WWI U-boats
UC 97
| Type | UC III | ||||
| Shipyard | Blohm & Voss, Hamburg (Werk 331) | ||||
| Ordered | 12 Jan 1916 | ||||
| Launched | 17 Mar 1918 | ||||
| Commissioned | 3 Sep 1918 | ||||
| Commanders |
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| Career | No patrols | ||||
| Successes | No successes | ||||
| Fate | 22 Nov 1918 - Surrenderd to the USA. Used for exhibition to raise war loans from New York, via Halifax and St. Lawrence to the Great Lakes. Sunk on 7 June, 1921 by gunfire from the US training vessel Wilmette at Lake Michigan.. | ||||
Ironically the "WILMETTE" had herself been built in 1903 as the "EASTLAND", a palatial USA/Canada Great Lakes day passenger and fruit transportation ship. In 1915 she turned turtle just after pulling away from her berth, drowning 812 people out of over 2,500 excursionists aboard - the greatest ever single casualty loss in any Great Lakes accident. In 1917 the U.S. Navy purchased the salvaged hull, cut it down in height and rebuilt it into the training vessel "Wilmette", which served successfully until scrapping in 1948
(Source: van der Linder, P. (1979). Great Lakes Ships We Remember. Cleveland: Freshwater Press Inc).
See more at http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/w9/wilmette.htm.
German U-boat UC 97 in port. The caption on the photo is incorrect.