The German television channel ZDF aired a program this week about the last command of the  U513 and her sinking off the coast of SE Brazil . The main highlight of the documentary was the ROV video footage that was captured of the U513's hull apparently in around 129m of water; an  informative  program spoiled only by the makers use of some misleading material and artistic license. The online video can be seen at: http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/beitrag/video/1770966/Das-Geheimnis-von-U-513

Bell Island Shipwrecks

This is a little late but last month Rick Stanley of Oceanquest Adventures told me that the province of Newfoundland has at last commemorated the Bell Island Shipwrecks and that he will be working on the Historic Site Status with Parks Canada.Great news Rick, it's about time you had some recognition.

U-513 Found

Just heard from Brazil that the wreck of the U-513 has been found on Thursday 14-07-2011 . After a two year search a partnership between the Schurmann family (CPE Brazil )  and the Univali University has led  to the finding of the lost submarine off the eastern seaboard of Brazil near Santa Catarina.

The latest information that I have is that after extensive research the team involved located the wreck using a magnetometer (equipment capable of showing if there are anomalies underwater ... in this case a huge amount of metal) further surveying involved using a side scan sonar (equipment that uses ultrasound to create an image of what is underwater) from the images they were able to measure details of the submarine and compare this with the drawing used to create the submarine and other information that they have collected. The measurements matched perfectly so things look pretty good. The details of the location has not been released because they need to be sure that no one will touch it inappropriately.  . A ROV will soon be used to further explore the historical find. Further information will I am sure be made available on their website which is at www.u-513.com .  A new video has just been shown on Brazilian television and can be seen at http://video.globo.com/Videos/Player/Noticias/0,,GIM1567505-7823-FAMILIA+DE+VELEJADORES+ENCONTRA+O+U+NO+FUNDO+DO+MAR,00.html

Congratulations to all concerned...Barry & Margarita Collings Rüggeberg

Final resting place of U-513?

Received a interesting mail sometime ago from Germany about a Brazilian venture to locate the U-513 ( http://www.U-513.com ).Why not take a look at this interesting website; is this really her final resting place?

Living relative

Looking at the list of deceased from the SS. Saganaga I noticed that one of the seamen came from my home town . The name of Misselbrook stirred memories of my childhood as a family by that name ran the local secondhand car business a mile or so from my home. An unusual name, I telephoned around , all the existing Misselbrooks were related and one turned out to be the first cousin of that very seamen. We spoke at the length but he new very little about  his ancestor. However he did tell me that he thought his cousins name was on a memorial in Portsmouth England.I contacted the  UK National Inventory of War Memorials and they have confirmed that Frederick Henry Misselbrook is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Southsea Common, Porstmouth which is a memorial to those who have lost their lives at sea and have no known grave.

Bell Island Shipwrecks Update

Rick Stanley of Ocean Quest Adventures has just informed me that a designated researcher has been assigned to evaluate the Bell Island Shipwrecks, this could lead to them being awarded ' a special place or event' in Newfoundland. If this happens the next stage would be to propose to the Federal Government that the award be upgraded to a National Historic Site.