REPORT AN ATTEMPT Of THE IDENTIPICTION OF A SUNK SUBMARINE
During cleaning up and arrangement of the sea bottom in the North Sea in summer 1993 performed on behalf of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (Oljedirektoratet) a sunk submarine has been discovered. By using an ROV the video record of the wreck has been produced. Basing on this record an attempt of the ship's identification has been undertaken. The present report includes some comments and conclusions which may be useful for the final identification of the submarine.
General conclusions:
The wreck is lying on the sea bottom in the normal position (even keel), with the tower directed vertically upward. The water depth in this place is about 185 m. The longitudinal axis of the ship corresponds almost exactly to the direction East (bow) - West (stem).
Video record shown the wreck from one side only (starboard view) and partially from the top (deck view). The wreck pictures have been taken from a distance and some pictures are not sharp. Therefore not so many details of the wreck's equipment are visible.
The discovered wreck is a typical submarine applied at the II World War.
The ship has a very singular form of the bow (with the net cutter) which may indicate the Dutch origin. Since the basic documentation for other submarines missed or sunk in this sea region during the II World War have not yet been completed, the other origins of the wreck can not absolutely be excluded.
Outside of the stern region no special damages of the ship have been observed. The light hull has many holes caused by a rust and simultaneously many plates from the tower have been tom away (probably as an effect of trawling). Only in the ending part of the stem an extensive damage has been observed. Its extension seems to be too large to be caused only by a stroke with the sea bottom (a slender body like a submarine during a free sinking will normally moves pendularly down instead to fall vertically down with the high vertical speed). This stem damage is probably caused by a mine or torpedo and may be a reason of the ship sinking. However as it has been mentioned, the portboard of the ship has not been examined and therefore this conclusion can not be treated as final.
Two ships on the list of the missing submarines in this sea area have been equipped with the net cutter at the bow (as mentioned in point 5) and therefore they arc of the great interest. Both these ships have been built in Netherlands before the II World War. They were: the Dutch submarine O 22, and the Polish ORP "ORZEŁ". The documentation for these two ship have been completed (quite comprehensive and accurate for the Polish submarine and a general one for the Dutch ship). In an analysis of the equipment details shown on the underwater video record of the wreck these documentation have been used. The analysis has been limited only to these two ships.
Analysis or the wreck equipments shown on the video record:
Basing on the longitudinal coordinates show n on the tape the wreck length can been estimated as equal to about 75-80 m (bow - 650057E, stern - 640979E). Both ships have the length (overall) of this range (O 22 - 77,7 m., ORP ORZEŁ - 84 m). However the wreck seems to be slightly too shot to be the Polish submarine.
The wreck has net cutter placed at the bow with the teeth in the upper part. Booth ships have a such equipment.
At the end of the upper part of net cutter the Polish ship had a towing fairlead, while on the Dutch submarine at this place the net cutter has been extended over the deck and fixed on the supports [Picture 1]. On the wreck at this place no equipments of such kind is visible. These elements might be torn away by a fishing net, but in case the Polish submarine it seems to be very unlikely (the towing fairlead is normally smooth and fixed very strongly to the hull).
The anchor chain is pull out from chain locker (by the fishing activity?) and is stretched along the hull. The chain starts on the portboard. This fits to the arrangement of booth ships which have one anchor placed on the portboard.
Behind the tower, inside of the light hull a valve with connected pipe has been noticed (longitudinal position 65 00 01 E, i.e about 50 - 55 m from the bow). Both ships could had a valve in this place.
A little further in the afterward direction. inside of the light hull a round container (tube?) is shown [Picture 2]. It may be the deck torpedo tube (ORP ORZEŁ had two rotative torpedo tubes behind the tower) or other equipment.
Entrance truck at the stern On booth ships the escape truck has been placed at the stern. Its position along the hull corresponds to the position of a valve noticed on the wreck.
Stern overhang (partially destroyed) seems to be not so high (about 1 m). The entrances of stern torpedo shutters are not visible. ORP ORZEŁ had two shutters on each sides with the deeply formed entrances and the stern overhang of 2 m height. The Dutch submarine O 22 had at the stern one torpedo shutter on each ship's side. Its stern overhang was lower and more slender than on the Polish ship [Picture 3].
Gun tower and entrance truck in the main tower.
On the wreck two separate trucks are visible (the covering plates are missed). The front truck is higher and of the larger diameter (probably this is the gun tower). A valve on the top of the back truck (Iower and thinner) which may be an additional entrance truck is opened la the starboard side (it seems to be like this). This construction (two separate trucks) is entirely different from this which has been applied on the Polish submarine. But the Dutch ship had just such arrangement or the tower. However a direction of the valve opening was different (it was opened afterwards).
SUMMARIZING:
FINAL CONCLUSION
The discovered wreck is certainly not the Polish submarine ORP ORZEŁ. Too many details of the wreck do not fit to this ship.
The wreck seems to be the Dutch submarine O 22. However some details visible on the wreck should be check with the detailed drawing of the ship.
Dr. eng. Wojciech Kauczynski,
Naval architect
Trondheim
Wojciech Kauczynski wyraznie pisze:Wrak z p e w n o s c i a nie jest polskim okretem podwodnym, a nizej wrak wyglada na kolenderski O22. Czyzby sie mylil?
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w 13 March 2009 16:34
w 16 March 2009 21:38