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German submarine U-556 was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was laid down on 2 January 1940 at the Blohm & Voss yard in Hamburg as yard number 532, launched on 7 December 1940, and commissioned on 6 February 1941 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Herbert Wohlfarth, who commanded her for her entire career. U-556 conducted only two patrols, sinking six ships totalling 29,552 gross register tons (GRT) and damaging one other of 4,986 GRT, before she was sunk on 27 June 1941.
German submarine U-171 was a Type IXC U-boat of Germany's Kriegsmarine built for service during World War II. It was laid down on 1 December 1940 at the DeSchiMAG AG Weser yard at Bremen as yard number 1011, launched on 22 July 1941, and commissioned on 25 October 1941 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Günther Pfeffer.
HMS Isis was one of nine I-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s.
MV Tricolor was a 50,000 tonne Norwegian-flagged vehicle carrier built in 1987, notable for having been involved in three English Channel collisions within a fortnight.
The T2 tanker, or T2, was a class of oil tanker constructed and produced in large quantities in the United States during World War II. Only the T3 tankers were larger "navy oilers" of the period. Some 533 T2s were built between 1940 and the end of 1945. They were used to transport fuel oil, diesel fuel, gasoline and sometimes black oil-crude oil. Post war many T2s remained in use; like other hastily built World War II ships pressed into peacetime service, there were safety concerns. As was found during the war, the United States Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation in 1952 stated that in cold weather the ships were prone to metal fatigue cracking, so were "belted" with steel straps. This occurred after two T2s, Pendleton and Fort Mercer, split in two off Cape Cod within hours of each other. Pendleton's sinking is memorialized in The Finest Hours. Engineering inquiries into the problem suggested the cause was poor welding techniques. It was found the steel was not well suited for the new wartime welding construction. The high sulfur content made the steel brittle and prone to metal fatigue at lower temperatures.
German submarine U-303 was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. She saw service in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, and sank one freighter of 4,959 GRT in her two short and uneventful war patrols. Built in 1941 and 1942 at Lübeck, U-303 was a Type VIIC U-boat, capable of lengthy ocean patrols and of operating in distant environments.
German submarine U-7 was a Type IIB U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, based out of Kiel during World War II. It was one of the smaller versions, and was first launched on 29 June 1935 with a crew of 29. Its first commander was Kurt Freiwald. U-7 would have 16 commanders over the course of its service, the last being Günther Loeschcke.
Erika was a tanker built in 1975 and last chartered by Total-Fina-Elf. It sank off the coast of France in 1999, causing a major environmental disaster.
German submarine U-180 was a Type IXD1 transport U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine which served in World War II. Her keel was laid down on 25 February 1941 at the DeSchiMAG AG Weser yard in Bremen as yard number 1020. She was launched on 10 December 1941 and commissioned on 16 May 1942 under Fregattenkapitän Werner Musenberg. Stripped of torpedo armament, the Type IXD1s were designated as transport submarines, and could carry up to 252 tonnes of freight. U-180 was used primarily in clandestine operations.
German submarine U-70 was a Type VIIC submarine of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II.
HMS Splendid was a third-batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War II. She was laid down on 7 March 1941 and launched on 19 January 1942. After an initial patrol through the Bay of Biscay to Gibraltar, Splendid conducted two patrols in the Mediterranean Sea; one was abandoned after technical problems and on the other she sank two Italian ships. On her next patrol, the submarine attacked two Italian convoys, sinking an Italian destroyer in the second attack. Based in Algiers, the boat operated north of Sicily, sinking six Italian ships, including two tankers and two heavy merchant ships. Splendid was detected by a German destroyer on 21 April 1943 while patrolling off Naples, Italy; the submarine was attacked with depth charges by the destroyer and forced to surface, after which she was scuttled and her surviving crew members taken prisoner. She was the most successful British submarine by tonnage sunk between November 1942 and May 1943.
HMS Sealion was a second-batch S-class submarine built during the 1930s for the Royal Navy. Completed in 1934, the boat fought in the Second World War.
The French destroyer Léopard was a Chacal-class destroyer built for the French Navy during the 1920s. She became a training ship in the mid-1930s before serving as a convoy escort during World War II before the Germans invaded France in May 1940. After that time, she bombarded advancing German forces near the northern French coast and took part in the Dunkirk evacuation. After the surrender of France, she was seized by the British in July and turned over to the Free French.
MFV Bugaled Breizh is a French trawler from Loctudy, Finistère, whose sinking with all hands in 90 metres of water on 15 January 2004 remains unresolved. While it appeared possible that the ship was pulled under by a submarine, a specific submarine could not be identified from among the number of submarines of several nations operating in the general vicinity of the accident site. Moreover, the condition of the ship's recovered trawling equipment was reported by a technical inquiry to not be consistent with a submarine entanglement.
An emergency tow vessel, also called emergency towing vessel, (ETV) is a multi purpose boat used by state authorities to tow disabled vessels on high seas in order to prevent dangers to man and environment. The disabled vessel is either towed to a safe haven or kept in place against wind and current until commercial assistance by tug boats has arrived on site or until it has been repaired to the extent of being able to manoeuvre on its own. The need for ETVs as a preventive measure has arisen since the number of available commercial salvage tugs was reduced while potential dangers from individual vessels have increased. E.g. Spain has fourteen, Turkey has eleven, Germany operates eight, Norway has seven, France has five, Sweden three and the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, Iceland and Finland each have one official emergency tug boat. Australia also operates emergency response vessels. The United Kingdom's four strong ETV fleet was to be disbanded in September 2011 due to budget cuts but the two vessels operating in Scottish waters received an extension of contract until the end of 2011.
German submarine U-158 was a Type IXC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine built for service during World War II.
Amiral Cécille was a protected cruiser of the French Navy, named in honour of Jean-Baptiste Cécille. The third vessel of that type built in France, her design was derived from her two predecessors, Sfax and Tage. Like those vessels, Amiral Cécille was intended to be used as a commerce raider to attack merchant shipping. As such, she carried a barque sailing rig to supplement her steam engines for long voyages overseas. Amiral Cécille was armed with a main battery of eight 164 mm (6.5 in) guns and had a curved armor deck that was 56 to 102 mm thick.
Cyclone Oratia, was an unusually deep European windstorm which affected Western Europe from 28 to 30 October 2000. The storm was the fiercest to hit Britain in October since the Great Storm of 1987, with wind gusts reaching 109 mph (175 km/h), and gusting at up to 70 mph (110 km/h) over much of the south of England. Its barometric pressure fell to 941 hPa (27.8 inHg), over the North Sea making it one of the deepest lows recorded in the country in October. The lowest land-based pressure observation reached 951.2 hPa (28.09 inHg) at RAF Fylingdales. The storm contributed to the Autumn 2000 western Europe floods.
German submarine U-97 was a Type VIIC U-boat built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine for service during the Second World War. She carried out thirteen patrols during her career, sinking sixteen ships and damaging a seventeenth. She was a member of two wolfpacks.
German submarine U-305 was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 30 August 1941 at the Flender Werke yard at Lübeck as yard number 305, launched on 25 July 1942 and commissioned on 17 September under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Rudolf Bahr.
