All the officers agreed that it resembled a crocodile and was about sixty feet long, with four limbs that ended in large webbed feet, writes John Miles

 

It is common knowledge that German U-Boats hunted ocean-going ships in the waters near Great Britain during both World Wars. What is less well known is that during the first World War two separate U-Boats reported interactions with large sea monsters in the waters near Ireland.

The first instance occurred on July of 1915 when the British steamer Iberian was travelling from Manchester, UK to Boston, USA.

She was spotted by the U-Boat SM U-28 in the Atlantic Ocean 17 km southwest of Fastnet Rock, Ireland.
U-28 was a U-boat that conducted five patrols, sinking forty ships before being sunk herself in 1917.
U-28 fired a torpedo at the Iberian which hit her stern.

She sank stern first beneath the waves, and officers from the U-boat reported that the steamer went down so swiftly that its bow stuck up almost vertically into the air.

According to the U-Boat Captain’s account of the incident, the wreckage remained under the water until another explosion sent some of the debris to the surface.

It is believed that this secondary explosion was caused by the Iberian’s boiler detonating.
The captain wrote that along with the debris, something described as a large aquatic animal resembling a crocodile surfaced.

He reported that in his conning tower were six officers. They all saw the sea creature which was writhing and struggling among the debris.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own