The Wreck of Prinz Eugen - An Inverted Cruiser, Rusting Aground
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- čas přidán 1. 06. 2024
- Few shipwrecks are as well known as Prinz Eugen. Even if you don't know a thing about the ship, or shipwrecks, you've probably seen the pictures. Of the inverted stern, resting above the surface. Rusting away in a Pacific lagoon.
But, how much have you looked into the wreck? Interior shots? Underwater pictures?
Prinz Eugen is a dangerous dive, if you go inside. But the wreck is still a very, very interesting one. Remarkably well preserved and full of surprises.
Picture Sources:
dave.sixmeters.com/cgi-bin/wre...
thedirtydozenexpeditions.com/...
indepthmag.com/wreck-in-depth...
• Bikini Atoll Wreck Div...
USS Prinz Eugen Video:
• USS Prinz Eugen - A Ge...
Prinz Eugen Video:
• KMS Prinz Eugen: The L...
At the Heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen Appreiciation Association, we have a bunch of very recent and very high quality photos of her wreck with more photos to come. Photos of both her hull, guns and more.
I think I saw those posted on facebook a few days ago it’s amazing how well preserved she is
@@leroysgamesandmore2226 You are correct. The photos are taken by the amazing Becky Kagan Schott, who is a wonderful wreck photographer.
😊@@emilpetersen3365
@leroysgamesandmore2226 what's the Facebook name??
My father was a midshipman aboard HMS Suffolk during the battle of the Denamrk Strait. He was a kid, barely old enough to be there. It's a sobering thought that the guns shown here, in theory, could have meant that I would not be typing this. Love the channel, it's important that we document and spread as much history as possible.
Denmark*
My father sailed on her when she took part in the Channel Dash. Never really saw much of the action, he was stuck in the radio room for the entire passage. Years ago I built a model of her, he loved it. He passed away in 2005, and the model is now in my house. Sad, she was a beautiful ship. Tough old girl too, surviving both a-bomb blasts.
Yeah the Germans sure know how to build great ships to think the Bismarck was based off a ww1 design yet it was still one of the most powerful bbs in ww2 even though she was outgunned by most other bbs at that time
A great ship with a fascinating story,a time capsule and a witness of tragic years. She was the lucky ship of the Kriegsmarine,she survived the catastrophic end of the war and,in some ways,she still survives today. This ghost is the ship that wrote pages in naval history,cruising with the Bismarck and contributing to sink HMS Hood. The ship that survived to the channel dash....The ship whose captain was Helmuth Brinkmann. When the concussion of Bismarck's guns damaged her front radar,firing against Norfolk and Suffolk,in the fog along the Icelandic coast,Admiral Lutjens ordered to the Prinz Eugen to take position ahead; while the Prinz Eugen was slowly overtaking the Bismarck,her captain,Ernst Lindemann,looking at the aggressive and elegant shape of the heavy cruiser,sent by signal lamp a message to Brinkmann: "Captain Brinkmann,your ship is beautiful !".
Looking at how the Texas has been maintained and restored as a museum ship, it's kind of a shame that Prince Eugen wasn't preserved as a prize from the Second World War. The remaining U-boats make fascinating Museum ships.
Americans after the war had no interest. Not to mention the costs involved. If you have been following the Texas situation, then you should know what happens when there isn't enough funds for proper maintenance. Leaving the only option being a dry dock and extensive repairs.
The Americans were better at sinking their own and their ally's ships, than a defenceless unarmed, unmanned vessel. Sums it up perfectly.
"Rolling over and capsizing". C'mon, Jack. Rolling over IS capsizing. Jeez.
@@MrCenturion13 Settle down. Minor issue in a great effort.
Especially because it was in great shape when the US Navy got it as a as a prize.
To be honest who wouldn't want too dive on a ship that survived two nukes and only sunk because of some leaking valve.
I never cease to be amazed at how history gets preserved. The ones who lost during the war outlived all the ones who survived it.
One clarification to your video. The prop was removed in 1978. It was installed at Laboe in 1979. I witnessed the removal.
I visited LaBoe in 2016. Very interesting visit. A scale model of the ship is next to the screw. The nearby U-Boat is also worth visiting.
It should have been made into a museum ship instead of ever being destroyed.
At the time the ex USS Enterprise wasn’t even being preserved for posterity. In that era Prinz Eugen was just another surplus ship to sink or scrap.
