U12 Submarine Dive 03/09/2021

A brilliant dive on Friday... but It must’ve been more than a little grim on board on that fateful day 106 years go! The U-12 was sunk after being rammed by HMS Arial in 1915. She had been torpedoing ships waiting to access the Firth of Forth during the first world war. The submarine was an early design, petrol driven and not capable of diving deep below the surface. She was historically important as the first submarine to carry a warplane; initially balancing a light aircraft on her bow and intended to carry it into the English Channel, extending the plane’s range, but the sea state usually made this impractical. Fatally, engine smoke could be seen from her exhaust and followed on the surface. Of the 29 crew, 19 perished on board. The surviving crew found themselves in the middle of a diplomatic row upon their capture. With U-boat crews perceived to be little more than pirates by the British authorities, there was a popular clamour in the press to see the crew hanged. Instead they were kept in solitary confinement and denied any privileges of rank - a fate not shared by other prisoners of war. The German authorities responded in kind with British prisoners of war. It took the intervention of the Swiss to resolve the issue. U-12 was only discovered 13years ago, in January 2008, sitting upright on the seabed at 48m and is considered a war grave – likely still containing remains of the wartime submariners. She now forms a valuable reef and is home to a variety of sealife protected from the nets of trawlers, some of which are permanently snagged on her. More info: https://www.bbc.co.uk/.../articles/the_hunt_for_the_u12/