Hi Neil,

Both the WWII torpedo warhead and its detonator should still be considered very dangerous today. Fooling around with old explosives should be left to trained professionals with the right equipment.

That said when Navy EOD divers tried to disarm the detonator from a torpedo protruding from the stern tube of U-352 several years ago the detonator (but not the warhead) detonated. Nobody was injured because they were using a remote controlled device operated from the surface to disable the detonator. There is no substitute for knowing what you are doing and having the right equipment.

A few years before the Navy tried to disarm that torpedo while on my second dive on U-352 I saw a diver banging on one of its four its detonator actuating arms in order to remove it. Pretty much like looking down the barrel of a loaded gun while pulling the trigger to see if it is loaded... Neither of us realized at the time that it was a detonator because it was so encrusted with marine growth it was unrecognizable and because nobody expects to see a torpedo just barely sticking out of its torpedo tube. Things look very different after so many years in salt water. Lucky for both of us he gave up. The torpedo was probably jarred part way out of the torpedo tube when U-352 hit the bottom. It hadn’t traveled its arming distance but who knows if the arming safety mechanism still worked after all those years in salt water.

You definitely don’t want to be underwater when something like that detonates either.

Regards,

Ken Dunn