This is no surprise, as there have been plans to move U-505 from her place of obscurity more or less behind the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago to a more prominent place out front, where people could see her from Lake Shore Drive. On face, it is a great idea. Somehow over the years, the anticipated cost of moving this treasure has grown and grown. In the beginning, we remember they needed to raise some $5 million dollars to qualify for a grant of an additional $6 million from the government. Now, according to the papers, the amount is $35 million.

We commend the Museum for their concern for this piece of history, but there are troubling memories. Many years ago, I was with then Director Vic Dannelov, and told him that we had the location of UC-97, the World War I German U-Boat sunk in Lake Michigan and suggested that the Museum put together an expedition to salvage this boat and put her next to U-505, so the Museum would have the only World War I and World War II German U-Boats in the world. I was shocked when he said that he didn’t even want “this one” as he referred to U-505. Then he paid a scrap dealer to come and take away two entire storage rooms full of spare parts for U-505 that were taken off U-805. What would prompt him to do that? We’ll probably never know.

FATAL DAMAGE TO U-505?

Some years ago, TOM CHRISTOFFERSON (5066-1996) told us that he was heading up the fund raising for this project to move the boat but he told us that he quit the project when he began to suspect that U-505 would be fatally damaged during the move and that the Museum would have all this additional money in their pockets. We really hope that TOM was wrong in his suspicions but I guess only time will tell. Keep watching the events.