Members will recall this group of people on the west coast who claim they have information about a ‘phantom’ German U-Boat sunk off San Francisco - full of gold of course, which they later determined to be an American submarine they sank in error ( hell of a mistake!) but the US Navy is ‘covering it up’ and will not give them any information about this boat. We have showed just how foolish these claims are, but these guys persist.

Over the past year or two, they have claimed finding information about a Japanese float plane drifting ashore on the California coast; about a secret Japanese submarine base on the California coast; and all sorts of other loony things. That secret Japanese submarine base was so secret that the I.J.N. had no idea they were operating on the American coast. In short, these guys are at best, rainbow chasers. They have however, managed to convince various manufacturers to donate equipment for their ‘search boat’.

In their newest newsletter, they have some ideas that it was the I.J.N. submarine I-12 that was sunk by USS KEITH off San Francisco. Wait a minute - they claimed that it was a German sub, filled with gold & treasures when they first suckered ‘UNSOLVED MYSTERIES’ into giving them air time. The second time the gullible producers of ‘UNSOLVED MYSTERIES’ put them on the air, it was because they ‘learned’ that this was not a German boat, but an American submarine they sank in error. Now it is a Japanese submarine? Perhaps they need to get some more air time to get other companies to donate equipment for their boat. Which is it; a German U-Boat full of gold; an American submarine sunk in error; or the Japanese submarine I-12?

If they get more air time on ‘UNSOLVED MYSTERIES’, then it will soon become necessary to give this non-submarine a new identity. After all, it has changed identity three times so far.

Their four-page newsletter devoted one page to the ‘new data’ that shows this to be I-12; one page (the front page) devoted to how they need more money to continue this ‘vital research’ because they are broke and that one of the people got the flu and also hurt their back; and two pages devoted to the cold and snow in Oregon over the winter, the roof of the high school gym fell in, a wandering writer visited them, and they moved their offices closer to the post office.

Perhaps they will offer a prize to any reader who can show them where to locate this submarine - ANY submarine; or perhaps to anyone who could find anything of interest at all in their wanderings about on the Pacific off the American west coast looking for a German U-Boat that was never there or an American submarine sunk in error that was also never there and now the Japanese submarine I-12. It was probably the NAUTILUS and if they look closely, they will still find Captain Nemo still sitting at the organ, just waiting for these guys to find him.

More on this bunch when their next quarterly newsletter comes out - assuming it is not stolen by some of these agents that must have sneaked ashore from the German U-Boat. Or was it I-12?