German U-Boat UC/42 Rediscovered in Cork Harbour

[August]

Originally Posted by Growler

After 93 years, are there actually human remains of the crew left? Ballard noted that his survey of Titanic showed no remains, and that ship went down only a scant 6 years before this one - in deeper, colder water suspected to harbor less marine life than 27m would. It may be a moot point; even if there are remains of those poor souls left, I wonder if they've be capable of making the transition to a land-side burial.

Well they found bury-able remains on the CSS Hunley and that sank over 50 years earlier and in a lot warmer water than what you'd find in Cork Harbor, so it's quite possible i'd say.

[Growler]

Originally Posted by August

Well they found bury-able remains on the CSS Hunley and that sank over 50 years earlier and in a lot warmer water than what you'd find in Cork Harbor, so it's quite possible i'd say.

Good point; I'd not thought of NUMAs Hunley expedition. Granted, Hunley was also a smaller boat and hadn't had the severity of hull breach you might expect from a mine, so aquatic life intrusion might have been lessened.

I don't know; it's a curious conundrum. Since I haven't seen the wreck in question, I'm only asking questions.

[August]

Originally Posted by Growler

I don't know; it's a curious conundrum. Since I haven't seen the wreck in question, I'm only asking questions.

Yeah me as well.

I also wonder about the lack of human remains on the Titanic, have they really all disintegrated or did Ballard and co just not uncover enough silt to expose them?

[Growler]

After so many teams have dived Titanic, and I've heard nothing in the 20-some years since it was found, I'm going to assume no, but that's only an assumption.

There's a picture in Ballard's Titanic book of two shoes laying side by side, heel-to-heel, as they might have laid down there as the body inside them disintegrated; that picture has stuck with me.

Cameron and his crew never reported remains when they dove the wreck for his movie, and salvors have gone down there as well. I'd have thought that and remains discovered would have elicited some media response.

But, like you said, they did find remains on Hunley, in far warmer water than the deep north Atlantic, where the marine life would be far more abundant. As I'm not a marine biologist, I can only speculate.

[August]

Originally Posted by Growler

Cameron and his crew never reported remains when they dove the wreck for his movie, and salvors have gone down there as well. I'd have thought that and remains discovered would have elicited some media response.

Eh you're probably correct, unless I suppose the announcing the discovery of human remains could possibly complicate salvage rights.

[Sailor Steve]

An amazing find, and an interesting discussion. I don't have any ideas or suggestions, but you've all presented enlightening ideas.

[Growler]

Originally Posted by August

Eh you're probably correct, unless I suppose the announcing the discovery of human remains could possibly complicate salvage rights.

Hadn't thought of that; did it do so for the Hunley salvage? Makes sense that it could.

So here's a question - why was Hunley salvaged, and not treated as a war grave, but the one we're discussing here is considered such? Is it because there's only one nation involved in the case of the Hunley, and two sovereign nations for the U-boat?

[August]

Originally Posted by Growler

Hadn't thought of that; did it do so for the Hunley salvage? Makes sense that it could.

So here's a question - why was Hunley salvaged, and not treated as a war grave, but the one we're discussing here is considered such? Is it because there's only one nation involved in the case of the Hunley, and two sovereign nations for the U-boat?

Maybe but the the Hunley actually was treated as a war grave. All the remains that were recovered in the boat when they took the silt out were identified and reburied with full military honors.

http://www.hunley.org/main_index.asp?CONTENT=CREWB

One interesting note is before reburial they made casts of the crews skulls which allowed them to recreate what they looked like in life.

http://www.hunley.org/main_index.asp...CREWB_PROFILES

Don't think i'd want that done to my Great Grandfathers bones...