OSLO, Norway – More than 60 years after being torpedoed by the British navy, a Nazi submarine built to threaten allied ships continues to spread fear off the coast of Norway.
The rusting wreckage of the U-864, sunk during a desperate mission to supply Japan with advanced weapons technology, now poses a major environmental threat due to its poisonous cargo: 70 tons of mercury.
Residents on the tiny island of Fedje, located in the North Sea on roughly the same latitude as Scotland’s Shetland Islands, want the sub removed. But authorities fear a salvage operation could result in a catastrophic spill and suggest entombing the wreck in the seabed with rocks, cement and sand.
“Local people are very concerned,” Fedje’s Mayor Erling Walderhaug said Wednesday. “They wanted it taken away so the danger would be gone for good.”
The U-864 tried to skirt allied navy patrols on a last-ditch secret mission code-named “Caesar,” to bring jet engine parts, missile guidance systems and mercury for weapons production to Germany’s ally, Japan. British experts discovered the mission by breaking a German code.
In a rare underwater duel, the British submarine HMS Venturer stalked the U-864 for three hours before it finally sank it on Feb. 9, 1945, about 21/2 miles off Fedje.
The Venturer was given to Norway after the war and renamed KNM Utstein.
The German submarine was only 14 months old when it went down with a crew of 73 in 500 feet of water.
The wreck lay undisturbed for almost 60 years until Norway’s Royal Navy discovered it in March 2003. Oslo’s newspaper Dagbladet has called it “Hitler’s secret poison bomb.”
The mercury containers are rusting, and some are leaking. Studies showed elevated mercury levels in the silt around the wreck, but so far only fish that live inside have been contaminated, according the Norwegian Food Protection Authority. Fishing is not allowed in the waters nearby.
After spending three years and about $6.5 million researching the problem, the Norwegian Coastal Administration recommended encasing the submarine with sand to prevent the spread of mercury. The method, it said in a report released Tuesday, had worked 30 times worldwide and was said to be less risky than attempting to lift the 2,400-ton sub.
For the people of Fedje, near Bergen, Norway’s second-largest city, leaving the wreck where it lies means the sub’s toxic cargo will continue to threaten their port – possibly for generations.
When released into the ocean, metallic mercury, the silver fluid once used in thermometers, can become the more dangerous organic mercury. Through fish, organic mercury can be passed on to humans in food. Mercury poisoning can be fatal.
Even small amounts can damage the nervous system, as well as cause heart and kidney problems.
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