British Submarine HMS Seal

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With Seal’s remaining crew members aboard as prisoners, UJ-128 commenced towing the badly damaged sub toward the small port of Frederikshavn, on the eastern coast of Denmark. Near the entrance to the harbor, Seal’s list to port increased, and the German salvage tug Seeteufel took over towing duties from UJ-128. Around 1800, Seeteufel pushed Seal alongside the seawall in a secluded corner of the harbor and then secured herself to the submarine to prevent her from sinking alongside.

Salvage operations on Seal began the next day under supervision of Captain Heinrich Rsing, an experienced submariner who had formerly commanded a U-boat flotilla. He directed Seeteufel’s divers and salvage crew to document and patch hull damage beneath the surface. Next, Seal’s high-pressure air system and ballast tanks were repaired. The two scuttling depth charges were discovered by the Germans but left in place as too dangerous to remove. Finally, sea water was expelled from the hull and Seal returned to near normal trim.

On the morning of May 10, Seeteufel began towing the temporarily repaired sub south, through the Kattegat to German navy headquarters at Kiel, heavily escorted by minesweepers, submarine chasers and aircraft. Seal arrived there on the afternoon of May 11, greeted by a host of naval dignitaries. The commander of the German naval base at Kiel had already received his orders. Seal was to be restored and refitted as a German U-boat. Despite her sorry condition, the British submarine’s perceived propaganda value justified any repair expenses.

However, German hopes for a propaganda coup from Seal soon ran into trouble. Rsing quickly concluded that it was foolish to attempt to turn her into an operational weapon. He became convinced that Seal should be scrapped as soon as all valuable secret or proprietary information could be extracted from her. Rsing reasoned that since the sub’s diesel engines differed from those of German manufacture, no spare parts were available for them. German torpedoes and mines were also dissimilar to their British counterparts. Furthermore, in his eyes Seal was too big and sluggish to maneuver. He was convinced German U-boats were superior overall to Seal, and that perhaps two or three new ones could be built for the cost of refitting the British submarine as a U-boat. But despite these objections, the German naval high command ordered Rsing to proceed with renovation.

The attempt turned out to be a failure. Rsing’s reasoning proved prescient, and Seal never served operationally again. Renamed UB in 1942, Seal was used primarily as a propaganda exhibit and instructional vessel. She was scrapped in 1943 and left moored as a stripped hull in a remote basin at Kiel naval dockyard. There she was sunk by British bombers near the end of the war.

Lonsdale and the crew of Seal remained German prisoners throughout the war in Europe. They were liberated by Allied forces in April 1945. In April 1946, the court-martial for Captain Lonsdale and Lieutenant Beet, who assumed command after Lonsdale’s swim to the Arado seaplane, convened in Portsmouth. Beet was charged with negligently failing to take steps to ensure the sinking of Seal to prevent her from falling into enemy hands. After one day of testimony, the five-officer court-martial board honorably acquitted him. Lonsdale’s court-martial followed the next day. He was charged with failing to take immediate action to engage the enemy aircraft that attacked Seal, and failing to take steps to ensure her sinking when it appeared possible she might fall into the hands of the enemy. The court-martial panel of five Royal Navy captains heard testimony for two days, but they required less than one hour to reach a verdict. Lonsdale was honorably acquitted of all charges, after which the president of the court advised him, ‘I have much pleasure in handing you back your sword.’ In addition to those Seal crew members called as witnesses by the court, many others among the captured crew had traveled to Portsmouth at their own expense to attend the trial. These men now surged forward to congratulate their respected skipper and shake his hand.

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Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Amphibious Operations, Historical Conflicts, World War II