Overview
- Recreational and research divers located a steel-hulled wreck about 70 metres deep off the Devon coast that had long been assumed to be a World War I sailing vessel.
- Plymouth dive team Gasperados made detailed identification dives and recorded diagnostic features including an early Schnorchel intake, a steel propeller and remains of German Aphrodite radar‑decoy gear.
- The dive team says those physical clues strongly indicate the boat is the late‑war Type VII U‑boat U‑672, though formal archival or naval confirmation has not been reported.
- Family members of U‑672’s commander, Ulf Lawaetz, contacted the divers after the find and showed a small numbered tag linked to him that helps corroborate the identification.
- The discovery resolves a long‑standing wreck mystery, highlights a major discrepancy between the wreck site and wartime HMS Balfour log coordinates, and is likely to prompt archival review and interest from naval historians and relatives.