NEW ORLEANS, Lousiana (10 June 2001) -- Two international oil companies have discovered the long-sought wreckage of a sunken wartime German submarine in the Gulf of Mexico close to the United States coast. The submarine, the U-166, was the first to be sunk by the United States Coast Guard during the war. The U-166 sank at least four ships in the Gulf of Mexico including the SS Robert E Lee, which it torpedoed on July 30, 1942. According to the oil companies, BP Amoco and Shell, U-166 was discovered while they were suveying the planned route of an underwater pipeline. Many others have been trying to find the German sub ever since it went down just a few days after it sank the Robert E. Lee. "Both the Robert E Lee and the U166 are protected by International Treaty," said Hugh Depland, Public Affairs Manager for BP. | | U-166 deck gun "They are war gravesites; they cannot be disturbed in any fashion, they can't be dived upon, they can't be recovered and we would make no attempt to do that," he said. For more information about the U-166, go to Thunder in the Gulf. © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK |
