AUTHOR: JELENA DEVČIĆ
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PHOTOS: WRECK HUNTERS ADRIATIC
After 70 years, the wreck of the
German
torpedo boat was discovered
The fact that Šibenik's underwater world hides many secrets is proven by numerous actions of underwater archaeologists carried out in that area. As the curator of the Šibenik Museum Dalibor Martinović says, Šibenik pioneers in underwater archeology are not in vain. But some secrets are so close to us that their discovery seems a bit unbelievable. A month ago, employees of the Department of Underwater Archeology at the Croatian Restoration Institute, in cooperation with divers from the Šibenik company Jadranski ronilački servis and the Zagreb diving club ZG SUB, at the bottom at the very entrance to the St. Ante, on the side towards the Šibenik bay, discovered the wreck of a German torpedo boat, the so-called schnellboot type S 158, which was sunk back in 1944, during the Allied bombing in the Second World War. For a full 70 years, that ship lay at the bottom of the Šibenik canal without anyone knowing about it. The mystery was revealed by just one black-and-white photo that intrigued Zoran Delibašić from ZG SUB, and then archaeologists and divers who returned to the field a month after finding the wreck last weekend and dived to further investigate their discovery. We found them on Martinska, just after the dive.
Old photos of the German torpedo boat
A photo revealed the wreckage
A month ago, with colleagues from the Adriatic Diving Center and ZG SUB, we arrived at the position guided only by a black-and-white photo taken in 1944, which, as incredible as it sounds, shows the sinking of the German torpedo boat S 158. The photo was found by Zoran Delibašić from ZG SUB and it tickled our imagination, so to speak, so we decided to check what it was about. We talked to the people of Šibenik, old divers, but no one had any idea that the wreck was in that place - explains Igor Miholjek, head of the Underwater Archeology Department of HRS. That black-and-white photo, he continues, was the only guide for the divers in their research, and the trigger for the research was the news that Delibašić brought to the archaeologists, while reading the Brodospas archive. This company, which was in charge of pulling wrecks out of the sea, did not record any similar actions in the Šibenik channel. This was a sign that the wreckage was probably still in the same place. Fortunately, in the background you can see the villa "Moj mir" and the panorama of Šibenik, so it was relatively easy to determine the location.
That black-and-white photo, he continues, was the only guide for the divers in their research, and we found the trigger for the ship in our first try, and I must say that it is in very good condition. It has no bow because that part was hit in the bombing, but the other two thirds of the ship are well preserved. The ship is wooden with a metal structure, so due to the action of water, the mahogany has collapsed. However, the ribs and metal structure remained, which are clearly visible - says Miholjek. Divers found numerous objects around the ship that belonged to the torpedo boat. Plates, glasses, weapons, even torpedoes, all of this is on the bottom next to the wreck, which is proof, says Miholjek, that in this operation the ship was truly discovered officially for the first time. If it were not so, explains the Head of the Department for Underwater Archaeology, these objects would surely have disappeared by now.
Although the Krka is proverbially cloudy, especially in the part where it mixes with the sea and the water becomes brackish, the visibility at the location where the wreck is located was good, says Ivica Gulin, diver and director of the Adriatic Diving Service. The ship, he says, is located at a depth of 38 meters and is laid in a north-south direction on a slope that goes up to 43 meters. The so-called Schnellboot type S 158, the German torpedo boat was sunk by the famous British mosquito bombers, notes Gulin.
The ship was on camouflaged mooring in Martinska, at the time when the Germans were iwithdrawing from Šibenik n the fall of 1944, at the time of the famous military action Willinger, in which they withdrew all their ships towards the northern Adriatic - says Gulin. You can clearly see the three-barreled cannon which, he says, considering the fact that it has been under water for 70 years, is still in excellent condition, and around the wreck there are many boxes, mostly with ammunition, which fell around at the time of the sinking.
There is some information available in the archives about the German torpedo boat S 152, among them about its unfortunate fate. The archives state that the ship was hit in a bombardment on October 25, 1944. It floated for three days, and then the Germans sank it themselves so that it would not fall into the hands of the partisans. But before that, they removed everything that could be used from it - part of the weapons and torpedoes. This is evidenced by another black-and-white photo, which shows soldiers pulling torpedoes from the Martinska waterfront onto land. Unfortunately, the torpedo boat took the boat with it because it dragged two crew members to the bottom who were killed in the bombing, and the captain was seriously wounded. That is why, as Zoran Delibašić from the ZG SUB diving club says, it is a kind of blue grave. We ask Igor Miholejek how in Šibenik, a city that is a pioneer in underwater archeology and is known for its divers, it happened that for 70 years the wreck of a ship over 28 meters long and weighing around 57 tons lay undiscovered. The reason probably lies in the fact that it is located in the middle of the waterway of the Šibenik canal, that is, on the part where diving is prohibited. However, this is precisely the reason why the ship is so well preserved, that there was no diving on it - explains the underwater archaeologist. The fact that it is on a waterway, unfortunately, will prevent any further tourism valorization of the wreck. It is not allowed to dive here, so I have to thank the harbor captains who, for the sake of research, still allowed us to dive and document this valuable find with photos and videos. Miholjek emphasizes that his Department has sent a request to the Conservation Department in Šibenik to initiate the protection of the site, and ultimately to declare the wreck a cultural asset. After that procedure is finished, all diving will officially be prohibited at this location. However, Miholjek notes, that will not be the end of the story, since his Department, in cooperation with the Croatian Military Museum, plans to carry out additional research and filming in order to reveal all the circumstances of the sinking, and tomorrow, when all the conditions are met, and to objects that will one day be recovered from the wreckage have been archived. This, it should be emphasized, is the first collaboration between the Croatian Military Museum and underwater archaeologists from HRZ, all with the goal of archiving the items from the German torpedo boat in the museum collection. Unfortunately, that will not happen so soon, says Davor Purić from the Croatian Military Museum. But the intention is to separate the museum from the Ministry of Defense as an independent institution, and once all the findings that are currently archived in warehouses are brought together in one place. This is an area extremely rich in military finds, and we are all working to ensure that at least part of this wealth remains archived and protected - emphasizes Purić.
