why raise Nazi u boats?

[smr450]

just been reading that there is currently much intrest in raising scuttled u boats from amoung other places scappa flow..The reason given was because the are built of "Pre atomic age" metals which are usefull for research.Can anyone shed any light on what this research may be?..(see uboat.net)

[Munter]

For any experiment you need a "control". Something you know to be "true". In order to measure radiation levels in "whatever" I presume they need something which has not been exposed to radiation from all sorts of tests and accidents etc to set the "0" point on the graph.

Thats the best I can come up with.

Edit: Woooooo sorry sorry that was the Mrs explanation. I'm in trouble now for taking the glory!... help me for the love of god send help

Edited by Munter on Saturday 13th September 10:02

[speedy_thrills]

There inner hull metal should be at the same level of radiation as the "base rate" before we started throwing various radioactive particles into the atmosphere. Does that make sense?

[smr450]

yes i get that just seems a expensive way of doing things..nothing to do with anything else that may be on board?

[Eric Mc]

Can you think of an alternative way of getting at pre-atomic age metals?

Edited by Eric Mc on Saturday 13th September 10:16

[Simpo Two]

There's plenty of old metal on the seabed. But if they wanted to raise U-Boats for historical purposes, they could just say so - they're very rare.

NB You can find U-995 on Google Earth.

[DangerousMike]

its used as shielding for various detectors and rooms with such instruments in.

[Fivepercent]

Simpo Two said:

There's plenty of old metal on the seabed. But if they wanted to raise U-Boats for historical purposes, they could just say so - they're very rare.

NB You can find U-995 on Google Earth.

There are lots and lots of U boats around on the seabed. They are very popular with the British SCUBA diving fraternity. There were 1154 of them. Loads of good info here: http://www.uboat.net/boats.htm

They have been pulling pre nuclear steel out of Scapa since WW2 from the german fleet sunk there, for instrumentation and other similar purposes.

Edited by Fivepercent on Saturday 13th September 10:27

[rhinochopig]

The metal is used mainly in Full Body Scanners for measuring radiation dose for classified radiation workers. HTH.

[rhinochopig]

The metal is used mainly in Full Body Scanners for measuring radiation dose for classified radiation workers. HTH.

ETA: Funny storey relating to above. They are camera monitored as they take a long time to do carry out the measurement and only the subject is allowed in the room. One poor chap got bored and didn't realise this, so was caught on film milking himself.

[bimsb6]

what rubbish everbody who has seen indiana jones knows they are full of gold and artifacts .

[Rocket Pepper]

bimsb6 said:

what rubbish everbody who has seen indiana jones knows they are full of gold and artifacts .

and skeletons!

[smr450]

yer but did Hitler really bite the bullit in the bunker or as has been suggested hitch a ride on a u boat to Argentina?..Stalin did after all suggest this in 1945??

[smr450]

fair point regarding war graves but if they were scuttled after copitulation then they would not have any bodies on board.Many like U47 were lost on active service.Two have recentley been discovered in Patagonia 500mts off shore in 20mts of water..what or who were they delivering?

[Toni896]

Eric Mc said:

Can you think of an alternative way of getting at pre-atomic age metals?

Edited by Eric Mc on Saturday 13th September 10:16

Couldn't they use iron age / medieval metals for the same thing as they dig them up.

[DangerousMike]

i guess a battleship is quite a lot of metal in one space. collecting arrowheads might take a while longer. Also, presumably the battleshhips are perceived as having less cultural value. Reading a little this morning about Scapa Flow I had a sudden sense of a war that happened a long, long time ago and very far away. A kind of strange, sad feeling. That there was so much upheaval etc. but its not really even thought about any more.

[Fivepercent]

jag guru said:

smr450 said:

just been reading that there is currently much intrest in raising scuttled u boats from amoung other places scappa flow..The reason given was because the are built of "Pre atomic age" metals which are usefull for research.Can anyone shed any light on what this research may be?..(see uboat.net)

Getting onto quite sensitive territory
here. War graves etc. Scapa Flow for example. Royal Oak sunk by U47
at anchor. 833 men lost their lives that night.
Maybe there is a case for leaving well alone ?

There is a lot of hypocricy about this.
The most dived site in the world is the Thistlegorm in Egypt, which is a war grave.
The wrecks in Truck Lagoon in Micronesia contain many Japanese dead yet nobody complains when they are regularly dived. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Hailstone
Coron in the Philippines is the same.
Yet some wrecks (including in Asia) have survivors associations etc and kick up an almighty fuss if anyone goes near them.

[MK4 Slowride]

Simpo Two said:

There's plenty of old metal on the seabed. But if they wanted to raise U-Boats for historical purposes, they could just say so - they're very rare.

NB You can find U-995 on Google Earth.

What are the co-ordinates for this please.

[smr450]

what difference would there be between freshley smelted Iron or steel and 70 year old u boat hulls.Why would the new stuff have a different level of radiation?

[DangerousMike]

there is basically radioactive dust everywhere, and the iron/steel that is made can't be made 100 % pure - it always incorporates some radioactive elements.