BILL BARLOW
For The Press
CAPE MAY â With war looming on the horizon, and a new generation of German U-boats under construction, the United States military faced an urgent problem: how to sink a boat thatâs already underwater?
In August 1936, somewhere off the coast, the American military tested aerial bombardment on R-8, a Navy submarine that had recently been decommissioned.
The bombers missed their target, but four near-misses with 100-pound bombs were enough to send the sub to the bottom.
A salvage team now says they have found it.
Atlantic Wreck Salvage said Thursday they had located the wreck off the coast, roughly between Cape May and Ocean City, Maryland. Searching the waters from their vessel D/V Tenacious this fall, the team used side-scan sonar data to confirm the wreck is the American sub. The sonar system allows the team to get a detailed picture of the wreck, not just a location from above.