SM ''U-87'') and combined with the ''U'' for ''Unterseeboot'' would be translated as ''His Majesty's Submarine''., group=Note was one of the 329 submarines serving in the

Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Kaise ...

(''Kaiserliche Marine'') in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. ''U-87'' was engaged in the naval warfare and took part in the

First Battle of the Atlantic The Atlantic U-boat campaign of World War I (sometimes called the "First Battle of the Atlantic", in reference to the World War II campaign of that name) was the prolonged naval conflict between German submarines and the Allied navies in Atla ...

. She sank some 22 merchant vessels before 25 December 1917, when rammed ''U-87'' in the Irish Sea and depth-charged her. Then the

P-class sloop The P class, nominally described as "patrol boats", was in effect a class of British coastal sloops. Twenty-four ships to this design were ordered in May 1915 (numbered ''P.11'' to ''P.34'') and another thirty between February and June 1916 (num ...

''P.56'' sank her. ''U-87''s entire crew of 44 were lost.

Design

German Type U 87 submarines were preceded by the shorter Type U 81 submarines. The first of its type, ''U-87'' had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. She had a total length of , a

pressure hull A submarine hull has two major components, the ''light hull'' and the ''pressure hull''. The light hull (''casing'' in British usage) of a submarine is the outer non-watertight hull which provides a hydrodynamically efficient shape. The pressure ...

length of , a beam of , a height of , and a draught of . The submarine was powered by two engines for use while surfaced, and two engines for use while submerged. She had two propeller shafts. She was capable of operating at depths of up to . The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a maximum submerged speed of . When submerged, she could operate for at ; when surfaced, she could travel at . ''U-87'' was fitted with four

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s (two at the bow and two at the stern), ten to twelve

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...

es, one SK L/45 deck gun, and one SK L/30 deck gun. She had a

complement A complement is something that completes something else. Complement may refer specifically to: The arts * Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-clas ...

of thirty-six (thirty-two crew members and four officers).

Summary of raiding history

Fate and discovery

In August 2017, researchers from Bangor University in Wales announced they had discovered the sunken wreck of U-87 while conducting multibeam surveys 10 miles northwest of

Bardsey Island Bardsey Island ( cy, Ynys Enlli), known as the legendary "Island of 20,000 Saints", is located off the Llŷn Peninsula in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. The Welsh name means "The Island in the Currents", while its English name refers to the "Islan ...

as part of the marine renewable energy SEACAMS 2 project. Detailed sonar images reveal the wreck to be lying in one piece with what appears to be a large area of damage near the conning tower, presumably caused by in the ramming collision by escort P.56.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:U0087 World War I submarines of Germany German Type U 87 submarines Ships built in Danzig 1916 ships U-boats commissioned in 1917 Maritime incidents in 1917 U-boats sunk in 1917 U-boats sunk by British warships U-boats sunk by depth charges World War I shipwrecks in the Irish Sea Ships lost with all hands Protected Wrecks of the United Kingdom