Wrecks & Archaeology

U-533 was a Nazi German U-Boat (Type IXC/40) that operated during World War II between April 15, 1943 and October 16, 1943. It was first launched on September 11, 1942 with a crew of 53, under the command of Helmut Hennig.

It was sunk by a Royal Air Force Blenheim bomber while it was operating in the Gulf of Oman. Of the crew of 53, only one survived by staying afloat without a life jacket for 28 hours until he was rescued by the HMS Hiravati near Khor Fakkan.

Walter Elcock, now 89 and living in Georgia, recalls the landing and how he managed to snag a wire on the carrier with the plane's tailhook and hung from it a few seconds before the wire broke.

"I went straight underwater," Elcock recalled. He unbuckled and kicked for the surface, maybe 10 feet away, thinking that he wouldn't be able to stay afloat wearing all of his heavy flight gear. Fortunately almost immediately, a Coast Guard ship pulled him out.

"I grew up hearing the story of this crash," said Elcock's grandson, Hunter Brawley, 36, of Atlanta, Georgia.

The searchers were looking for another missing plane when they came upon the wreckage of a Lockheed T-33A jet trainer

The Air Force accident report identifies the pilots as Lt. Richard Martin Theiler and Lt. Paul Dale Smith. Theiler had 1,244 hours of flying experience, and Smith had 430.

Computer expert Gary Fabian is the founder of a group of unpaid volunteer enthusiasts who discovered a missing World War I German U-boat off the California coast in 2003.

Forty-four sailors perished while another forty-two were injured in the incident. The two ships managed to make their way to the Greek island of Corfu for repairs. Nevertheless, the incident sparked off a diplomatic row at the time.

Then, three months ago, the wreckage of the HMS Volage was discovered in the Ionian Sea, but the discovery was only made public this month.

Doug Davidge of the Yukon Transportation Museum in Whitehorse found the gold rush time capsule during a sonar survey. He has been looking for it on and off since the 1980s

The steamboat was built in San Francisco, taken apart in Skagway and hauled over the mountains to Lake Laberge.

"The discovery has been reported to the Canadian government and the Yukon government, and the winter ice has once again sealed the grave of A.J. Goddard.

Captain Dan Porter and dive partner Bobby Hartwell were working at a depth of about 20 feet, in an area where Porter and his crew had already uncovered 17th century ceramic pieces, a musket ball, and a scattering of large ballast stones. Weather conditions had deteriorated throughout the day and by afternoon “were so rough that the current was running straight up the boat’s stern and had exerted enough force to break the vessels bow line,” said Porter.

It's been a busy few years for Marine Quest, run by father and son team Jim and Iain Easingwood, and their latest find- the German U-Boat, U-40, is arguably their most impressive find yet.