An inglorious end

Peterhead in the rain, at the junction of St AndrewStreet and Merchant Street. At the end of the street you can see the ships in the busy harbour and, in the far distance, across Peterhead Bay, you might just make out the red and white tower of the lighthouse at Boddam.

What you can't see are the two German U Boats that lie at the bottom of the sea a few miles from Peterhead Bay.

In June 1915, U14 sank a number of local fishing boats. This upset the locals considerably, so much so that they set a trap, using a local fishing boat as bait. When U14 surfaced to attack, a shot from the armed trawler Oceanic II hit the conning tower and killed the captain. The crew surrendered, and U14 sank.

In 1945 U1206 met a more embarrassing end after her captain flushed the toilet. U1206 had a complicated system of of valves that allowed the toilet to be flushed in deep water. Only one specially trained seaman was allowed to operate it. However, the captain was a proud and independent man who had read the manual! Unfortunately, he got the valve sequence wrong. Water flooded in and hit the boat's batteries releasing poisonous chlorine gas. U1206 had to surface, where she was spotted and bombed and the crew scuttled her and took to the life rafts. Some were picked up by naval trawlers and others were rescued by the crew of the Peterhead lobster boat "Reaper". The last raft washed up near to Boddam. Three of the crew were drowned in the heavy seas.