Norway to raise 'toxic submarine' wreck

A relic of the last days of the Second World War is proving just as dangerous today as it did in its lifetime. According to a Swedish report:

Norway's government has said it plans to surface a Nazi submarine loaded with mercury that sank off its shores in 1945 that poses an environmental hazard.

"The fact that the wreck contains about 67 tonnes of mercury poses a significant threat to the environment," Norwegian Minister of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs Helga Pedersen told AFP on Thursday. "We took this decision out of concern for the environment, the fishermen and the local population," she said.




The U-864 German sub was torpedoed in the North Sea on February 9, 1945 by the British submarine HMS Venturer as it sailed to Japan, a Nazi Germany ally, with its cargo of mercury destined for arms manufacturers and the blueprints for a new modern jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262.

The 73 sailors on board were killed.

Broken in two, the vessel now lies on the seabed at a depth of 150 metres (almost 500 feet), two nautical miles (3.7 kilometers, 2.3 miles) from Fedje Island off Norway's west coast.




Located in 2003, the wreck has been leaking several kilogrammes (pounds) of mercury a year, an insoluble pollutant that has prompted health concerns among the local population.

The refloating operation is technically complex. The procedure will be carried out by Dutch company Mammoet, which also lifted the Kursk, a Russian nuclear submarine that sank in the Barents Sea in 2000, claiming the lives of its 118 crew.

The operation is expected to take place in 2010, at a cost estimated at up one billion kroner (€113 million, US $143.75 million), according to Norwegian media.

The sinking of U-864 is significant because it was the first time in history that a submerged submarine had been sunk by another submerged submarine (and using non-guided torpedoes, at that!). Nowadays this would be a routine mission for an attack submarine, but back then it was unheard-of.

The salvage mission will be made more complicated by the fact that the U-boat's crew (shown below before they departed on their last voyage) died with their ship to a man. Their remains are still aboard, making the ship an official war grave. Technically, such 'graves' may not be disturbed: but given the threat of pollution from this wreck, that legal obstacle will probably be bypassed. I can't imagine Germany objecting, provided that all due respect is given to any remains that are found.




Strange to think that Hitler's madness is still infecting the world, in ways he probably never dreamed of . . .

Peter