The haunted U-boat UB-65
During World War I submarines were still a new weapon with limited tasks they could take up, their construction was still rather primitive and their performances were very limited. Service on the submarine was very tough and very dangerous - the interior of the sub was very tight, some of the solutions used in those days were still considered more experiment rather than effect of experience. Germans with their limited access to the sea saw the submarines as a good weapon to keep their opponents on their toes - the idea was, just like later during the World War II, that submarines will block the ports of f.e. Great Britain and will cut off the outside supplies for the country. The famous haunted U-boat was marked SM UB-65, it was Type UB III submarine built in Hamburg. Launched on 26 June 1917 UB-65 was commissioned in August 1917, under the command of Kapitanleutnant Martin Schelle.
During the active service UB-65 completed six patrols, during which sunken 6 merchant ships (and damaged 6 more) and 1 military ship (British Anchusa-class sloop HMS Arbutus). The U-boat was lost off Padstow, Cornwall around 14 July 1918 with all 37 crew members. For a long time it was believed that torpedo explosion inside the boat was the cause of UB-65 sinking, but when the wreck was actually discovered in 2004 there were no signs of explosion or any signs of damage from enemy actions. Still the cause isn’t clear, but it is believed that depth charges attack might have caused some small damage to the submarine systems and crew was unable to surface again. The aft hatches were open, which could suggest that at least one of the crew members tried to escaped from submerged boat. Other theory suggest some sort of accident or malfunction onboard the ship (other than explosion) that made it impossible so surface again.
Overall it is believed that lost of UB-65 was rather caused by unlucky coincident rather than any military activities. But it wouldn’t be the first bad luck in the history of UB-65 - it is believed that during the construction and first test on the sea 3 crew members died of asphyxiation in the engine room, 2 more were crushed when one of the girders have fallen down and one of the crew members was swept overboard while inspecting hatches and was never found again. Also during one of the tests the fracture occurred in a ballast tank and caused the submarine to sink to the bottom of the sea. After 12 hours of struggle and race against the clock (the oxygen was very limited) the crew managed to surface the boat, but the belief that the boat was cursed remained.
But what really started the strange events aboard UB-65 was the accident during which 2nd officer, Lieutenant Richter, was killed in a torpedo explosion. After that the crew was complaining that they hear strange noises, some of them stated that they saw ghost aboard and they refused to sail the boat again. German Imperial Navy could not officially declare that the UB-65 was haunted, but they transferred the crew to other ships and called a priest on board to exorcise the ship. After that a new captain was assigned and new crew, but after a while the rumours about ghost aboard UB-65 returned. Some of the sailors saw the ghost moving about the ship, especially around torpedo room and there is tale that one of the crew members that kept seeing the ghost couldn’t stand the pressure and jumped overboard to his death.
Even the day the UB-65 was sunk the American officer aboard the submarine that spotted surfaced German sub and attacked it with torpedo, stated that UB-65 exploded before the torpedo could reach it and that he saw someone on deck just before UB-65 went down - he said it was a figure in a German officer’s overcoat, standing near the bow with folded arms, which would again suggest that dead Lieutenant Richter was haunting the UB-65. Unfortunately the last part is rather unlikely since the rediscovery of UB-65 already excluded any explosion as the cause of the sinking and that we can’t even be sure when UB-65 actually sunk.
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