is very little danger. If you start messing with it you will create problems. LEAVE IT ALONE!
They're eventually going to start leaking.
Funny that they should make the Chernobyl comparison when there were no nuclear materials involved. It’s also funny that we have two REAL “underwater Chernobyls” in our oceans and fail to draw the right conclusions. The US’s Thresher and the Soviet’s Kursk are both nuclear powered subs sitting on the sea floor causing no problems at all. Nuclear power plants store fuel rods safely in a mere 15 feet of water. Putting nuclear waste under several miles of sea water is safer (and much, much cheaper) than burying them in salt mines, yet no on proposes that solution (except, so far as I know, me).
Jet parts?
Is mercury heavier than sea water?
There is a very interesting video on YouTube about the sinking of the sub.
In 1724, two Spanish Galleons, the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe and the Conde de Tolosa, sank near the Dominican Republic. Their cargo was 300 tons of mercury and 100 bronze cannon.
No one seems to panic over them.
snicker...
A couple of weeks ago I watched on a history channel(?) the story of the saga that was the sinking of U-864. It was a very detailed video.
The following link, also covers the event but is not the one I watched.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH-0XY0DROk
The 25 YO Brit. was a sharp dude, firing 4 torpedos and got lucky, when the German turned into the fourth.
U-234 contained the Nazi gifts to Japan of ~1200 lbs of uranium oxide as well as a new-in-the-box (literally) ME-262. She never reached Japan and was surrendered in obedience to orders from Dönitz a couple of week’s after Hitler’s suicide.