U-boat torpedo almost hits tanker 63 years after fired at the HMS Royal Oak!

[Freiwillige]

Taken from U-47.org


Prien's Ghost?

The story of the attack by U-47 at Scapa flow did not end on the fateful day in October 1939; as recently as September 2002, almost 63 years after the event, Prien and his boat were in the news again following the rather bizarre discovery of one its torpedoes by the Norwegian tanker MV Petrotrym. The following extract is taken from The Scottish Banner, a paper published in the United States for Scottish expatriates:

"TORPEDO" - Scapa Flow, Orkneys: An oil tanker recently had a narrow escape when it was nearly hit by a German torpedo - fired 63 years ago! The missile was one of four launched by submarine U-47 to scupper the battleship 'Royal Oak' in 1939 resulting in the loss of 833 lives.
Even though it failed to hit its target, the torpedo has lain on the seabed ever since, until it recently resurfaced in the dark waters of Scapa Flow and started to drift towards the 62,000 ton Norwegian tanker 'Petrotrym' , which was at anchor. Fortunately an attentive watchman noticed the barnacle-encrusted missile and raised the alarm in time.
The 15 foot torpedo was towed away by a tug to safe waters a mile away where it was detonated by a Royal Navy bomb disposal unit. Although its warhead was missing, the Navy said that it posed a genuine threat as it still contained its chamber of compressed gas.
(Thanks to Allan F. Cameron for submitting this article)

Following the removal of the torpedo to Scapa Pier on 9 September, Captain Nigel Mills, the Director of Orkney Island Council's Harbours Department, offered the following explanation for its sudden reappearance:

"It is difficult to state at this point exactly why this object decided to surface now. We did have an exceptionally low tide on Monday and it is possible that this disturbed the torpedo and allowed it to surface. Compressed air within a chamber inside the torpedo can force them to the surface in the way this one apparently did".
(Details from the Orkney Islands Council web site)

While the surfacing of the torpedo can be explained in purely scientific terms, its sudden reappearance in Scapa Flow over sixty years afterwards was remarkable. Might it indeed have been Prien's ghost, shouting defiantly from the depths?

[Rhodes]

Talk about german engineering!

[August]

Technically it's still a miss!

[SteamWake]

This is the second time Ive heard this story and not sure I believe all the details. One 'hole' in the story that makes me scratch my head is this sentance.

The 15 foot torpedo was towed away by a tug to safe waters a mile away where it was detonated by a Royal Navy bomb disposal unit. Although its warhead was missing

So... uhhh... what happened to its warhead?

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

This is the second time Ive heard this story and not sure I believe all the details. One 'hole' in the story that makes me scratch my head is this sentance.



So... uhhh... what happened to its warhead?

Fell off as a result of excessive corrosion maybe

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Fell off as a result of excessive corrosion maybe

So the biggest threat was a hot run... pretty unlikely after 30 some years. Why blow the thing up? It would have made a nice musieum piece.

[nikimcbee]

Crazy! What did they do with the torpedo again? That's a great historical find!

[Freiwillige]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

This is the second time Ive heard this story and not sure I believe all the details. One 'hole' in the story that makes me scratch my head is this sentance.



So... uhhh... what happened to its warhead?

Could have hit its target and failed to detonate damaging the torp.

Could have lodged in the mud and the current broke the torpedo off of the warhead.

Could have rusted the warhead retaining bolts right off.

I remember a few years back the Navy found a Japanese long lance torpedo
stuck in the mud outside of pearl harbor and its warhead was barely hanging on and still live!

Originally Posted by Freiwillige

Might it indeed have been Prien's ghost, shouting defiantly from the depths?

Yes. A little reminder for those treacherous Norwegians.

Originally Posted by SteamWake

So the biggest threat was a hot run... pretty unlikely after 30 some years. Why blow the thing up? It would have made a nice musieum piece.

My thoughts exactly.

[stabiz]

Huh?

[Cohaagen]

Good thing we have amateur internet enthusiasts who know better than the world's most experienced EOD technicans...otherwise I just heck-darn wouldn't know what to think.

Might it indeed have been Prien's ghost, shouting defiantly from the depths?

The only "ghosts" that may be around there are the hundreds who were killed on Royal Oak that night. I don't really care where Prien is. Shouting defiantly with all the Japanese submariners and kamikazes, perhaps.

EDIT: a better headline would have been "U-boat torpedo almost hits tanker...7 years ago!"

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Cohaagen

world's most experienced EOD technicans...

Now whom would that be?

[Cohaagen]

Probably the people who spent 30 years defusing countless types of conventional and improvised munitions in Northern Ireland, who invented the remote-control EOD robot (Wheelbarrow, etc.), remote EOD cameras, EOD technician body armour (Hunting Engineering), who propped up the USN when they couldn't provide a proper mine-hunter force for GW1 and GW2 (Commodore Chris Craig, RN MCMV), etc. Yeah, that'd be them. UK Plc, I mean.

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

So the biggest threat was a hot run...

Compressed gas can prove explosive under the proper circumstances.

when you find an old explosive - even if it is missing its warhead - the best practice is usually to destroy it.

im sure they considered the pros and cons of gutting it and putting it in a museum - and decided the cons outweighed the pros and blew it up.

[SteamWake]

When in doubt blow stuff up

BTW what makes them think this is one of Prien's fish? Surely there were others fired in this area.