Brian,
Thanks for your reply. The Coelacanth mentioned in the below thread is a comparatively small bottom dwelling fish of about five feet in length. The Plesiosaur was a much larger (up to 40 feet) surface dwelling creature thought to habituate coastal areas (a recently uncovered elasmosaur (long necked plesiosaur) fossil revealed a partial if not exclusive diet of shellfish). While part of me is fascinated by the possibility of huge unknown creatures resembling plesiosaurs or sea serpents –the necessity/probability of these being air breathing creatures strongly mitigates against it –nevertheless there is still a part of me that hopes and wonders. The following are several accounts I’ve uncovered –the first two off the internet from cryptozoological sites. I’m most anxious to hear thoughtful and intelligent reactions from the historical community to these.

1) U-28 ABOMINATION
After a military engagement with the British steamer Iberian in the North Atlantic - an encounter which resulted in the steamer's destruction via German torpedo - the captain and officers of the U-28 Schmidt, bore witness to a spectacle which none of them could have anticipated. The Captain of the submarine, Commander Freiherr Georg G? von Forstner, described the encounter thusly:

"On July 30, 1915, our U-28 torpedoed the British steamer Iberian, which was carrying a rich cargo across the North Atlantic. The steamer sank so swiftly that its bow stuck up almost vertically into the air. Moments later the hull of the Iberian disappeared. The wreckage remained beneath the water for approximately twenty-five seconds, at a depth that was clearly impossible to assess, when suddenly there was a violent explosion, which shot pieces of debris - among them a gigantic aquatic animal - out of the water to a height of approximately 80-feet.

"At that moment I had with me in the conning tower six of my officers of the watch, including the chief engineer, the navigator, and the helmsman. Simultaneously we all drew one another's attention to this wonder of the seas, which was writhing and struggling among the debris. We were unable to identify the creature, but all of us agreed that it resembled an aquatic crocodile, which was about 60-feet long, with four limbs resembling large webbed feet, a long, pointed tail and a head which also tapered to a point. Unfortunately we were not able to take a photograph, for the animal sank out of sight after ten or fifteen seconds."

On September 2, of that same year, the U-28 was damaged beyond repair in the North Cape after being hit by debris from the munitions ship, Olive Branch, which exploded after being torpedoed by U-28. \

2) UB-85 ATROCITY
The account begins on April 30, 1918, in the waning days of World War I, when the crew of the British patrol boat, the Coreopsis - while sailing off the Belfast Lough - were astounded to find a German submarine (the UB-85) floating lifelessly on the surface of the North Atlantic. The members of Her Majesty's navy were both perplexed and disconcerted by the discovery as they were not in the habit of encountering non-aggressive U-boats on the open seas, much less during the middle of the day!

With almost no provocation, the entire crew of the UB-85 abandoned ship. Once aboard the British vessel, the U-boat's commander, Captain Gunther Krech, was immediately interrogated. One of the first questions asked by the British officers regarded his decision to remain on the surface even when their obviously English vessel came within his UB-85's line of sight. Captain Krech's response was not one that his interrogators were prepared for.

According to Krech, his submarine had surfaced during the previous night in order to recharge its batteries. Krech was on deck with some men and a few of his officers, when there was an abrupt surge off the starboard bow. Suddenly, what the captain referred to as a "strange Beast" climbed out of the night blackened ocean and onto the side of his ship. Krech described the creature to his captors as such:

"This beast had large eyes, set in a @#$%& sort of skull. It had a small head, but with teeth that could be seen glistening in the moonlight. Every man on watch began firing a sidearm at the beast, but the animal had hold of the forward gun mount and refused to let go."

Krech continued his story, stating that proportions of this creature were so immense that it forced the U-boat to list greatly to the starboard side. The captain, fearing that the open hatch would drop below the waterline (which would flood the sub and eventually sink it), ordered his men to continue their attack on this beast. The battle raged until the animal finally released the submarine and slipped back into its watery domain.

The crew of the UB-85, shaken, but glad to be alive, noted that during the struggle the forward deck plating had been damaged and the U-boat could no longer submerge. "That is why you were able to catch us on the surface," the Captain concluded. Krech and his crew's entire account was chronicled by members of the British Navy, only hours after the events took place. The official record of the event reads as follows in official reports:

"UB-85 Krech, Kplt Gunther April 30 off Belfast Lough Gunfire Sunk by the drifter COREOPSIS. Crew taken off before boat sank."

3) SS Pollack - George Grider
In addition I would like to add this account from an American WWII Submarine Ace George Grider. There is at least one indicator suggesting Grider’s credibility. During the war American submarine commanders would submit their claimed successes upon returning from war patrols. The Joint-Army Navy Assessment Jommittee (JANAC) was formed to assess the validity of these and other claims of enemy losses. By the time the assessment was completed post war, not all claims stood up to scrutiny –perhaps the most egregious overclaimant was William S. Post Jr. who claimed to have sunk 19 ships, but was later assessed to have sunk 8 ½ -less than half that amount. In fact of the top 77 commanders, only 7 claimed fewer ships than they were subsequently evaluated as having sunk. Grider was one of these -having claimed 6 as certainly sunk, when he was later assessed at having in fact sunk 7.
Grider wrote “War Fish” a riveting account of his experiences. In my Ballantine Books paperback version of this book Grider writes (pp. 96-97 in the chapter entitled “The Old Lady”):

. . . I raised the scope . . . and began to look at the dimly lighted water while the tip of the periscope was still about ten feet under. It is a rare thing to see marine life through a periscope, perhaps because the bulk of a submarine scares fish away, but on this morning as I gazed through the water I saw a real monster.
He was green. He had a huge head, all out of proportion to his body. He trailed long, filamentlike whiskers as he swam lazily towards the periscope, and his large sinister eyes looked directly into mine.

Grider described the color as the “damndest green you ever saw” and apparently concluded the animal was a monstrous fish.

Thanx

Rob Romero