Fate of U - 534

[Grom]

This is horrible, crazy , barbarian

http://www.merseyferries.co.uk/u534/index.aspx

[Ubåtskapten]

Cutting it up in parts... Noo
Stupidly dumb thing to do.

I would rather have liked to see that they restored like the Wilhelm Bauer U-2540 in ONE piece, but that was evidently not to happen.

[Grom]

Go ahead and send them e-mail.

[Chock]

Although it is a shame that the boat has been cut up, and it does mean you can no longer walk from stem to stern inside her, I think you have to understand what a very poor state U-534 was in. I was fortunate enough to go on a tour of U-534 a few years ago when it was with the Birkenhead Historic Warships Collection, and very cool it was too, but it was apparent from the tour that structurally, this was a state of affairs which could not continue indefinitely, and it would have been massively expensive to try and restore the thing in one piece.

Although on photographs you may have seen, U-534 looked reasonably sound, the truth is that the conning tower was almost completely gone and much of what you see was a replacement fabication, the guns had disintegrated and the decking was almost all gone, revealing the machinery and workings normally covered by the deck plates, something which was only apparent when stood on what was left of her decks. To enter, you had to go through a torpedo loading hatch and although she was in pretty good shape inside, with lots to see, the interior had spent many years - before she was raised - flooded up to about halfway, thus, much of the flooring was gone and the superstructure below deck level was corroding away to dust, and this was all supported by a hull which was also on its way out, so keeping her in one piece without literally millions of pounds worth of remedial work was simply not an option, and probably the only way to stop the rot was to cut her open in order to stem the decay.

Chock

[Grom]

Originally Posted by Chock

Although it is a shame that the boat has been cut up, and it does mean you can no longer walk from stem to stern inside her, I think you have to understand what a very poor state U-534 was in. I was fortunate enough to go on a tour of U-534 a few years ago when it was with the Birkenhead Historic Warships Collection, and very cool it was too, but it was apparent from the tour that structurally, this was a state of affairs which could not continue indefinitely, and it would have been massively expensive to try and restore the thing in one piece

And that why i did show You this. I have visited U -534 in Birkenhead Historic Warships on 5th of may 2005. It was unforgettable tour. The state as You described was same since sub was raised from sea bed, and it was will of her owner who have payed. The conning tower was made new, as submarine recieved almost direct hit by depth charge, and original tower was half destroyed. But some time ago musuem of Historic Wasrhips had to face closure. Why ? OMG, i cant believe it even now. The area was needed for parking places for nearby warehouses. This is good enough for dumb ignorant close down museum and cut one of 3 submarines on the world just because space for parkings is needed and then they have no idea what to with this dumb german sub. Then someone got better idea. Lets place her near to ferry termnal, but wee will have to pay fortune for logistic, unless we gonna cut her into three pieces.

[lesrae]

I'm near Birkenhead overnight tonight, for a meeting with Cammell Laird tomorrow morning. As the meeting starts late I'll go along and see what's happening to the boat, I can't work out from the net if she's broken up yet or not.