[mookiemookie]

I just visited yesterday and it was quite impressive. I was lucky to have been there on a day that was fairly dead in terms of traffic. My tour group consisted of myself and 3 other people.

The boat itself is in great shape. They've done a LOT of restoration to it, and everything is very clean and painted. Nothing looks glaringly out of place, aside from the doorways cut in the side of the boat and the interior hatches they cut to facilitate tour groups walking through the boat. I was a little disappointed that they had the bow torpedo room closed off, but it was visible through the grating they had placed over the hatch. The tour guide gave a very basic, but accurate, introduction to the operation of a submarine, and how the crew lived on the boat.

I did have a couple of issues with some of the things stated during the tour - she said that it was the first German U-boat captured in WW2, however that was actually U-570, which was captured and put into service by the Royal Navy as the HMS Graph in 1941. They also overstated the importance of the capture of the enigma machine onboard, in my opinion. There was no mention of the capture of the enigma machine from U-110 by the British back in 1941. By the time the U.S. captured U-505 in 1944, the enigma cipher had already been broken, and the U-boat war was all but won. They made it sound like the U-505's capture was a major turning point in the war. Of course I didn't want to be "that guy" so I stayed quiet about these things.

The peripheral exhibits around the boat are very, very well presented. There's a lot of U-boat crew paraphernalia - canned bread, badges, cigarettes, maps, letters, binoculars, uniforms, flags, etc. All of this is very well labelled and accurately explained. The volunteers walking the floor were knowledgeable about the items presented. They had a T-5 Zaunköning that had been opened up and put under glass. It was amazing to see the inner workings of one of these weapons. They have a lot of displays and audio/visual presentations on the Battle of the Atlantic and the convoy system - all from a very American-centric viewpoint, but this is to be expected.

Since it was such an empty day at the museum, I spent some time talking to the tour guide after the tour. She seemed well versed on the major "bibles" of u-boat history and said that Das Boot and Steel Boats, Iron Hearts is required reading for guides. I asked her why she didn't mention Peter Zschech, the onetime captain of the U-505 who committed suicide on the boat. She laughed and said that they save that story for Halloween time.

All in all, I'd say it's most definitely worth a visit. The price for the museum admission is $15, and the onboard tour of the boat is an additional $8.