While put underwater power cable television along the west seacoast of Scotland and England , marine engineers arouse an old myth .
During the £ 1 billion ( $ 1.2 billion ) project , sonar images of the ocean floor revealed a wreckage believed to be of a 100 - yr - old German UB-85 sub . The breakthrough was made during an on-going projection by the National Grid and Scottish Power , which are localise a 385 - kilometer - long ( 239 - mile - long)“Western Link " cable linefrom Ardneil Bay in Scotland to the Wirral peninsula near Liverpool , England . When completed , this personal credit line will provide one thousand of nursing home and businesses in England and Wales with renewable Department of Energy from Scottish lead farm .
“ The images we get back from the subsea scans are incredibly detailed , but we obviously demand to be mindful of what lie down beneath before we can start laying a power cable television service , ” Peter Roper , projection manager at Scottish Power , said ina statement . “ In all the years I have been build power line , I can say that this is the most over-the-top discovery . ”
Since it was sink in the net weeks of World War One , its tale has been surrounded by folklore and the stuff and nonsense of old sea tales . The most pop myth was that it was drowned by a sea demon .
According to the legend , U - boat commander Captain Krech described how the U - sauceboat was coerce to come up . Upon doing so , it was assail by a large sea beast with “ large eyes , set in a horny variety of skull . It had a minuscule head , but with tooth that could be seen glistening in the moonlight . "
Amidst the panic , British navy ship HMS Coreopsis ( below ) was say to have captured the wedge and forced the crew into a surrender , before sinking the uranium - gravy holder .
Still to this day , some believe a large sea creature could have arouse a mechanical nonstarter within the uracil - boat . Others favour a more legitimate explanation : “ I am in all likelihood on the side of the historians who conceive that the seizure of the vessel was more straight than a sea monster approach , ” Roper said . “ ‘ A sea monster attack my submarine ’ is maybe one of the most fanciful excuses of all meter . Thankfully we have had no monster - related wellness and safety incidents on the project yet . ”
HMS Coreopsis , the British Naval ship that formally entrance the German submarine crew . Courtesy of Scottish Power
The fib has only just begun to unravel . However , historians and archaeologists are trust that further work can settle the debate once and for all .
“ In the water of the Irish Sea there are at least 12 British and German Cuban sandwich known to have sunk and potentially others whose actual slump area remains a mystery , ” say marine archaeologist Innes McCartney in the statement . “ Unless a diver can regain a shipyard seal , we can not say definitively but yes , we ’re certainly closer to solving the so - call up mystery of UB-85 and the ground behind it ’s slump – whether vulgar mechanical failure or something that is less easy explicate . ”
A map showing the road of the power cable length . The localisation of the U - Boat Wreckage is marked by the asterisk near the number 90 . good manners of Scottish Power
