Investigation Confirms WWI Cruiser USS San Diego Was Sunk by U-boat Mine
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https://news.usni.org/2018/12/11/investigation-confirms-wwi-cruiser-uss-san-diego-sunk-u-boat-mine?utm_source=USNI+News&utm_campaign=2c3ea0973b-USNI_NEWS_WEEKLY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0dd4a1450b-2c3ea0973b-230454553&mc_cid=2c3ea0973b&mc_eid=a259bc9f7a
The mine exploded along the cruiser’s aft port side, near compartments filled with coal and one of the ship’s four tall stacks. Within 25 minutes, despite initial efforts by the crew to keep the ship steaming ahead as water rushed into its spaces, San Diego continued to list until it sunk in shallow water.
Those findings, presented Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in Washington, D.C, validated earlier determinations including a Navy court of inquiry that San Diego was sunk by a mine deployed by U-156 and not by a torpedo or a saboteur.
The 15,138-ton San Diego had arrived in New York City the day before, steaming in from Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, N.H., with the mission to escort ships across the Atlantic. The captain and crew were prepared for the known threats from German U-boats and ships before leaving Portsmouth. On that ill-fated morning, Christy posted 17 sailors as lookouts, “in case a submarine was spotted,” Catsambis said. The ship followed a course, zigging and zagging to avoid being easy prey for the U-boats. Watertight doors were closed.
According to NHHC, German Kapitänleutnant Richard Feldt, U-156’s commander, had sent a wireless radio report on Sept. 6, 1918, claiming his crew had sunk San Diego and other ships. In a twist of irony, that same month U-156 met a similar fate when it was sunk by a mine in the North Atlantic. While its logs went down with it, Catsambis noted, it “is credited with the only attack on U.S. mainland,” in a missile attack against several vessels off Orleans, Mass., just two days after San Diego was sunk.
*U-156* was designed from the *Deutschland* class of merchant submarines. She carried out the only attack on US soil in WWI, at Orleans - as the article states. She was attacking some vessels off of Orleans, and some of her shells hit the beach. There is a plaque there today commemorating the event.
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