On my current patrol, I'm on my way to my assigned patrol area off of North Carolina. In grid BE somethingorother I've sunk:
- 1 large tanker travelling alone. Tonnage about 11,500
- 1 large merchant and 1 C3 cargo travelling in a 2 ship convoy, total tonnage about 23,000
- 1 Granville type freighter travelling alone, total tonnage about 4,800
BE MORE AGRESSIVE!
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Next to it was a dark ship, maybe a tender with no markings that had spot lights atop its masts. I could not get any lock on this ship at all with my UZO or periscope. It did not show up on any radar either. It was like it was not even there, like a phantom ship or something. Anyway, I hit it with my last torpedo and it caught fire but would not sink. I just waited around for hours but it just sat there burning.
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This was a lightship. It's an environmental object and thus would never sink no matter how many torpedoes you put into it. That's why the oil tanker was next to it, so your watch crew would spot it as the AI doesn't see it as a "ship" per se. Light ships are used for navigation...kind of like a floating lighthouse. In real life, U-boat captains would not sink them as they were just as big an aid to navigation to the U-boats as to regular traffic.
I guess the tips I would give you are to stay out as long as your fuel and torpedo stocks last. No sense in returning to base if you still have both. Hang around shipping lanes and the approaches to major ports. Your paper map has shipping lanes marked on it, and you can also determine where these are by marking the position and direction of ships you spot and hydrophone contacts. Even if you're not in a position to sink these ships, they'll at least give you an idea of the routes that merchant traffic take. As you can see from my tonnage total above, I'm following the merchant route across the Atlantic as my route to my patrol grid. Good luck!