Turning away and moving forward, I swam over the forward gun mount. The 88 mm gun was missing and I believe it is the one on display at Purifoy's dive shop. A rectangular hatch for the battery compartment was the next opening to appear. Forward of this area was the bow which was twisted and almost broken from the rest of the wreck. It appeared to tilt downward. Here were the forward torpedo loading hatch and the forward torpedo firing tubes. A total of 10 torpedoes and other ordnance were found on the wreck by Navy divers and they removed some of the warheads, exploders, and ordnance until the site was deemed to be safe. The U.S. Navy also sealed the sub's hatches, but these were quickly reopened by sport divers.

By this time, I was out of film and decided to end the dive. My last picture taken was of a large Southern Stingray that had cruised in and landed on the bottom near the sub. It looked like a B-2 bomber landing. By rising up off the bottom far enough to just keep the sub in sight, I swam back toward the stern mooring line and was able to decrease the chance of extended decompression time. After ascending up the mooring line, I reached the 20-foot hang line and did a safety stop of about 10 minutes. I then realized that the top 20 feet of water was cooler than the water from 20-90 feet down. From 90-110 feet the water again was cooler. While resting there and daydreaming, I was startled when I was hit hard by a panicked diver swimming up for the emergency oxygen regulators hanging down off the stern of the dive boat. Apparently he had misjudged his air consumption and run out of air. He made it safely and all looked well.

Also during this time, I watched the violent motions of the bottom of the dive boat. The waves were probably 6 footers with an occasional 8 footer. I could see the large steel swim platform on the stern of the dive boat plunge down deep into the water and then jump up out of the water. The dive ladder was attached to this swim platform and that was my way to get back on the boat. I could see a 50-foot-long float line attached to the stern of the boat. My plan was to leave the hang line and swim underwater to below the float line. I would surface, grab the float line, and pull myself over to the dive ladder. Things started out well, and I was soon hanging on to the float line watching the ladder plunge down quickly into the water and then violently jerk back up, almost completely free itself of the water. The trick was to time it just right, so the ladder was at the bottom of its plunge when you grabbed on. When it started its ascent, you had to be quick to climb it and get onto at least the top steps or even the platform. Get it wrong and you could get a concussion or a broken neck from the ladder or platform crashing down on top of you.

Well, I started out too soon and ended up under the platform. Thank God one of the mates was standing on the platform watching and kicked my tank hard enough to push me away in time. I pulled back and started out again. This time I grabbed the ladder just right and held on as it came violently back up out of the water. The problem was that no matter how hard I tried, I could not climb the last few steps. My regulator was out of my mouth, so I had to hold my breath as the boat crashed down and pulled me under water. The mate kept yelling for me to come on up, and I finally managed to tell him something was holding me down. At the right moment, he pushed my body back from the ladder and reached down in front of me and unhooked a piece of my equipment that was tangled around a lower step. I struggled up the ladder, crawled across the deck, and collapsed on a seat with my tank and all my gear still on. I was so exhausted I could hardly move. That was the most trouble I have ever had getting back on a boat. Today, I usually take most of my gear off in the water before I try to get back in the boat. As I've said before, all my gear and camera weighs 195 pounds, excluding my body weight, and that makes it hard to climb out of the water.

Rough water makes for tough diving for several reasons. Standing and moving around on the boat while fully geared up is tough; you get jerked around a lot on the decompression line, and getting back on the boat is harder. During one rough day off Harbor Beach, I saw a woman diver swim under the bow pulpit of my boat. She was on her back looking up when the bow plunged down and the bow pulpit slammed down into her and pushed her under water. I feared the worse and was ready to jump into the water to rescue an injured diver. However, when she surfaced, she indicated she was okay and descended down to start her deep dive. God must be a woman because of the way She protected this mermaid.

Although not a deep dive, the U-352 was a tough dive this trip; but I would do it all over again just to look at a sunken German submarine.

By the time we motored back to the dive shop, I was all rested up and had my gear and camera stowed. Our bunch of divers had a group photo taken at the dive shop, our logbooks stamped with a special U-352 stamp, and we also examined all the neat artifacts from the U-352 that were on display in the dive shop. We all had an exciting day, and we shared our experiences from the two dives made and the boat ride. Plans were made to do it again the following year. It is definitely worth the long trip down to see these wrecks.

Join me next time as we dive an unusual wreck 2 miles out from Grindstone City, Michigan. She has no name and is simply known as the "dump barge".

Copyright © 2005 Ron Burkhard