10 YEARS AGO in our KTB

In KTB #27 ten years ago it seemed there were several groups looking for some U-Boats - in all the wrong places! A group was seeking a sunken U-Boat in 500 feet of water off Hillsborough Inlet by Ft. Lauderdale. The news clipping stated that a diver named Bill Parks had dived this boat and had seen it. We wrote to the paper and told them that there was no U-Boat there and further, no diver could dive to 500 feet! They continued to cover this non-story at any rate until they sent down a remote camera and found a lump of coral - no U-Boat.

In another incident, a salvage firm in Florida called us because they were approached by a couple salvage divers who claimed they knew where a U-Boat was sunk off Naples, Florida and they wanted this company to front the money to salvage the mercury ballast, the gold in the Captain’s safe, and the sterling silver pipes in the boat. We told the President of this company that there was no U-Boat sunk off Naples; U-Boats did not use mercury for ballast; there was no safe and no gold; and the story of the silver pipes was very creative - but totally untrue.

I guess the moon was really full that month.

TOM HATTON (20-1983) informed us that U-1406 was re-fitted with a sodium-graphite reactor in place of the Walter turbine sometime in 1946 or 1947 by Dr. Abelson.

5 YEARS AGO in our KTB

In KTB #75 five years ago, we ran more of the stories by OTTO GIESE (SH 45) and LCDR MYLES GRAHAM (521-+-1988); the book ‘IRON COFFINS’ by HERBERT WERNER (18-1983) was reviewed; we read more of the piece ‘U-BOAT DEVELOPMENT IN THE FACE OF DISARMAMENT’ written by CHARLES GUNDERSEN (205-C-1986); we covered our gathering in Chicago along with photos of our group on the deck of U-505; we listed the submarine of each nation that sank the most ships in World War II; we reported on our SHARKHUNTERS DIVE TRIP to the dive shop run by TYLL SASS (526-1988) on the island of Roatan; our INTELLIGENCE PAGE covered ‘MAJESTIC 12 and the FOO FIGHTERS’; we helped Captain HELMUT SCHMOECKEL (1455-1990) locate his former foe then friend, Captain Waters, the USCG Skipper who wrote a book on the convoy actions in 1943 entitled ‘BLOODY WINTER’.

After our week-long diving at TYLL’s DIVE SHOP, BRIAN ORLANDO (807-1988) said: “SHARKHUNTERS; not just a club, it’s an adventure!” We agree - it’s pretty great

KTB #75 was only 28 pages long, done on an old typewriter; at the time it was published, there were SHARKHUNTERS Members in 29 countries. We’ve grown a lot in the past five years.