German WW1 U-boat found off the coast of Shetland

A World War One German U-boat has been identified by divers disconnected the seashore of Shetland.

The SM UC-55 submarine was sunk astir 8 miles south-east of Lerwick by the Royal Navy successful 1917.

Divers aboard the Stromness vessel Valhalla person go the archetypal to inspect its wreckage.

The U-boat had been laying mines successful the convoy transmission betwixt Orkney and Shetland earlier being forced to aboveground owed to a method fault.

The wreck tract had been been known astir since the mid-1980s erstwhile scanning instrumentality picked it up, but Hazel Weaver, the proprietor of the Valhalla said that 10 years of readying had gone into the dive.

"This has been known astir for a agelong time, the question was, is this the wreck what we thought it was," she told BBC Radio Shetland.

"After three-and-a-half hours of divers being successful the h2o down to 110m (361ft), they came and confirmed yes this is the UC-55."

U-boats were utilized by Germany successful some satellite wars, inflicting a dense toll connected merchant ships and subject vessels.

Despite their prevalence lone 4 stay intact contiguous portion many, specified arsenic the SM UC-55, prevarication connected the water floor.

The submarine met its extremity aft a nonaccomplishment of trim resulted successful it sinking beneath its maximum dive depth, resulting successful immoderate flooding but it managed to emergence to the surface.

Shortly afterwards 2 Royal Navy destroyers appeared and opened fire, sinking it.

Jacob Mackenzie, 1 of the divers who visited the wreck, said it was "eerie" being down determination fixed that the immoderate of the unit had perished on with their vessel.

"You are alert of that, though I judge astir 15 of the unit did flight the remainder of the unit of people didn't truthful they are inactive wrong and that's precise evident erstwhile you're looking astir it," helium said.

The squad were capable to corroborate the individuality of the wreck due to the fact that details of the harm had been recorded successful the logbooks of the Royal Navy destroyers that sank the submarine.

"It surely didn't descend by accident. This was wartime and if you haven't been to those depths earlier you won't admit that it's transportation black, it's precise quiet, it is rather eerie erstwhile you aquatics astir doing this," helium said.

"In the backmost of your caput arsenic good you person to retrieve the information that this is fundamentally a sedate for astir apt 20 men who didn't marque it retired live unfortunately."