Sunken submarine outside of Tampa bay

[tomcat19]

Hi This my first post to this forum. I'm not a diver but spend a lot of time on the water fishing. I have been searching the internet expecting to find some details of a story about a sunken World War II sub found on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico just outside of Tampa Bay in the late 50's or early 60's.

I had a service station in Sarasota in 1961-1963 and one of my suppliers that serviced us on a weekly basis was a Navy Suba diver (frogman in those days). He was probably in his 50's or 60's then. He said he was on the very first team of divers the Navy had trained and was always telling about his adventures. Her was still diving regularly at the time and even giving lessons. on one ocassion he related a story about him and his buddies finding a sunken submarine off shore just outside of Tampa Bay. He said they were able tell it hadn't been found by anyone else before because all the gauges were still in perfect condition and they are the first thing a diver would take. He said he coudn't see any damage to it and thought it could have been scuttled by the crew and they could have swam to shore.

We had other customers that were divers and some of them had heard about it but nothing was ever on the news. In early 1963 I moved back to Illinois until a few years ago I retired to Crystal River.

I'm curious to find out if anyone else ever heard about it.

 

[bamafan]

I lived in Tampa for about 2 years about 8 years ago and never heard of it. If anyone would know I would think it would be Ray Odor. Even if he doesn't it is great just listening to his stories. A link to his webpage is below.

Spear Fishing Supplies by Ray Odor

 

[Salmonboy97]

Ive never heard of it either, but if you can find direction to start searching....I have a boat!

 

[Oldbear]

Tomcat19,

I really enjoy WWII history so your sub story peeked my interest. I found this:

Diver Willam Page needs info on sunken U-Boat about 30 miles off of Sarasota. Florida

"...but it is the absolute fact - there are no German U-Boats sunk in any Florida waters at all..."

According to this gentleman, German records indicate that all U-Boats on patrol in Florida waters made it back to their home port. But just because it is posted on the internet does not necessarily make it true...good luck with your search.

~Oldbear~

 

[tomcat19]

Tomcat19,

I really enjoy WWII history so your sub story peeked my interest. I found this:

Diver Willam Page needs info on sunken U-Boat about 30 miles off of Sarasota. Florida

"...but it is the absolute fact - there are no German U-Boats sunk in any Florida waters at all..."

According to this gentleman, German records indicate that all U-Boats on patrol in Florida waters made it back to their home port. But just because it is posted on the internet does not necessarily make it true...good luck with your search.

~Oldbear~

German war time records aren't worth the paper they were writened on. In 2001 a company doing a pipe line survey off of New Orleans found the Robert E Lee, a passenger freighter sunk in 1942 by the German U-166 in 5000 ft. of water. One mile from the Robert E Lee was the U-166 split in two. Over 70 vessels were sunk in the gulf of mexico during the war and only 4 by the U-166. Germany had dozens of uboats operating in the gulf and possibly hundreds in the caribean.

I'm seventy three years old and this was 50+ years ago, 1962 when I heard about this find but I do remember him saying it was off Egmont Key. My fiend was a retired Navy Frogman. He was one of the first frogmen. He lived in Cortez Fl and belonged to a dive club that went diving almost every weekend. He said the sub looked as if it had been parked as if it had been abandoned and the crew escaped. He said there were no bodies on board and he was sure that nowone had ever been in it before because all the gauges were in tact and there was no signs of vandalisim. He theorized that the crew probably abandoned it sometime during the war or the end of the war and paddled ashore and disappeared.

I had customers that were comercial divers and they also heard about a submarine somewhere off Tampa Bay. I moved back north shortly after all of this and never thought about again until I retired to Florida again in 2009.

 

[Oldbear]

Tomcat19,

I sure hope that you find it...it would be an incredible find. If you do please update this thread.

Best of luck...

~Oldbear~

 

[debajo agua]

What a find that would be! These waters are pretty heavily fished. I can't imagine a charter or commercial fisherman missing something a big as a submarine on sonar. Stranger things have happen. Since depth in the Gulf is pretty predictable from distance from shore, an approximate depth would be a great place to start! What was the depth limit for 1940's frogmen?

 

[John from the burg]

I have a submarine on one of my charts but she's sitting on top of a 29 fathom marker so i doubt it's the same boat way out in 175 feet of water, hell of a paddle to shore lol.

I also have a b52, training plane, and one marked plane. Supposedly they are all very unknown but i haven't been able to get out far much lately so they are on the top of the list when the new rig gets wet.

With every big storm new stuff is uncovered and old stuff gets buried, we could turn the corner on egmont one day and see it sticking out of the surface, you just never know in the gulf of mexico.

 

[bradsagator]

John, if you want to go airplane hunting, I have gas money.

 

[Aigtbootbp]

I have gas money too, when can we start?