Hi This my first post to this forum. I'm not a diver but spend a lot of time on the water fishing. I have been searching the internet expecting to find some details of a story about a sunken World War II sub found on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico just outside of Tampa Bay in the late 50's or early 60's.
I had a service station in Sarasota in 1961-1963 and one of my suppliers that serviced us on a weekly basis was a Navy Suba diver (frogman in those days). He was probably in his 50's or 60's then. He said he was on the very first team of divers the Navy had trained and was always telling about his adventures. Her was still diving regularly at the time and even giving lessons. on one ocassion he related a story about him and his buddies finding a sunken submarine off shore just outside of Tampa Bay. He said they were able tell it hadn't been found by anyone else before because all the gauges were still in perfect condition and they are the first thing a diver would take. He said he coudn't see any damage to it and thought it could have been scuttled by the crew and they could have swam to shore.
We had other customers that were divers and some of them had heard about it but nothing was ever on the news. In early 1963 I moved back to Illinois until a few years ago I retired to Crystal River.
I'm curious to find out if anyone else ever heard about it.
I had a service station in Sarasota in 1961-1963 and one of my suppliers that serviced us on a weekly basis was a Navy Suba diver (frogman in those days). He was probably in his 50's or 60's then. He said he was on the very first team of divers the Navy had trained and was always telling about his adventures. Her was still diving regularly at the time and even giving lessons. on one ocassion he related a story about him and his buddies finding a sunken submarine off shore just outside of Tampa Bay. He said they were able tell it hadn't been found by anyone else before because all the gauges were still in perfect condition and they are the first thing a diver would take. He said he coudn't see any damage to it and thought it could have been scuttled by the crew and they could have swam to shore.
We had other customers that were divers and some of them had heard about it but nothing was ever on the news. In early 1963 I moved back to Illinois until a few years ago I retired to Crystal River.
I'm curious to find out if anyone else ever heard about it.