@Idahoguy10157 True but probably eould have been less costly to turn a cruiser to a museum ship rather than a Fleet Carrier such as Enterprise, I might also add that after the war Enteprise was tired after the war due to all the scars the gained with her close calls with death.
What a waste of a very beautiful ship
And yet they kept the U-505; it's on permanent dry display and well preserved.
Thanks, Skynea. Take care.
I earned NAUI Advanced Open Water SCUBA Certification at Kwajalein and successfully dived to the bow of Prinz Eugen at 110' Mach, 2000. Stunning experience!
How's that third eye working out for you?
They should refloat it , dry dock it and preserve it. Use it as a museum
Too far gone for that.
It's radioactive
Yes, great idea! Go forward, raise some 50 million to get it started
The last time I was there to retrieve a package lobbed from Vandenberg, it still had two screws. It's good to see the water is still clear, that place is beautiful.
Itzehoe, Germany, mid 70s. My father sometimes took me to his Sunday morning "Fruehschoppen", I guess you would call it a liquid brunch. One of his preferred watering holes was the "Kajuete", a tiny pub on the Hafenstrasse close to Itzehoe's small port on the river Stoer, a side arm of the Elbe. I was about 8 years old and I really loved the place because they had all these old model ships, one of which was of the Prinz Eugen. The coolest part they had on display was not the model though but the ORIGINAL!!! code of arms of this amazing ship, a masterpiece carved in heavy wood, painted and gilded, about 2.5m high and 1.5m wide. Fast forward 20 years. The owners were trying to sell the code of arms so they asked my uncle if he could help. Him and I went to the Naval Academy in Flensburg to get their feedback. Based on the photos we had, they couldn't pinpoint where it would have hung on the ship, but they suggested that it most likely lived in the officer's mess. They were not interested in buying the code of arms for their museum but they were happy to take a donation. That's where our involvement ended. Last I heard was that somebody moved into the apartment above the pub and it somehow disappeared. I don't have any more pictures.
Cool thanks
My father experienced Operation Crossroads, Able and Baker, at the Bikini Atoll in 1946.He mentioned this ship primarily, not much of the others.
He was diagnosed with a massive tumor in his chest on my 33rd birthday; he dies on his 63rd birthday; 4 days shy the 6 months the doctors gave him. The oncologist said he never saw a tumor in this form and size. You are still missed. greatly.
Another American exercise of misfortune for those suffering the consequences.
The accelerated stern deterioration I would guess is from damage he received from the grounding attempt back in ‘46
You can look the 11i turret in Norway from Gneisenau when they removed it for the up gunning
Why would the tug crew rush aboard to save Prinz Eugen considering the radiation and that it was not a valuable ship to the US Navy?
Proably cause they wanted to run post nuclear test on it like they would later do with Independence before they scudelled her.
Bound by duty - and not yet fully understanding the effects of radiation in general outside a comparatively small group. They did attempt to scrub away the radiation with soap, water and mops after the explosions.
@@Rraurgrimm-Wilder Makes sense. I lost context of the time if they attempted to mop up the radiation with soap.
Probably wanted to tow it to deep water to sink, not on beach
@hisdivineshadow8263 The thing is, it already was in deep enough water. They wanted to be beached so they could examine how the bombs affected her in detailed lile how they did with Independence.
One of the best looking warships ever.
It's interesting to think that this ship was right behind KMS Bismarck when Hood exploded and sank.
am surprised it has not been salvaged. super shallow water, not a war grave, not radio active anymore, early steel, etc. hmm Nice work on making this video for us to learn. thank you
I would see it in a museum or just turn it around so that it would be in a normal position and not at the bottom. There was a German who extracted shipwrecks from the bottom and sold them for scrap, such as submarines, but he extracted them and that's what counts.
I remember looking into this years ago when exploring the atolls with Google Earth. One thing that wasn't mentioned is that the Eugen was part of the breakout of the Bismarck and was involved with the sinking of the HMS Hood.
On that note of saying most of the test ships had live ordnance on them, how many if any, were set off caused by the big blast?
Did Jacques Cousteau ever dive this ship? I feel sure that I can recall him standing on the stern of this ship.
Surprising that the two remaining screws are still in place.
I stood on the hull near the central shaft and prop.. The hull is very thin with many holes deep into the bilge.
How many ships were melted and sunk from the nuke testing. That initial flash is hotter then a star correct? This ship sunk from a seal but not from being melted in a blast
Only the closest ships to the blast suffered any serious melting. Further away, the thermal shock was intense, but over so quickly that there wasn't enough time for the hulls to absorb much heat. Think about how waving your hand through a candle's flame only feels slightly warm, compared to the burn you would get if you held it still. It's the same phenomenon, just on a much greater scale.
