Sunken WWII German sub found in Gulf of Mexico

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Sunken WWII German sub found in Gulf of Mexico Friday June 8, 2:37 PM EDT

NEW ORLEANS, June 8 (Reuters) - BP Plc. and Royal Dutch/Shell Group on Friday announced another big discovery in the Gulf of Mexico -- but this time it was a sunken World War II German submarine rather than oil or natural gas.

BP (BP) (BP) and Shell (RD) (SHEL), two of the world's largest energy companies, stumbled upon the U-166 submarine in 5,000 feet of water last month while surveying a location for a planned underwater pipeline.

The only submarine sunk in the Gulf of Mexico during the war, U-166 lies near the U.S. passenger freighter S.S. Robert E. Lee, which it attacked with a torpedo on July 30, 1942.

The freighter, headed for New Orleans, had been carrying 400 passengers and crew when it was torpedoed, killing 25 people.

Shortly after its attack on the Robert E. Lee, U-166 was sunk by the U.S. military. All 52 crewmembers aboard the submarine were killed.

BP and Shell made the discovery using a remote-controlled submarine and have decided to choose a different route for the pipeline, they said in a statement

http://money.iwon.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt.jsp?section=news&news_id=reu-n08570149&feed=reu&date=20010608&cat=INDUSTRY

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 08, 2001


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