French submarine lost for over half-a-century located in Mediterranean

[Blue_Tires]

Source: France 24

A French submarine that went missing in the western Mediterranean in 1968 has been located during a search mission, officials said Monday, ending a 51-year wait for families of the deceased who continue to seek answers to the naval disaster.

"It's a success, a relief and a technical feat," Defence Minister Florence Parly wrote on Twitter, after the wreck was discovered 45 kilometres (30 miles) off the southern French port of Toulon. "I am thinking of the families who have waited for this moment for so long," she said.

The diesel and electric-powered Minerve submarine was lost off France's southern coast with 52 sailors on board on January 17, 1968.

The discovery was ultimately made on Sunday by a boat belonging to private US company Ocean Infinity, which found the Minerve at a depth of 2,370 metres (7,800 feet), a senior French naval officer told AFP.

Read more: https://www.france24.com/en/20190722-french-submarine-minerve-located-mediterranean-lost-1968

---

For those who are into this kind of stuff like yours truly, this will hopefully close the case on one of the alltime great maritime mysteries...

Now if only we could find the USS Cyclops and about two dozen historically significant aircraft which are still waiting to be found on the ocean floor...

EDIT: And it has to be said that Ocean Infinity is on a roll... They have racked up some VERY impressive finds the past few years....

[marble falls]

1. It would seem that the LBN aspect of this story happened on January 17, 1968 ...

Last edited Mon Jul 22, 2019, 10:38 AM - Edit history (1)

this updating is really very interesting, but is it really LBN? Maybe Lounge?

[Blue_Tires]

2. Yes, the fact that it was finally found is LBN...

[Coventina]

3. Oh for heaven's sake!

[marble falls]

4. Per LBN:

Post the latest news from reputable mainstream news websites and blogs. Important news of national interest only. No analysis or opinion pieces. No duplicates. News stories must have been published within the last 12 hours. Use the published title of the story as the title of the discussion thread.

And this is "Important news of national interest only.", how?

As an ex USN submariner this story is interesting as all get out, I've posted the Navy hymn at the news of the sinking of the Argentine sub earlier this year and for those Russian sailors who dogged hatches knowing they were saving their fellow sailors by sacrificing themselves.

I morn those French sailors in a way some of us here will not feel as keenly as I. but this is not LBN.

[marybourg]

5. It might be to those of us

old enough to remember the loss.

[Coventina]

8. By that logic, the finding of King Tut's tomb would not be LBN.

Good grief!

We have mods for a reason. You don't have to scold other DUers.

Just alert if it bothers you so.

[marble falls]

9. Exactly right. Tut's tomb is not of national interest ...

I'm not scolding you, are you scolding me? We're discussing whether this is news of a national interest.

[Coventina]

10. No, you were scolding the OP

But you already knew that.

[marble falls]

11. Point out the scold. I was questioning. An inquiring mind wants to know ...

How is this news of a national interest per the LBN statement

https://democraticunderground.com/?com=post&forum=1014

Post the latest news from reputable mainstream news websites and blogs. Important news of national interest only. No analysis or opinion pieces. No duplicates. News stories must have been published within the last 12 hours. Use the published title of the story as the title of the discussion thread.

Highlighting is in the paragraph at the link.

[Coventina]

12. Happy to do so.

"I [sic] would seem that the LBN aspect of this story happened on January 17, 1968 ..."

If you felt the OP was in violation of TOS, all you had to do was alert.

[marble falls]

13. That's not a scold. People have often asked this same sort of question about an ...

article on LBN.

"I(t) would seem ..." described as scold would seem to me as scolding, actually ...

[Coventina]

14. You asked, I answered.

My answer required me to repeat the typo, which you have since corrected.

All I did was point out the error was not mine, a very standard editorial device.

[marble falls]

15. Off the topic and not my point but OK. I guess we'll never know ...

how this is news of a national interest, though the discovery of the location of Cyclops would most certainly be.

[Coventina]

16. Again, please alert if it offends you so.

[BannonsLiver]

18. *mourn

And it IS LBN.

[thewhollytoast]

27. It's just sad....remember the kursk?

<iframe width="971" height="728" src="

" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Toast

[Submariner]

6. if only we could find the USS Cyclops and about two dozen historically significant aircraft

We have the technology. Multi-beam sonar imaging was a giant leap from side-scan sonar.

