Photographer Page

Benjamin Lowy

Curious crowds flock to inspect an enemy U-boat on the south coast of England on New Year’s Day 1918. German submarines brought to the U.S. were also a subject of public fascination and helped raise money for Victory Bonds.

A medal commemorates a donation to the Imperial Navy on “U-boat Day” in Würzburg, Germany, 1917.

A German sailor opens the hatch on a German torpedo boat during World War I.

Technical diving pioneer Gary Gentile admires U-111 as live images are relayed from 400 feet below. He first began looking for U-boat in the 1990s, but wrote it off after assuming the wreck was in 1600 feet of water. “I was ecstatic when I first saw it,” he recalls. “After all those years and after giving up on it, because I thought it was so deep.”

Shipwreck explorer Erik Petkovic (foreground) watches live video footage of U-111 during the Labor Day 2022 expedition while ROV pilot Ross Baxter “flies” the underwater robot with a video-game controller and team member Ben Roberts looks on.

R/V Explorer captain Rusty Cassway ascends from a quick free dive in the unusually placid Atlantic during the Labor Day 2022 expedition to the wreck site. Trained technical divers like Cassway require hundreds of pounds of dive gear to safely explore deep wrecks like U-111.

The U-boat is covered with marine life and fishing nets.

An open hatch on the conning tower of U-111 reveals an interior ladder.

The deck of the U-boat with the conning tower rising in the background.