U-352

In the spring of 1942, U-boats were sinking ships almost unopposed along the US East Coast — the stretch off North Carolina earned the name Torpedo Junction. U-352 arrived hunting that traffic and found none of the easy victories her captain expected. On 9 May 1942 she fired on the Coast Guard cutter Icarus, missed, and was hammered by depth charges until Kapitänleutnant Hellmut Rathke surfaced and ordered abandon ship. Icarus's guns and the sinking took over a dozen of the crew; 33 survivors were pulled from the water and became among the first German prisoners of war taken by US forces in the Atlantic war. The submarine settled on sand at about 35 meters, where Gulf Stream water keeps her startlingly visible: an intact pressure hull with a slight starboard list, conning tower standing, outer plating long rusted away to show her skeleton. Divers treat her as what she is — a war grave holding German sailors. Enter nothing, take nothing; human remains have been encountered here in past decades, and both US law and simple decency protect the boat.

How she sank: Depth-charged and sunk by the US Coast Guard cutter Icarus off Morehead City, 9 May 1942.

Condition: Pressure hull intact and coherent; outer casing and deck fittings largely gone after eight decades

Penetration: None. The interior is a war grave and effectively sealed; entry is both prohibited in spirit and physically dangerous.

Recommended certification: Advanced Open Water with deep experience

Current: Moderate · Visibility: 10–30 m

Marine life: Amberjack and barracuda circle the tower, queen angelfish pick at the hull, sand tiger sharks drift over from neighboring wrecks, and baitfish sheet along the pressure hull in summer.

Hazards: Depth, offshore current, fishing line, and summer thermoclines; seas here change fast

War grave of the German navy, protected under the US Sunken Military Craft Act — no entry, no removal of anything

Artifacts recovered in earlier, less careful decades are museum matters now; today the boat is dived on a strict look-only basis.