U-534 at Birkenhead - Any news about the boat?

[urfisch]

maybe you heard about it. the historic warship museum at birkenhead/liverpool closed in february 2006, a year ago. last news i heard was, that the boat lays 400 yards away from its old resting place and rottens, while facing an unknown future. these news where from march 2006. i googled but didnt find any newer news...did anybody of you heard something about this boat and its future? and there was a petition...but the site is down. what has happend to it?

:cry:

found at flickr this set, showing the boat at its new place. uploaded: december 2nd, 2006
http://www.flickr.mud.yahoo.com/photos/jimmediaart/tags/u534/

[ABBAFAN]

Shame really that was an excellent museum i have visited it about 35 times in 14 years.the frigate HMS Plymouth is being mooved to devonport naval base plymouth and the submarine hms onyx is apparently goin to barrow in furness where it was built.But nothings been heard of the uboats future.I think they got rid of the lightship and themine hunter through lack of funding.

[Linton]

Plymouth doesn't currently have a home to go to as the berth in Devonport is no longer available.I fear she may go to be scrapped.The u-boat is a different matter but is going to be hard to move.

[mr chris]

Sounds like a crying shame to me letting a fantastic piece of history go to rot like that. But that just sums up what is happening to the UK at the moment. I really hope that the boat is not left to rot away but i guess the only hope is that some benafactor can be found to fund the up keep of the boat. The museum in the USA where U 505 is bethed is a shining light to anyone out there who wishes to save this boat for rotting away.

[Linton]

There is a petition to save Plymouth on the No.10 website.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/plymouth/

[Jan7]

The new location of the pages of the U-534 is: http://www.bignotion.co.uk/~kemble/uboat534.html (http://www.bignotion.co.uk/~kemble/uboat534.html)

Visit for old images and captions:
http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1991169 (http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1991169#post1991169)

[DanCanovas]

a real shame. its pathetic. the govt seems to have plenty of money to waste on other rubbish.

[Chock]

Having dragged my wife and a friend to Birkenhead to take a tour around U-534 one Saturday morning, I think it's an outrage that Liverpool allowed this closure to happen.

I used to do a lot of promo writing for The Birkenhead Historic Warships when I worked on a newspaper, and it was one of the best and most interesting places in the UK to visit. Even my wife liked the tour, and she's hardly a submarine nut. I really hope they get a new home for U-534 and re-open the tours.

After all, where else can you actually get in a WW2 German sub through the torpedo loading hatch? Smacked my head really hard on that when I did it on U-534, so I'm kind of hoping that qualifies me for a wound badge from the Kriegsmarine.

Chock :D

[ReallyDedPoet]

Sad, hopefully this will change.

RDP

[CCIP]

This seriously is horrible. Isn't there any way to sell it, even to private hands?

Frankly I'd prefer it belong to some private collector and be off access to the public than scrapped. Scrapped! This is such a major piece of history that losing it would be, IMHO, a total tragedy.

[Chock]

One of the tricky aspects is that despite the fact that U-534 was at Birkenhead, I understand that it is actually Norwegian-owned, given that it was raised from the Skageraak by a salvage company and was effectively on loan, having been sailed to Merseyside on a barge.

The ownership issue was quoted to me on the tour I took of U-534, and was one of the reasons we were not allowed to photograph the interior. So things are not very simple where this boat is concerned.

It's absolutely unthinkable to me that scrapping would be considered, as U-534 is unique in that it was actually allowed to be raised, because it wasn't a designated war grave. It's certainly a remarkable experience to be able to see inside a U-Boat that has actually sunk and witness first-hand the damage that a depth charge did to the thing. And the fact that much of the original equipemnt is still in situ, even after all these years inside the boat, makes it one of the most valuable historic artifacts in the world for me.

[DanCanovas]

if there were no plans to do the boat and those that died on it justice, then they should have left them both in peace. its a disgrace and I hope its resolved.

[Chock]

As far as I recall, nobody actually died on the boat, which is why it wasn't designated a War Grave (allowing it to be raised). If I recall correctly, some of the crew died after having abandoned the boat, well after it had sunk however.

[DanCanovas]

As far as I recall, nobody actually died on the boat, which is why it wasn't designated a War Grave (allowing it to be raised). If I recall correctly, some of the crew died after having abandoned the boat, well after it had sunk however.

ah interesting. i'll look into it. thanks :up:

[Jan7]

Os invito a pasear por www.u-historia.com (http://www.u-historia.com) -> Historia -> Historiales U-Boot -> U534. Y para traducir online ttp://www.tradiweb.com/ta.htm (http://www.tradiweb.com/ta.htm)

Leed este post de U-Historia:
http://www.u-historia.com/uhistoria/foro/viewtopic.php?t=891

I invite to you to take a walk by www.u-historia.com (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/www.u-historia.com) - > Historia - > Historiales U-Boot - > U534.
And to translate online http://www.tradiweb.com/ta.htm
Read this post of U-Historia:
http://www.u-historia.com/uhistoria/foro/viewtopic.php?t=891