WRECKED
A bollard , surrounded by plumose anemones
PHOTO : KIERAN HATTON
cut out fending off yachts that cheerfully ignored our A-flag and sailed dangerously close to our divers under deco bags .
Back on board Wey Chieftain IV , no-one was talking disdainfully about cigar tubes anymore . The atmosphere was electric . Kieran had seen old ropes around a mooring bollard and capstan . What were they doing on a submarine supposedly lost on active service ?
Everyone was keen to review their photographs and send them to Michael . Images were bluetoothed out of cameras and into phones while we were still at sea . Messages shot backwards and forwards across the Atlantic . It was fantastically exciting . The wreck we dived had one stern torpedo tube , two propellers but only one rudder . Michael came right back to tell us that UC-49 had two rudders , so this was not that boat , nor anything else in its class .
Neither could it be the UB torpedo attack version , nor the famous Second World War Type VII , as they had twin rudders as well . At a stroke , we had eliminated most possible German submarines . There was a mystery to solve , all right .
PHOTO : KIERAN HATTON
The enclosed prop shaft
PHOTO : TIM WALLIS
Conning tower 49