SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (WPRI) — New images of sunken submarines are helping make a case that the vessels should be managed and protected by the Navy and the state of Rhode Island.
These new images show sunken submarines in the Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound.
Some of the vessels were sunk as part of testing new torpedo technologies and one of the submarines is a German U-boat that sunk near the end of World War II.
“Rhode Island was a major player in the development of submarine warfare, beginning just after the Civil War, when an experimental torpedo facility was developed in Newport,” said University of Rhode Island maritime historian and archeologist, Rod Mather, in a statement. “When the Navy expanded its operations in World War I, the Newport torpedo station manufactured a huge number of torpedoes, and that station had 13,000 workers and built a third of all the torpedoes used by the U.S. in World War II.”
The new images of the submarines were taken last summer using a new sonar technology, resulting in images with 30-times more detail than standard technologies can produce.
Mather said in a statement that management of the submarine sites could help monitor their degradation and help the public better understand the importance of the sites.
Three submarine sites were mapped during the first phase of the imaging project: the G-1, L-8 and the German U-853 with the U.S. merchant ship Black Point.
The G-1 was built in 1911 and made a test dive in Long Island Sound to 256 feet, the deepest U.S. submarine dive at the time.
The L-8 was launched in 1917 and used as a top-secret effort during World War I to counteract German submarines. The German U-853 and the U.S. merchant ship Black Point were involved in the final act of the Battle of the North Atlantic during World War II.
