News

The wreck of U-Boat 33, which was one of the deadliest submarines in the German Naval fleet during the First World War, is threatening to rise from the depths of the English Channel, 89 years on.

The sunk World War I German submarine off the coast of Dover is to be moved because it is becoming an increasing danger to shipping.

Lying in shallow waters, the wreck of the UB-33 has been disturbed by passing vessels, leading to fears that it could break free from the seabed and rise to the surface.

So a salvage operation has been launched to prevent it hitting any of the hundreds of ships that cross the Channel each day.

The UB (Unterseeboot) 33 was sunk with all 28 crew on April 11, 1918, after hitting a mine around the Varne Bank sandbank in the Dover Strait. It was armed with six torpedoes, two already loaded in its forward tubes.

The area is directly beneath the shipping lane now used by ferries travelling to Calais and Boulogne and much of the movement of the wreck has been caused by the turbulence of vessels travelling above it.

Lighthouse authority Trinity House requires a minimum clearance depth of 26.5m (87ft) but the U-boat, which has been in the Dover Strait since 1918, is just 23.5m (77ft) below the surface, which does not leave enough clearance for modern ships.

Divers have completed a survey of the wreck and it hoped to move it into deeper water later this summer.

The U-boat, which is a classified as a war grave, is one of dozens of similar vessels sunk off the coast of Britain during the war.

The wreck lies to the south of the Varne Bank and eight miles south of Dover.