Pictures of sunken U-Boat U95 off The Lizard, Cornwall

Photographer Dominic Robinson was part of a group diving with Atlantic Scuba on what was at first an unknown World War One submarine south of The Lizard in 75 metres of water.

In WWI, Germany had two separate submarine commands, doing more-or-less their own thing: The High Seas Fleet, based in Germany,and the Marinekorp Flanders based out of occupied Belgian ports. Most of U-boats operating in the English Channel were based out of Flanders and of the somewhat smaller “UB” and “UC” types.

The larger submarines of the “U” type were based out of Germany (High Seas Fleet) and usually entered the Atlantic by going around the north of Scotland. Usually but not always: A notable exception came at the end of 1917 and in very early 1918 when some of the bigger boats went through the Straits of Dover.

Four of those big U-boats disappeared in January 1918 and the whole situation was a big mess, easily the most confusing of WWI. Three were sisterships: U 93, U 95, and U 110.

The wrecks of two of those three have been found: one off Hardelot, France in the eastern Channel with her stern blown off and the one off the Lizard. The one of Hardelot has to be either U 93 or U 95. 

"The one off the Lizard was found in 2004 and dived again in 2006," said Mr Lowery. "You could make an argument for U 93, U 95, or U 109. A British steamer claimed to have rammed a U-boat in the area on January 7, 1918 but there was also a deep minefield, aimed at submerged U-boats, a half mile away from the wreck site.

"In 2019, I approached Steve [Mortimer] about organizing this dive to establish the identity of the wreck and how it was sunk. We’d worked together before, having identified the British submarine D 1 off Dartmouth.

"The plan was to scrub a propeller, as they have markings which can help identify the U-boat. The divers did that and based upon a date on the prop, we were able to conclude that the wreck was U 95 while the wreck off Hardelot is U 93.

"The great part is that everything now makes sense about both boats' identities without having to get into weird things like propeller swaps between boats." 

The dive took place off the boat Moonshadow operated by Mark Millburn of Altantic Scuba out of Mylor. Picture credit: Dominic Robinson

Posting on Facebook Mr Robinson said: "Confusion had been created as the wreck of a similar type was also located off the coast of France. There are two candidates for the wrecks; the SM U-93 which was launched on 15 Dec 1916 and the SM U-95 which was launched on 20 Jan 1917.

The dive took place off the boat Moonshadow operated by Mark Millburn of Altantic Scuba out of Mylor. Picture credit: Dominic Robinson

"The submarine off France has the date on 10 Jan 1917 stamped on the prop. Until now, it was assumed that they were fitted before the submarine was launched which meant that everyone thought the French sub was the SM U-95.

The dive took place off the boat Moonshadow operated by Mark Millburn of Altantic Scuba out of Mylor. Picture credit: Dominic Robinson

"Our submarine has the date 25 Jan 1917 on it which means that props must have been fitted after the subs were launched! It also means that the original assessment was correct and that this is the SM U-95 as reported by the SS Breaneill.

"Although there is damage to the port side it wasn't particularly conclusive but we did find open hatches in the conning tower and engine room. As these couldn't have been opened underwater we think this confirms that it was sunk by ramming which destroyed the submarine's buoyancy system whilst concurrently pushing it under.

The dive took place off the boat Moonshadow operated by Mark Millburn of Altantic Scuba out of Mylor. Picture credit: Dominic Robinson

"Bitterly cold January sea water flooding into the open hatches must have been unimaginably horrendous for the crew and even those who managed to escape wouldn't have lasted long in the water.

"Reports from the steamer told of foreign voices in the darkness but in a period of unrestricted submarine warfare I can't imagine there was much sympathy for them."

The open hatch at the rear of the conning tower. The dive took place off the boat Moonshadow operated by Mark Millburn of Altantic Scuba out of Mylor. Picture credit: Dominic Robinson

However Mr Lowrey said that crews of sunken submarines would and did attempt to escape.

"They would flood the compartment until the pressure equalises, open the hatch, and make a (free) accent to the surface where hopefully there's a vessel to pick them up. That's why the hatches being open or closed is rarely definitive."