Humans have been sailing for millennia, but submarines as we know them today are a more recent innovation. It takes a brave soul to journey in one of these claustrophobic underwater vessels, surrounded on all sides by the crushing pressure of the sea.
We all know about the Yellow Submarine, but most people don't know about the following tales of intrigue and mystery from deep underwater, and sometimes right at the surface. Ghosts, sea monsters, UFOs, and skeletons aren't just for pirate ships, or spaceships for that matter. Submarines have their own stories of unexplained lore.
10. U-505
On October 24, 1943, U-505 was bombed with depth charges by British destroyers. In the midst of the attack, Peter Zschech, the commander of the sub, shot himself in the head in front of his crew in the control room.
In an account of the day's events, a crewman named Hans Goebler notes that Zschech didn't fully die by the gunshot and was making loud sounds after he shot himself, making it easier for the British to locate them by sonar. He then describes someone grabbing a pillow and placing it over Zschech's mouth, to the dismay of the crew doctor, who protested, but two other crew members held the pillow firmly until Zschech was silent.
Zschech's second-in-command took over and led the crew through the attack, and everyone on board survived but Zschech. The entry from the logbook that day reads "Kommandant tot," meaning "Commanding Officer dead."
9. UB-65
Another German U-boat, this time from World War I, that had uncannily morbid luck was UB-65.
Before she set out to sea, a torpedo exploded, injuring several crewmen and killing the second officer, Lieutenant Richter. Soon after she left port, a lookout who was in the conning tower reported seeing Lieutenant Richter, returned to haunt the boat, standing on the deck. Maybe it was the long, lonely days at sea, but crewmen kept reporting sightings of him, and things got so bad that the higher-ups had to step in. The Imperial Navy ordered a pastor to kick the ghost out.
In UB-65 's final stroke of terrible luck, an American submarine found the U-boat along the Irish coast. As the Americans prepared to attack, they were shocked to see UB-65 explode on its own before they fired. One American officer also reported seeing a silhouette on the deck wearing a German officer's overcoat, with folded arms, standing sturdy while the boat sank.
8. UB-85
Who doesn't love a good sea monster story? On April 30, 1918, the crew of the German U-boat UB-85 surrendered willingly to a British patrol boat as their sub sank. The Germans' commanding officer, Captain Krech, had a strange story about why they didn't resist: He said that the previous night, while UB-85 was surfaced, a "strange beast" had crashed out of the water and attached itself to the deck, its enormous weight nearly sinking the boat. The beast, according to Krech, had "large eyes, set in a horny sort of skull." The crew started firing their sidearms at it, eventually hurting it enough to weaken its grip. The monster let go, but it left the deck so damaged that UB-85 couldn't dive.
In 2016, the wreck of UB-85 was discovered, bringing attention to what could have possibly happened back in 1918. Was it a sea monster, or something else?
Historians recently uncovered an interview with another crew member which tells us what might have really happened: Apparently, Krech had a heater installed in the officers' quarters. The cables for this heater ran through a watertight hatch, making it vulnerable to flooding. It's likely that Krech's story is just a "sea monster sank my submarine" excuse for his own indiscretion, though believers still insist it was a kraken-like monster.
