The discovery of a sunken German submarine off the coast of Scotland may solve a legendary nautical mystery surrounding a ship that was allegedly attacked by a sea monster!
The downed U-boat was spotted during preparations to lay down a massive power cable in the waters between England and Scotland.
Researchers believe that the vessel could be the German ship, known as UB-85, which gained infamy following a strange incident in 1918.
As the story goes, a British patrol boat stumbled upon the submarine cruising on the surface of the water and the German sailors quickly surrendered rather than engage in battle.
After the patrol boat subsequently sunk the sub, the captured crew was questioned about their swift surrender and the ship's captain revealed that their vessel had been badly damaged following an attack by a sea monster.
He recounted to his British counterparts how the creature surprised them in the middle of the night while the sub had been surfaced in order to recharge its batteries.
The monster, he said, had a small, horned head with giant eyes and gruesome, glistening teeth.
Stunned and terrified, the crew purportedly attempted to shoot at the creature with their pistols, but it seemed to have no effect and the monster's attack rendered the ship incapable of submerging again.
Stuck on the surface of the water, worried about how long their ship would last, and traumatized by their creature encounter, the German crew gladly gave up the fight when they were found by the patrol boat.
The veracity of the tale has remained a mystery centuries later, but now researchers think that the discovery of the downed U-boat may be able to provide answers.
They say that there is a 50% chance that it is the UB-85 and, if so, an examination of the ship would shed light on what caused it to sink.
Divers will likely discover some kind of mechanical failure was behind the UB-85's issues and that the crew's account of a sea monster attack was merely false bravado.
However, until the sub can be studied, we'll hold out hope that they could also find haunting bite marks on the side of the ship that will actually confirm the fantastic tale.
Source: Daily Mail