Hi guys,
there is one thing that puzzles me about the account by Von Forstner as related above: according to my data there were only 5 killed in the sinking of Iberian. How could this beast have been propelled out of the water and not been seen or reported by the survivors who were directly (or almost directly) under it?

I fully agree that in the account of the surrender of UB-85 there is nothing about a sea monster, just the damage from gunfire which prevented the boat from diving and the fact that she had spent the majority of the previous 2 days underwater, evading surface craft hunting for her.

Grider's account: I have the book War Fish but have not yet had the time to read it. Considering the tricks water can play and the magnification at which the 'scope may have been set, it probably was a fish badly distorted by reflection and or refraction.

I have to think that after say, 60+ million years, surviving elasmosaurs and plesiosaurs would have developed some form of gill system to allow them to remain underwater without having to surface. Whales, being mammals, necessitate the oxygen to feed the calves, so their evolution was along different lines than that a saurian could have taken.

I'll have to discuss the matter with a couple of science teachers on monday, when school is back in session, and see what their opinions are.
Regards, Brian