To The Bottom of The Sea

To The Bottom of The Sea

Suzanne Marsh

15^th January 1942

Admiral Karl Doenitz, waited as the five men he had sent for had seated themselves. He had a mission for the men and their submarines which he felt could alter the course of World War II, in Nazi Germany’s favor. He and his aides had tossed around quite a few ideas but this one was beyond their comprehension. Once the submarine commanders were settled Doenitz began:

“Good Evening, I know it is a rather late hour, however we must speak tonight, tomorrow

your mission will begin. The five of you are the captains of the First Flotilla, you will

leave tomorrow night under the darkness of night, your destination is the Caribbean Sea,

you are to sink all cargo ships in the area. We must stop the shipping of bauxite and

petroleum from reaching England. Good hunting gentlemen.”

Fregattenkaptain Hans Graef, hesitated before he questioned the mission:

“Admiral, we are sink as much tonnage as possible, I get that but are we to aide in

rescuing the merchant marines from drowning in the water?”

Doenitz had not give much thought:

“If you can, they will be prisoners of war and will be sent to camps but they will survive.

Have you any other questions?”

Graef stood saluted and left with the others. He had to prepare to leave in the next evening. He, was a cautious man, but a brave one. He would rescue survivors no matter what the party decided.

U107 crew awaited their orders from the captain:

“We leave tomorrow for a very long mission men. We must have the U107 loaded with

provisions for at least five months. Ammunition and torpedoes should be loaded

as quickly as possible. Dismissed.”

The following night U107 left the port of Lorient, France for her destination in the Caribbean Sea.

14 June 1942

Day turned into night, the U107 began her torpedo run, she had in her sights SS City of New Orleans, she was low in the water which meant she had cargo, hopefully bauxite or petroleum. Her tonnage would be something to brag about in later years. Fregettenkaptain Graef stood as the periscope came up, He turned his cap backward and looked carefully. There, toward the east was a cargo ship, he began to figure coordinates to fire the torpedoes. He lined the sights:

“Fire one! Fire two!”

“Tubes three and four loaded.”

“Fregettenkaptain, radar is showing a large blip, destroyer size sir.”

“Take her down to two hundred feet.”

The depth charges began to rain down on U107, as the destroyer made its run. One hit the U107, she began sinking by the bow. The Fregettenkaptain sent an SOS to German submarine command, hoping to stay afloat by releasing air. If she settled on the bottom the navy would try a rescue. The movement felt like the ship was summersaulting down to the bottom of the sea. The ship was floundering, there was no escaping death.

19 December 2018

Admiral John Birch USN retired, was ready to conquer the Puerto Rico Trench, the deepest point of the Atlantic Ocean. The sea was his mistress, the Puerto Rich Trench his new conquest. He was prepared to go down to 27,480 miles down, a special submarine had been built to his specifications, out of titantium. He was taking one passemger; his old friend Mac Donnely. They inspected the sub carefully, it was the first of its kind. The sub reminded the admiral of a compact car he had once owned, it was small and cramped.

Dressed in orange jump suits and navy blue baseball caps with the initials PRR in gold. The two men climbed into the submersible, it was hoisted into the water. They began their descent into

darkness, the off white submersible descended slowly with Admiral Birch at the controls. The dive was smooth as they began to look for identifying locations that had been plotted on the maps. They hovered over Bunce’s Fault, when a small dot appeared on the radar screen. The closer they got to the Bunce Fault the more the dot grew. The admiral was surprised since the amount of pressure at 27,480 pounds would surely have crushed any type of ship large or small. There were no known ships in the area then the admiral remembered, he told Sam Mac:

“We have just have stumbled on the U107, she attempted to wreak havoc on Puerto Rico during the second world war. I remember reading somewhere the Germans command had no record of any messages from her after she sent that there was a United States Coast Guard ship getting ready to depth charge, they were going down as far as possible. The sub was never heard from again. What a discovery this would make especially since it was so far down in the Atlantic.”

They inched their way toward the dot, it grew larger and larger, suddenly was it an apparition? The admiral strained to be sure he was not seeing things; there directly in front of them on ocean bottom was a perfectly preserved Nazi German submarine, as the submersible got closer they could make out the number U107. The strange thing was she was not crushed, the admiral had visited the Titanic sight years ago, he had seen what the pressure did to the old ship, she was disintegrating, yet here was U107 completely in tact.

The admiral told Mac to pull along side of the U107, he began scanning for a hatch that they might latch onto and explore the the submarine. He figured this trip would just be a quick look see, the pressure could kill them both if they were not able to return to their submersible. Mac pulled over the hatch, locked onto it. He opened the hatch, then heard a faint pounding as he opened it the rest of the way. The admiral, began his descent when he heard the same faint pounding that Mac had heard:

“Sir, did you hear that? Is it possible someone might have survived down here?”

The admiral knew that was impossible:

“No I don’t think anyone could have survived, this sub went down in 1942, least that what the

intelligence reports that were gathered after the German surrender. Well, as long as we are

here we might as well have a look around. The noise seems to be coming from over in the

Captain’s area.”

They carefully strode toward the noise, suddenly a very elderly man appeared; the admiral thought he had been in the old submarine for to long. The feeble voice spoke:

“Ich bin Kapitan der U107 die?”

The admiral stared at the elderly man for several moments before he managed:

“Do you speak English? How could you possibly have survived the sinking

and all these years down here? This makes no sense.”

The elderly man spoke softly:

“The U107 vas sunk by Coast Guard, I do not have any idea how I survived or why.

I cannibalized the crew, until I found I could exit into a small cave below, I learned

to catch fish by hand. Now that you know who I am who are you, what year is this?”

The admiral still in awe of the old man:

“My name is Admiral John Birch, retired Navy. The year is 2018 how old does that make you?”

The elderly man thought for several moments:

“That makes me over one hundred. Is it possible for you to get me out of this tomb?”

The admiral did the math:

“Yes, I think we can take you with us now. The world has changed since 1942.

We came down in a submersible that was designed and built to handle the great

amount of pressure that is down this far, this is the Puerto Rico Trench, it is the

lowest point in the Atlantic. Shall we go?”

The elderly man tottered as they strode to the stairs, Mac went first, then the Kapitain, finally the admiral. The old man was stunned to see the equipment of the small submersible. The admiral notified the Navy that they somehow stumbled onto a survivor of U107. The communications man asked the admiral to repeat what he had just said. The communications expert sent it up to the commander who asked if perhaps the young ensign had a little to much to drink:

“Captain that is exactly what Admiral Birch said. What should I tell the admiral?”

The captain thought for a moment:

“We will pick them up on the surface, how long will it take them to surface? Get

Doc ready. I still can not believe that someone could have survived all those years down

in the Trench. The fact that he spoke German and English is small support.”

Several hours later the USS Houston hoisted up the small submersible. The admiral was first out, then came Kapitain Graef, finally Mac. All sailors were on deck they saluted not only the admiral and Mac they saluted Kapitain Graef, who returned their salute.