I have a life long fascination with German U-Boats having grown up mostly in Tampa Bay and hearing that there was a WW II sub floating around as well as a WW I sub scuttled off Egmont Key. Fast forward to the 90s and 2000s and I start educating myself on things and find out that there apparently aren't any U-Boats off Tampa Bay. (Although U-166 way deep in the north Gulf, and the 2513 off Key West.)
As mentioned earlier, I have dove U-352 once as well as the 853. I've wanted to dive others, but only those two so far. The 853 remains my favorite wreck dive. We went out around the first weekend of April in 2006 and the vis was around 40 feet. I noticed my camera housing had flooded by the time we were by the conning tower. I was bummed but decided to just leave it on the sub's deck and enjoy my dive. (And even flooded, I managed to save some images of the Seeker I shot from the boat we were on before submerging.) We dropped down into the blast hole by the conning tower and it didn't take long to start recognizing arm and leg bones. As someone who was in the service between high school and college, and stationed in Germany, I was very aware that I was in a war grave and I even mentally said a greeting to the former young, dead Germans. We also popped into the rear blast hole and swam around the sub. On the 352, I only swam around the outside, but managed to get a shot of the conning tower I still like. That dive was in 2004.
I used to visit uboat.net often but haven't recently. Also, there's many good books and films to watch as well. I've liked the Iron Coffin book since I was in middle school in the mid 70s. Also, see if you can find the Nova documentary Hitler's Lost Sub about the 869. (And the U-Boat book by former NY professor Henry "Hank" Keatts. Hank moved to FL and I communicated with him many years ago. Not sure what he's up to now, but I bet his book(s) are still available.)
Lastly, regarding the supposed subs off Tampa Bay, my father had a friend , Gene Cloud, that said he came up on a WW II U-boat off Sarasota in the 1960s while underwater sledding. I grew up hearing about this and dreamed of finding it myself one day. I did talk with Mr. Cloud on the phone before he died, and he stuck with his story. It was also printed in area newspapers at the time. As for the other, someone had told my grandfather, a Florida maritime historian, about a WW I sub scuttled somewhere near Egmont Key. But, turns out that likely was mistaken for the USS Narcissus. A union ship sunk in a storm in 1866.
Gene Page
