Talk:Submarine SM U-118

This took the town by complete surprise when hundreds of people flocked here by foot, tram or even by rowing boats etc, to see this spectacle. Because of the vast number of people wanting to go on top of the vessel and have their pictures taken the town council decided to make a small charge for people to climb aboard the decks and in the early days even to look inside, well that was until two coastguards died through inhaling gases from spilt battery acids; then the tours inside stopped immediately! People were still allowed to climb aboard the vessel until the day it was started to be demolished on the spot as trying to refloat her was an impossible task in those days. It took several attempts to dismantle the complete framework as many times when the contractors told the council the vessel had been cleared from the beach the tide took the beach levels up and down in rough weather and large parts of the superstructure became very visible that had not been removed, people complained as large pieces of sharp metals became visible and now being extremely dangerous too, the council demanded that the rest of the framework was cleared completely at the contractors cost as they had told them it had been completely cleared. It came to light afterwards that the metals were cut at beach level and were never uncovered to clear the large amount still buried under the beach. Yet another submarine was beached at Bulverhythe a little later on the U131, this somehow didn’t cause as much fuss in the amount of people wanting to see it as the Hastings one was, several attempts were made to refloat the vessel at high tides as it was on the shore line and was possible to refloat it back into the water, this proved successful after a struggle and went onto Antwerp for disposal.