[Sailor Steve]

Sometimes they would hang around, and sometimes not. There are many records of even 'confirmed kills' turning up in port, and post-war the scores were changed; so nothing was always certain. With convoys they might hear the ship breaking up as it sank, but the best confirmation was the intelligence system. BdU would intercept 'SSS' distress signals, and they could read published reports of what ships didn't make it. Again, some of the details had to wait until the end of the war for final confirmation, but both sides had a pretty good idea of what the other was doing.