The only real problem is money. To deploy a research vessel with the right equipment, like ROVs, and a ship's crew including trained multi-beam operators and ROV pilots, your in the ballpark of $40K to $75K a day in operating expenses. There is a world of sunken ships and planes to discover in the years to come.

When Bob Ballard found the USS Scorpion in 1985, it was on very limited funding from the Navy during a search for the Titanic. So money is very tight in the ocean research arena....unless oil is found.

Mike Allen's RV Petrel is independently funded, and can do long term searches without money worries. But that's only a single ship.

[WheelWalker]

20. Think you meant Paul Allen's (estate's) RV?

[Submariner]

21. Yup

Got his first name wrong. I'm glad his estate kept funding the work, and that it didn't just all fall apart when he passed away.

[hack89]

7. Her sister boat the Eurydice sank two years later

the suspected cause for both sinkings was a defective snorkel design.

[EX500rider]

17. 1968 was a bad year for subs....4 went down:

Minerve sank two days after the submarine INS Dakar of the Israeli Navy disappeared in the eastern Mediterranean between Crete and Cyprus. Two other submarines were lost to unknown causes in the same year; the Soviet submarine K-129 and the American USS Scorpion.

[Blue_Tires]

19. Yeah, '68 was a messy year on all fronts...

[Archae]

22. One thing about this story that stands out...

A submarine was missing for 50 years before it was found.

It's inevitable, sooner or later 5 Avenger torpedo bombers will be found, the infamous Flight 19 in the so-called "Bermuda Triangle."

A lot of liars and kooks made tons of money re-writing stories that were already debunked.

Yet every year a plane or ship disappears "in the Bermuda Triangle," and is later found.

[Kid Berwyn]

23. A PBM flying boat search plane sent out after them also vanished.

Last edited Tue Jul 23, 2019, 11:37 PM - Edit history (1)

Two PBM Mariners were sent out that night on search and rescue missions.
One PBM came back, the other and its crew of 13 were gone without a trace.

[Archae]

24. It was seen to explode, by other searchers.

"The loss of PBM-5 BuNo 59225 was attributed to an explosion.[3]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_19#Investigation

[Kid Berwyn]

25. So, where's the wreckage?

Nothing was recovered. Nothing was recovered from the five TBM Avengers from Flight 19, either.

I don’t know what happened, but those are the facts.

[Archae]

28. Don't forget, it was not in the afternoon the Mariner took off.

It was at night, and the weather was deteriorating.

To the point of high winds and choppy seas.

The way we are mapping the ocean bottoms, it won't be that long until one of the planes (even if it's just pieces) or more, is found.

Remember, most of the authors of "Bermuda Triangle" books like Charles Berlitz were notorious liars.

Back in 1977, PBS' "Nova" did a show about the "Triangle," and the facts, while not as "exciting" as "Triangle Mystery" writers made the stories sound, show just how non-mysterious they are.

[dalton99a]

26. "MINE" and "S" (from Minerve and S647):

[Blue_Tires]

31. Thanks for this...

Where did you find the photo?

[dalton99a]

33. It was a news story in Le Monde

I don't have the link (but I've seen the same photo in other newspapers)

[MicaelS]

29. Sure wish Ameila Earhart's plane ..

Could be found.

[Polybius]

30. The USS Cyclops story is very interesting

From wiki:

Cyclops had three sister ships, all commissioned in 1913, which were all ill-fated.

USS Jupiter (AC-3) was converted to an aircraft carrier between 1920 and 1922 and was recommissioned as USS Langley (CV-1). Langley was the first American aircraft carrier and was vital in developing United States naval aviation capabilities. She was converted again between 1936 and 1937 as a seaplane tender and redesignated as AV-3. She was stationed in the Philippines in December 1941 and departed for Australia following the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines. On February 27, 1942, while ferrying fighter planes to Southeast Asia, she was attacked by Japanese aircraft and was hit by five bombs, causing critical damage. After her surviving crew members were rescued, Langley was scuttled by torpedoes fired by her escorting destroyers.

USS Proteus (AC-9) was sold on March 8, 1941, became part of the Canadian Merchant Navy, and was lost at sea without a trace, probably in or near the Caribbean Sea, sometime after November 25, 1941.

USS Nereus (AC-10) was sold to the Aluminium Company of Canada on 27 February 1941. She was lost without a trace after departing Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, on December 10, 1941, with a load of bauxite ore (for making aluminum).

[Blue_Tires]

32. Holy damn that's creepy....