Despite the fact that it is indeed in poor shape on the outside, with most of the original conning tower gone, that's just the external hull, which is nevertheless still intact enough for you to appreciate its streamlined shape.
On the inside it obviously has some water damage, but the water only came a certain way up the interior compartments when it sank, and this makes it an interesting 'time capsule', which is its real value. Getting into U-534 requires you to go through the torpedo loading hatch on the deck incidentally, I smacked my head on that when I went through it, which bloody hurt!
When you look around the inside of U-534, you can see the original tools and spares still in place in the engine room, the water pressure damage which has buckled feed pipes and split the hull, stuff like that. There are many personal items still in place in the quarters and other interesting things of that nature.
If and when they resume tours of the boat, I'd certainly recommend taking a look, even my wife enjoyed the tour, although she wasn't thrilled about having to climb down the torpedo hatch:rotfl:
:D Chock
|
