GERMAN SUBMARINE DESTROYER UJ 2207 "ISLANDE" (The "Armed Cargo")

The Sinking
This ship remained unidentified for many decades after its sinking (November 19th, 1944) until the middle ' 90s.
We do owe the research about it and its exact and univoque identification to a well known professional diver from Portofino, Andrea Ghisotti, who succeeded, together with a German expert on historical II World War vessels (Manfred Krellenberg), with the very unpredictable task of clearly identifying the cargo and of even digging out a considerable amount of historical and photographical documentation about this unit and its final plight.
These very detailed data, according to their reports, are bringing back in the time to the history of a certain vessel, which was launched 1926 in Normandy by the naval Workshops of Caen with the name of "Islande" (Matricule N. BX 5457), and which had been purposively built for being engaged as a big oceanic trawler on the Atlantic ocean.
The ship remained in activity on the Atlantic until 1939, when it was given back to a Fishing Company that renamed it as "Cap Nord".
By the beginning of the II World War it was confiscated and then rearmed by the French Navy, in order to be deployed as a Coast patrolling unit nearby Casablanca, bearing the immatriculation number of P11.

As it became with the time an older unit it was released by the French government, then sent again to the naval workshops for being converted in order to start again its activity as a fishing trawler, on 1941, with the new name of "Ginette de Borgne": yet this new name could not take the place of the older one of "Cap Nord", which indeed turned out later to still be used by the German Navy as well. The Germans took the ship on 1942, as they began with the last and final works for turnig the vessel into a War Armed Transporter. After just 2 months of rebuiding activities, in February 1943, the"Cap Nord" was ready to take its service within the German fleet of the Kriegsmarine, under the immatriculation code of "UJ 2207". Its task was to serve as a Coast Guard Unit together with other naval units of its same class (among them also the UJ 2216 and the UJ 2210, that respectively went down then at the "Baia del Silenzio" off Sestri Levante (GE) and off Deiva Marina (SP) ).

On the ship a war equipment against air attack had been installed: the several pieces comprised a 20 mm double cannon (the so called "Flak" Machinegun), together with another one (37 mm, later enhanced to a fire power of 88 mm), 4 cannons for air defense of 20 mm, a double and a single MG34, so as finally some catapults for deep bombing. Taking account of this kind of military equipment we can say that the UJ 2207, besides being a "Kriegstransporter", was also amenable to be classified as a U-Boot Destroyer, so being exactly like the 2 other units that sunk off Sestri and Deiva.

This destroyer, once very briskly and quickly rearmed, entered the battle fields on February 27th 1943 in the gulf of Genova. It crusaded to the Cote d´Azur (where it had its military harbour base in Marseille), and to the South Tirrenian sea for patrolling missions. According to the research data this vessel could collect even some successes during the first fightings, like the sinking of an English Torpedoboat off Biserta (1943), that of 5 war planes at Villefranche (February 1944) and of an enemy U-Boot (May 1943) as well.

On November 19th 1944 the UJ 2207 was under escorting service to the ship "Dominante" and to another group of minor units, on the course from Genova to La Spezia; it was suddenly uncovered and immediately chased by allied Torpedoboats (English MTB 420 and 422, and American PT 308).
According to the reports of some survivors of that attack, who were on board of the UJ 2207 (Erwin Latting and Hans Leerhoff), who have been interviewed by Mr. Manfred Krellenberg, the allied units could rapidly reach the ship at its sides, where they shot 2 of their Torpedos hitting the hull in the middle; the steam boilers blasted immediately after the shots and the vessel rapidly started to go down. The Captain and the Vessel Leutnant Mr. Zoller, died on board, while in the meantime other escorting units lifted on board some 37 crew men, 30 of which were injured.

The Dive
The UJ 2207 remained cut in 2 parts, with the stern apart and not in line with the rest of the hull anymore. The ship lies partly in navigation trim on the sea bottom with the foreship pointing to the open sea: the damages triggered that time by the Torpedos were later made larger due to some work divings performed during the first times after the end of the conflict; these were made in order to raise up some parts of the useful materials contained on board. The remaining war equipment is still made up by 88 mm cannon bullets, the 20 mm ammunition recharger, together with the catapults; the rest may have been plundered during the past decades, perhaps between the ' 60 and the ' 70s.
It is possible to enter the command bridge, to observe the different inner rooms used by the crew, and to swim inside the hull as well: the central part of the ship is unfortunately covered by nets and fishing lines, so that the exploration is made here impossible, due to possible dangers. At this area the muddy bottom could also bring to a sudden decrease of visibility during the dive, if one does not perfectly control the buoyancy while hovering over the wreck.

Since here the max depth is around 120-123 fsw/36-37 m, this wreck can be visited also with the standards of an advanced recreational scuba dive equipment.
Divers do generally split the exploration into 2 diving sessions at least: by doing this, every single part can be explorated then more carefully.
For AIR divings a stage bottle filled with EAN 50 or O2 and attached as supply at the decompression station would be recommended; by doing this it becomes possible to get more bottom time and to increase the time dedicated to the exploration on the ground.
As a very good alternative it is here possible and even more convenient for the dive profile itself, to exploit the advantages of a dive with NITROX 32: being its max working depth, as well known, that of 134 fsw/40 m (NOAA Standards or SNSI - if fixing it at 120 fsw/36 m) this can be indeed the best fitting technical solution for wrecks lying at these depths. In fact, bottom and decompression time, are respectively a bit longer and shorter, in comparison with the same AIR profile, and they are even safer than this latter: all this will be valid if one, of course, will duly avoid to dive under the max O2 narcotic depth for a EAN 32 engagement (which deed is here hardly possible, since the bottom can reach around the wreck a max depth of 123 fsw/37 m).

Due to the quite manageable depth, the usage of mixed gas is here completely unuseful. This wreck is well known among recreational divers and is hence generally deamed to be a good target: divers avail here of some local DC in Sestri Levante, from which starting points it is possible to reach the site within some 15 min navigation towards the "Baia del Silenzio" (the Bay of Silence).
In this bay there are currently 3 other important wrecks, that is the Bettolina, that of the KT (UJ 2216) and the La Foce: divers have to take account, during the summer time especially, of the naval leisure traffic, since we are here just some hundred meters off the coast in a touristic area.
The best time for such dives in these waters still remains that between October-November und March-May.

Historical documentation from a research by Andrea Ghisotti and Manfred Krellenberg *), published in Italy 2003.
*) Born 1964, Krellemberg is an officer at the custom Office in Luebeck, Germany; he is researcher and author of different publications about the history of the German Navy.