Remarkably few. Other than those that were in immediate proximity to ground zero, caught within the the fairly narrow fireball. Most ships rode it out just suffering various degrees of superstructure damage. The air burst Able test only sank 5 ships. With 3 of those sinking hours or days later. The underwater Baker test sank 10. But some of those such as Prince Eugen took a very long time to sink. And only because radioactive contamination prevented anyone from fixing what would have otherwise been relatively minor leaks. The actual intended target ship for Able, USS Nevada did not sink. And was eventually sunk in a gunnery exercise.
I want to get to these Pacific islands some day but am not a diver.
Diving in llthe lagoon at kwaj has been described as swimming in a toilet for its poor water circulation and high bacteria levels.
Lost an entire heavy cruiser to a leaking valve? I think more was at play here.
Considering its location, how do people get access to the site?
Check out Indies Trader to bikini atoll. Make sure your sitting down thou
ooooooooil!
It is sad what was done to most warships that survived the war, like say Nagato, Prinz Eugen, Graf Zeppelin, instead of may bee recycling them and preserving some parts to just use them as target practice...
No primeiro momento pensei que fosse um submarino 😅😅
Im glad no one has souvenired the kettles.
@@davidgenie-ci5zlLet's be honest they would at best be put in a museum at worse a scavenger might take it and sell it off on the internet due to its connection to the ship.
@davidgenie-ci5zl I guess, but at the same time, we do have to remember some of the stuff are probably still radiated, which is probably why it hasn't been removed yet in the first place.
Why aren't the remaining props salvaged?
2:08
Must admit, seems a strange decision to have left a live torpedo in place on a war-prize at all.
The prins eugen was also the first to hit the hood.... Before Bismarck.
Blutcher would be first hipper class capsize and sunk prinz eugen would be last hipper to be sunk after nuke test
I bet that on sight of that - you were ' flushed' with success on the seeing of these - I think that these would be referred to as 'Johns' in US Parlance! In Britain we refer to them as - WC's on the Prinz Eugen ! Not sure what these would be referred to in German! I think that we can stick with toilets! Nonetheless, a lot of ribald comments are possible!
USS Prinz Eugen? I wasn't aware the ship was American!
It wasn’t. It was surrendered and the US Navy got it as a war prize and transferred it from the Kriegsmarine to the US.
Wreck diving is spooky and dangerous. Irresponsible for the Navy to leave live ordinance on her.
It was broken shortly after war ended.
A radioactive torpedo???
No thank you.
As a child, I built most of the Airfix model kits. Prinz Eugen was undoubtedly the prettiest ship in the range. 😊❤😊
another great ship, that should have been preserved, but wasnt.
For Al Gore's Rhythm!
I don’t get the refrence
it could have been a war trophy but noooo, the short sighted americans had to use it for nuclear target practice when they had hundreds of excess ships they could have used
Honestly part of me wonder as unlikely as it may be I'd the British had manages to gain her rather than the destroyers would they have turned her into a museum or just scrap her or sink it themselves since at one end it would be odd to have a ship that participated in the sinking of your flagship as a museum plus the added burden of having to fix up and later mentain the thing since by the point ww2 ended the Empire Britain once held already began to decline and their navy slowly began to downsize. Still sucks what happened to the Grand Old Lady.
Nagato is pronounced "Nah-gah-toe", with the "a"s in the name being pronounced with the soft "a" sound like "ah".
Typical short sighted Yanks!
One of WW2s beautiful ships rusting away in a pristine blue water atoll.
Why use it as a test at the Bikini nuke tests anyway when the USA was chock-full of outdated warships?
The US has more museum ships than any other country in the world.
My old US Navy ship was given to Turkey, served their Navy for a decade then was preserved as a museum ship in Turkey. At least she wasn't scrapped or sunk as a target, like many of her sisters.
What a waste.
Total waste of an excellent ship. It's bad enough to contamiate the place with stupid newclear testing, but the Americans go a step further and leave all this junk, adding to the contamination of this lagoon.
I had a Layover on Kwajalein while on my way to dive in Truk lagoon and you can't even get off the plane. It's a Military base where they do all the Star wars defense system testing. And some years later I was offered a job at this base where if I would have taken the job I would have been able to dive this ship and that was part of the reason I applied for that job. I also remember that they do Not allow penetrations into the ship.