The Haunting of UB-65
It takes an amazingly strong willed and practical person to crew the submarine fleets of the world’s navies and more so during the early twentieth century when the technology was new and the cold depths of the ocean were a mysterious unknown. It takes a steel nerved character to brave the deep and those who cast their lives under the ocean in a submarine warcraft were picked for that very practicality. So extra heed must be given when these staunch sailors declare their ship is haunted.
The wolfpacks of Germany’s U-boat fleets quickly proved their worth in the early years of the First World War. With their hit and disappear tactics, the U-boat fleet dealt a devastating blow to the allied ocean going supply lines. Increasing the fleet’s numbers led to the construction of the Undersea Boat Number 65 in 1916.
From the beginning UB-65 seemed destined for tragedy. Less than seven days after the keel was laid, a huge structural girder was being hoisted into place when the chains snapped and it fell, crushing and pinning one of the workers under it for more than an hour before he died in agony. Only a few weeks later, during the tests on the electric batteries that would power the craft when submerged, toxic chloride gas leaked from the batteries and killed the three engineers working on them.
No reason could be determined for any of the accidents and the UB-65 was launched without further death among her construction crew. However, soon after leaving port for a testing voyage, the UB-65 surfaced into the rough waters of an Atlantic storm and a crewmember was washed overboard and lost. Then the electrical storage batteries began to leak again on the next dive and the entire thirty four man crew spent a desperate twelve hours trying to get the submarine back to the surface and fresh air. While no one died of the fumes this time, it was a near thing. Once again investigation could find no reason for the leak.
Once back to harbor the UB-65 was commissioned and began loading ordinance for her first mission against Germany’s enemies. However, as a brace of torpedoes were being loaded onto the craft one of the warheads inexplicably detonated, wounding several of the crew and killing UB-65’s Second Officer.
Shaken by this new tragedy, the crew were given several extra days before their departure to settle their nerves and bury their deceased comrade. As the crew were boarding for their first mission the watch officer abandoned his post in fright as he swore to his Captain that the dead officer had just walked up the gangplank and boarded the craft. Another sailor, independently from the watch officer, also reported seeing the officer walking on deck toward the bow of the craft and then vanish before his eyes.
However, duty called and the UB-65 headed for the Flemish coast to hunt for enemy cargo ships to destroy. They met with quick success but the thrill of the kill was tempered greatly at the climax of their second successful torpedoing of an enemy supply ship when the entire engine room staff panicked in fear after seeing the figure of the dead officer standing beside the instrument panel he had been stationed at when the explosion had taken his life.
The Captain of the UB-65 considered the rumors of a ghost on board a serious problem and destroyer of moral in a service that required the highest of professional behavior. He ordered the talk of the haunting to cease and whether the lost officer was seen still standing his duty watch or not, no further official reports were made to the Captain throughout 1917. This changed one day in January of 1918.
While patrolling the English Channel near Portland Bill, the Captain had ordered the ship to the surface as the stormy weather was making it dangerous to stay submerged. A lookout was ordered to the control tower to observe the sea but became hysterical when he took up his station only to see, once again, the ghostly figure of the late Second Officer on the deck of the just surfaced craft. He flew back down the hatch in fear and the Captain, deciding he had had enough of this type of foolish talk, drug the sailor back up the ladder with him only to come face to face with the ghostly form himself.
The UB-65 quickly returned to port then and the naval authorities were determined to solve the rumors on board the ship. After independently interviewing each of the frightened crewmen, the UB-65 was decommissioned and the crew was disbursed to other ships around the fleet. Then they took an action which is almost entirely unheard of in the annals of any modern navy. The Naval High Command obtained the services of a Lutheran Priest to perform a ritual exorcism on the haunted warship.
Hoping that the problem had been solved, the UB-65 was recommissioned and sent to sea with an entirely new crew. While the Captain was aware of the ship’s past history, he held the no nonsense attitude that he would be having nothing to do with ghost tales on his ship. For a while the mission went about its business with no further sightings or accidents. However in May of 1918 the ghostly officer was seen at least three times around the ship. One sighting was by the Chief Petty Officer who declared that it had walked right through the bulkhead into his quarters. Another sailor became so frightened at seeing the figure of the dead officer that he bolted from the ship and plunged overboard to his own death.
The last mystery of the haunting of UB-65 occurred barely two months later when, in July 1918, a German submarine that is thought to have been the UB-65 was sighted lying still on the surface by the crew of an American submarine. Amazed at such an easy target the Americans began lining up for a torpedo attack only to witness the German submarine suddenly explode. Within seconds the doomed submarine had been torn to pieces and sank with no survivors. The final mystery of the UB-65 was taken with it to a watery grave.
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The Patrician spends most of his days writing web copy for the World Wide Web from his manor house office at Greenwoods Village. He has been known to socialize with ghosts and other denizens from the world of the weird.
