After laying on the ocean floor for some 30 years ?

Im a sailor and if theres one thing I know for certain... Water will find a way in.

Quote:

Experts feel that, if left alone, it and what remains of its dangerous cargo, will quietly rot harmlessly away.

See thats what Im sayin :smug:

Well that's hardly a nuke. Still enough explosive to be pretty darn like one.

This is a regular problem in and around the Skageraak, where many WW2 German subs were sunk. However, the more pressing problem being not so much the ordnance still kicking around, as the chemicals in the batteries leaking out when the wreck corrodes, means this is the source of a number of heated debates in surrounding countries, as to whether to raise the wrecks or seal them up, to prevent environmental damage.

Very occasionally some old mines turn up around the UK coast and these do present a real danger to shipping. This of course is also the premise for the Russian submarine movie '72 Meters', in which a WW2 mine floats up and is struck by a Soviet sub (not a bad submarine movie, if you can find a copy incidentally).

Living as I do in the NW of England, where the Luftwaffe did much of its business, UXBs turn up every now and again, and the nearby channel out of the Mersey into the Western Approaches is another favourite for turning up German air-dropped mines every once in a while. I'd not want to be on board the Irish Sea high-speed Seacat ferry if it hit one of those babies, that's for sure!

Typical.. heated debates over a few gallons of acid diluted into 10's of millions of gallons of sea water :rotfl: Frankly "sealing them up" would most likely do more damage than the acid itself.

On a side note did you know that the chemical make up of sea water is virtually the same within a few parts per million wether it be the pacific, atlantic, artic, or antarctic ?

Fisherman dragged up a torpedo off the kent coast just last week, needless to they dropped it PDQ, bomb disposal took care of it.

(google BBC torpedo)


Think it was one of mine from my Atlantic missions:hmm:

You're absolutely right, and wrong at the same time. Mortars apparently go as far back as the 1500s, but the first exploding cannon shell was made in 1823.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_(projectile)

Not more knowledge, certainly, but knowing where to look.

There's a sunken ammo ship from WWII in the Thames estuary. It's still full of ammo. Saw this on TV recently. It's a shipping hazard (masts still out of the water) and it's slowly breaking up.

Uhhh read the previous page.

I once lived in a small city in Poland, very near to the Oder river, the last big terrain obstacle for the russian army before reaching Berlin and a place for fierce defensive fights of the Germans. Now you can imagine what would you find there with a simple metal detector :doh: . MG34s, 42s and such other "devices" :), german and russian ammo, grenades, splinters etc. There were some accidents too, when people were trying to disarm a rusty shell etc.
My grandfather once digged up a *.* nazi badge like this one http://www.aganow.webpark.pl/nsdap.jpg in his garden, fortunately its owner wasn't found there also :rotfl:
greets

Keep in mind that the United States National Anthem lyrics, written by Francis Scott Key as he witnessed the siege of Baltimore, Maryland mentions, " The rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air."

Yes, they did have explosive ordinance then.

:know: Heck they even had sumbarines ! Google USS Hunley :know:

IF you want a bigger boom than an unexploded torp, try this!

http://www.gunnies.pac.com.au/gallery/grand_slam.htm

She went boom alright!:rock:

:rotfl:

And most likely the depth chambers stayed intact, even after more than 60 years. Once the warhead rusted or fell off, the rest of the torpedo must have been light enough to float up and away.

I was on Guam in 1985 when a live WWII torpedo washed in and lodged in a reef. A USN EOD team went out in a Zodiac and blew it up. Looked like a fun job.