What's in a name?
The UB-85 was a World War I era German U-boat that was sunk off the coast of Ireland 30 Apr 1918, either by a Royal Navy patrol boat or by accidentally leaving a hatch ajar when it was trying to submerge. In 1977 in a juvenile literature book called Sea Monster!: A Collection of Eyewitness Reports by James B. Sweeney, an account supposedly by the boat's captain of how he and his crew fought a battle with a sea monster that damaged his boat too badly to submerge. No source for this story has been mentioned.
The correct name of the boat that sank, or at least caused the sinking of UB-85 was "HM Drifter Coreopsis II" - this is frequently confused with HMS Coreopsis , a sloop that was also in WW I.
According to Bonhams, the auction house that sold Lieutenant Percy Sutcliffe Peat's, the drifter's captain, medals, HM Drifter Coreopsis II, a fishing boat converted to wartime use with only 12 hands on board, attacked the much larger U-boat when it was on the surface and captured all 36 crew, but other sources say it surrendered because it was partially flooded due to an open hatch when it first tried to submerge.
The correct name of the boat that sank, or at least caused the sinking of UB-85 was "HM Drifter Coreopsis II" - this is frequently confused with HMS Coreopsis , a sloop that was also in WW I.
According to Bonhams, the auction house that sold Lieutenant Percy Sutcliffe Peat's, the drifter's captain, medals, HM Drifter Coreopsis II, a fishing boat converted to wartime use with only 12 hands on board, attacked the much larger U-boat when it was on the surface and captured all 36 crew, but other sources say it surrendered because it was partially flooded due to an open hatch when it first tried to submerge.
Comments
Post a Comment