- Title
- State
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-
- Date
- January 1984
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-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
State
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Diving lowoid the bo» o* the U-352, you “eon't help hoving the feeling thot the itn't deed." (Photo by Bill Lovin, copyright 1975 Morinc Grofict)
Where A Sea Wolf Died
The deadly llireal is .still there, uniting for
a diver to get ea re less.
She was a proud boat. The finesi in
Ihe world al that lime and manned by a
crack crew. I he pride of ihe Father¬
land and determined to help win (he
war for Germany.
That was ihe way il was on Ihe
seventh of May. 1942. when Ihe Unter -
seebooi 352. under ihe command of
Kapilanleuinant Helmut Rathke, slip¬
ped into ihe cold waters off Bremerha-
ven. The steel grey combat colors
blended well with ihe sea and ihe low
silhouette of the boat presented a de¬
ceptive innocence. The sinister ap¬
pearance of potential destruction was
more accurately described by U-352’s
not-yet-completed sister ships
crowding the ways of Dcr Flensburger
Sch iff s ban.
The grey tumescent submarine was
218 feel long and displaced 871 ions.
She derived her power from a large six
cylinder diesel engine when on ihe
surface and a battery-driven electric
engine when submerged. Her punch
came from five twenty-one inch tor¬
pedo tubes; four forward and one aft.
Her crew consisted of 44 men. and she
carried 14 torpedoes, each capable of
THE STATE, January 1984
»!/
c;k\i: dee s
sinking Ihe largest ship on ihe ocean in
1941.
That was 1941.
In 1978. Ihe U-352 has been silent in
her grave for 36 years off ihe coast of
North Carolina. She resis on a sandy
bottom 26 miles south of Morchcad
Cily with her how pointing north-
northeast. She was sent there by the
Coast Guard Cutter Icarus (WPC-1 10)
on the morning of 9 May. 1942.
The Divers
In the summer, divers from all over
North Carolina charter boats from
Wilmington and Morehead City to take
them out to the wrecks that abound in
the Graveyard of the Allantic. Storms
put most of the wrecks there, while
war has been responsible for many
others. The best wrecks for divers
were sunk off the coast during World
War II by German U-boats. A total of
53 allied ships went down off North
Carolina during the war years and only
4 U-boats were destroyed during the
same time period in the same area.
Two of the U-boats sank in deep
water and two in shallow. The U-352
rests at 115 feet, where she was dis¬
covered in 1975 in excellent condition.
The U-85. sunk in April. 1942. by the
Navy off Cape Hatteras. is still lost and
waiting for divers to discover her.
By the summer of 1978. the U-352
had lost her grey paint and had become
encrusted by a plethora of sea or¬
ganisms. The sandy bottom offers little
living space for sessile life forms, so
"real estate" is at a premium; compe¬
tition. therefore, is keen for every
square inch on the submarine. Shell
fish, sea fans, sponges, barnacles and
corals utilize every possible space.
The metal fairing covering the conning
tower is almost gone, blasted away by
the depth charges and shells from the
Icarus' three inch guns. The deck
planking is missing also. Some of it
from violence, some by deterioration,
and the rest as momentoes of the war
collected by weekend divers who were
born a decade-and-a-half after the
submarine was sunk.
After descending 115 feet down in
cold, dark water, a diver approaching
79
