Hello everyone.
Several weeks ago I was reading about WW2
German U boat U166 being found in 2001 in 5000 ft of water and how it is the
only german sub sunk in the Gulf of Mexico.
That might not be correct and there just might
be two subs.
This got me to thinking about some divers I
spoke with about a year ago. They told me they were diving just one mile
east of one of our islands here in Florida
and found a small sunken submarine. They said
the coast guard came out to their boat, hassled them, and then told them to
leave because of military
exercises in the area. There were no military
ships in the area though.
I didn't give this much thought and figured
they were just pulling my chain and attributed it to another U boat legend
of which there are many.
Then yesterday, my dive buddy who is an
instructor and I had told of the above incident called me. He told me he has
a book that tells of the coast guard in 1945
taking a captured two man german midget sub out
to just one mile east of one of our islands and using it for
gunnery practise and sinking it. The book
even told how many shells were used to sink it.
Joe (my dive buddy) has a chart with the possible location of the sub. This
chart is seperate and unrelated to the above mentioned book.
He is coming over tomorrow night and we are
going to try and plan a dive trip to see if
we can locate the sub. The book said it was in only 18 ft of water.
I have heard many U boat legends about the one
loaded with treasure, then the one loaded with mercury. Most if not all of
them are just that. Legends.
But this one seems to have recurring evidence
and since it is so close I would love to check it out. If the coast guard
towed it out for gunnery practise you would
think any munitions would not be aboard and
thus the coast guard would not care to run people away from it. Puzzling.
Since the sub would be in Florida waters I
would think the state would have authority over the sub and not the coast
guard. I asked the divers of the previous year about
that and they said they didn't argue the law
with men with guns but left as ordered. Any ideas here of who I could
contact to determine who owns the sub, if it can legally be dove
upon,
and if the coast guard has authority to run me
away. Any knowledge on this would be helpful. If it IS there, being a midget
it could be raised and preserved for static museum display.
Some might say leave it alone. But if we leave
them there another 60 years will there be anything left but a mound of
iron oxide? What do we leave for future generations by doing
that?
Thanks.
Kindest Regards,
Bill
Akins.