The following is taken from Some More Things Strange & Sinister
It is claimed
that,in April,1918,the British patrol vessel Coreopsis,out of Belfast, came across the German UB-85
submarine,on the surface and non-mobile.
The crew apparently abandoned the submarine and were all taken prisoner.
Obviously,the first thing the Royal Navy
officers wanted to know was why the
crew had not fled or offered any fight.
Captain Gunther
Krech’s explanation;they had been attacked by a sea serpent.
Krech is reported
to have told how the UB-85 had surfaced
to recharge its batteries and to allow the crew to have a smoke. It was while
doing this that a huge sea serpent climbed aboard. To say the least,the crew was
rather startled and began to discharge their firearms at the monster. This had little effect on the creature other
than to anger it and it then bit down on the forward gun –causing the sub to list side to side.
Captain Krech
feared that his vessel would take on water through the open hatch and
sink. So the crew continued to fire away
and this eventually caused the serpent
to slink back into the depths.
According to
Krech:
"This
beast had large eyes, set in a horny sort of skull. It
had
a small head, but with teeth that could be seen
glistening
in the moonlight."
Krech’s rank was Kapitän
Leutenant and,yes,there was indeed a UB-85 but there seems to be a lot of
confusion so I’ll explain. The SM U-85,was a Type Mittel U submarine launched
in 1916 and that served in the First World War until sunk on 12 March
1917. That clear? Good.
Now,there was an SM UB-85 –a
Type UB III submarine launched in 1917 and sunk on 30 April 1918. Krech’s submarine was the latter.
However,there was
no monster. Official German sites
dealing with the First World War and submarines tell the same story as the
official log of the Coreopsis:
"(UB-85)
Hit by gunfire of Coreopsis while attempting to dive.
Resurfaced
and abandoned by her crew at 5447N 0523W"
So,the crew were
taken off the submarine which was then sunk.
And let’s not get confused with
the submarine U-85 (1941) which was a Type VIIB submarine that served in
the Second World War until sunk on 14 April 1942.
No sea monster.
Above:a photograph widely
used on the internet and in one magazine as being of the UB-85. Two problems:[1] This is not a World War One type submarine.
[2] The submarine is flying the Swastika flag –making this clearly a
Second World War photograph! The source
of this confusion may be a specific site that had “no photographs of the U-85
or the monster so this photograph takes
its place”. You have to love the
internet for such hilarious stupidity!
And in
1934,Popular Mechanics [1] published a lengthy article on sea serpents and retold
the incident involving Captain [Baron] George Gunther von Forstner and his
submarine the U-28. In the article Baron
von Forstner tells how on the 30th July,1915, in the North sea,he had just torpedoed a British freighter
[Iberian –THS]. It was a sad and
regular occurrence during the Great War.
But what von Forstner reported then happened was not.
As the Iberian
began to sink it exploded just below the surface. This explosion caused a plume of debris to
fly high up into the air –including a creature
that resembled a 60-foot-long crocodilian. According to sources,according to
von Forstner the creature had
"…four limbs resembling large webbed feet, a long, pointed tail and
a head which also tapered to a point."
As it shot up into
the air the creature wriggled and twisted as if in pain before hitting the
water and sinking out of sight. No
photographs were taken though von Forstner and six other crew observed the
creature. One source claims that all the
men “agreed upon a drawing and entry in the log book”. The source also wonders whether the explosion
had killed a “living mososaur?”.
Above:In the background the
U-28 during World War One,commanded by von Forstner.
I think the writer
meant a member of the Mosasauridae. It
has been said that there were certain discreprancies in von Forstner’s story
some 18 years later. This is natural and
you can find discreprancies after a week,a month or even days –it is a
recognised problem with observers to events and one of the reasons why you
contact any witness as soon as possible after an event. Nothing untoward [2 & 3].
In the 1980s I was
told that von Forstner had drawn the
image described and that he stuck to his account the rest of his life. There are current attempts to contact the von
Forstner family to see whether any first hand record survives. So,one fake submarine attacked by monster
story and one….?
References.
1. “Is There A Sea
Serpent?”,Popular Mechanics,September,1934,pp.398-401
and 118A
2. Eberhart,George
M.,Mysterious Creatures:A Guide ToCryptozoology,
pp.320-321.
ABC Clio,2002
3. Magin,Ulrich,”Forstner Sea Serpent Sighting A Possible
Hoax?”,Strange
Magazine
no.2,p.4,1988
My thanks to the many WW I historians and specialists in submarine
history whose help was invaluable –THS
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