Mat,

From Dan's comment "Torpedoed (2x) at 51.56N, 05.29W (Grid AM 9577)" this must have come from the U-boats KTB and/or Torpedo report which as a rule is pretty accurate (especially compared to the coordinates given by the ship being attacked, understandable given the chaos surrounding such events).

Even with that, the Grid was a square of some size (I want to say 6 miles, but I don't have my notes to confirm)and there is a program that calculates the center and converts it to Long/Lat. So even with the most accurate info, it's still really a "ballpark" number. Still a quite large area to search unless your Robert Ballard.

You can do a search on Grids from the forums and probably find more info on how the Grids worked, but you get the general idea.

Add to that all the variables of speed, course, sea state, currents, etc... and it can be quite maddening. I've been trying to make sense of coordinates from two ships attacked within sight of one another, 40 minutes apart, by the same u-boat, plus the info from the rescue ship that picked up the survivors the next morning and nothing's adding up (more info = more confusion).

Look on the bright side; at least you have a part of the ship. Have you search for ocean current information? Is the area fished (lost nets, anchors)?

Good luck with your search. I hope to see a future posting with the exact location.

Regards,

Eric