Nick,

UB 119 sailed from Helgoland on her first patrol on April 27, 1918. The U-boat was assigned to operate in the northern North Sea though her commanding officer could, if he chose, continue on to patrol off the north coast of Ireland, in the North Channel, and in the northern Irish Sea. At 4:30am on April 30, UB 119 reported in from about 90 miles WSW of Lindesnes, Norway. That was the last message that the Kaiserliche Marine received from the submarine. The Royal Navy would intercept additional signals through May 4, with the last message coming at 11:02am from west of South Uist at 57°16’N, 8°20’N.

Theory #1 is unworkable — UB 119 was assigned to the High Seas Fleet, not Flanders, so wouldn’t go to Flanders.

Theory #3 is extremely unlikely. UB 119 should really have been heard from by then — and the boat seemed to radio a lot.

I see three possibilities:

Ramming by Greenisland (it's written as one word) off Bengore Head at 55°16’N, 6°24’W remains a possibility.

USS Baltimore laid 899 mines in six separate between April 14 and May 3, 1918 off the north coast of Ireland northeast of Hemptons Turbot Bank. It's possible that UB 119 could have gotten into one of these minefields.

The last possibility is operational loss. UB 65 certainly was an operational loss, and several other UBIIIs disappeared under circumstances that make operational loss a leading theory.

No matching wreck has been found yet. There's nothing in the UKHO database near the Greenisland and Baltimore minefield sites that looks like a submarine wreck, but these areas also haven't been scanned recently either.

As for operational loss, stay tuned… There is known UBIII wreck in the North Channel that doesn't quite match the historic loss location of either UB 85 or UB 82. Given the depth, it will be difficult to identify, and if it isn't UB 82 or UB 85, it could be UB 119 — or the also missing UB 63 or even something like UB 104 or UB 113.

Best wishes,
Michael