General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
deep sea wrecks
Posted by:
kurt
()
Date: August 10, 2001 03:36PM
<HTML>Looks can be decieving.
In shallow wrecks (like the U-85) where sunlight penetrates, a wreck is quickly engulfed in living organisms that encrust the wreck. Dissolved oxygen quickly rusts ferrous metals - which is most of the metal on a sub. In other words, the wreck looks pretty shabby after a few decades. U-869 (U-who) was clearly completely rotted away after 55 years on the Atlantic seabed in 200+ feet of water.
I used to think that a deep sea wreck, like the Titanic (12,000 + ft) and even U-166 (5000ft+) would be preserved forever. No sunlight. No life encrusting it. No oxygen. Just cold salt water. But there are chemosynthetic bacteria that live outside a sunlight powered echosystem that actually eat ferrous metals. The Titanic, after 80+ years, is thoroughly eaten through. It is these bacteria eating away the iron that leave the icicle like encrustations you can see in the pictures of the Titanic in Cameron\'s \'Titanic\'. The Titanic is near collapse, its plates mere shadows of there original shape. In a few decades it will be a collapsed pile of rubble.
The same is happening to U-166, and all other deep sea wrecks. It will be much weaker and rotted out compared to the day it sank.
Then add whatever battle damage it sustained that sank it, and the rocketing ride to the ocean floor: as a sinking vessel descends, all of its air pockets collapse as the sea pressure increases, making it heavier with every foot it descends, acclerating it to speeds it never achieved under propulsive power. A wreck can hit the sea floor at 40 or even 60 knots. This would shatter the vessel, even if the outside hull looks intact.
That is what happened to the Russian sub that the CIA tried to raise. The sub looked to be in one piece, but it was really shattered structurally, and fell apart into pieces when they tried to raise it.
I suspect that U-166 is a badly rotted hulk that would be very difficult to raise, and that raising it would probably tear it into little pieces.
Best to let it lie.</HTML>
In shallow wrecks (like the U-85) where sunlight penetrates, a wreck is quickly engulfed in living organisms that encrust the wreck. Dissolved oxygen quickly rusts ferrous metals - which is most of the metal on a sub. In other words, the wreck looks pretty shabby after a few decades. U-869 (U-who) was clearly completely rotted away after 55 years on the Atlantic seabed in 200+ feet of water.
I used to think that a deep sea wreck, like the Titanic (12,000 + ft) and even U-166 (5000ft+) would be preserved forever. No sunlight. No life encrusting it. No oxygen. Just cold salt water. But there are chemosynthetic bacteria that live outside a sunlight powered echosystem that actually eat ferrous metals. The Titanic, after 80+ years, is thoroughly eaten through. It is these bacteria eating away the iron that leave the icicle like encrustations you can see in the pictures of the Titanic in Cameron\'s \'Titanic\'. The Titanic is near collapse, its plates mere shadows of there original shape. In a few decades it will be a collapsed pile of rubble.
The same is happening to U-166, and all other deep sea wrecks. It will be much weaker and rotted out compared to the day it sank.
Then add whatever battle damage it sustained that sank it, and the rocketing ride to the ocean floor: as a sinking vessel descends, all of its air pockets collapse as the sea pressure increases, making it heavier with every foot it descends, acclerating it to speeds it never achieved under propulsive power. A wreck can hit the sea floor at 40 or even 60 knots. This would shatter the vessel, even if the outside hull looks intact.
That is what happened to the Russian sub that the CIA tried to raise. The sub looked to be in one piece, but it was really shattered structurally, and fell apart into pieces when they tried to raise it.
I suspect that U-166 is a badly rotted hulk that would be very difficult to raise, and that raising it would probably tear it into little pieces.
Best to let it lie.</HTML>
