Explorers visit Nazi sub off the Texas coast 
 
 On the floor of the Gulf of Mexico lies a Nazi ship of ghosts... evidence of how close World War II came to the shores of Texas. 
 
 It's a story most Americans never knew. 
 
 “And there’s a very good reason," said shipwreck diver Richie Kohler. "The United States government didn’t want us to know. They didn’t want us to know how Germany was taking us to task, how successful these U-boats were.” 
 
 Nazi propaganda films trumpeted the triumphs of Hitler’s U-boats, submarines that sank thousands of Allied ships — primarily in the North Atlantic. 
 
 But there’s another story undocumented by films archived on the Internet. Nazi naval commanders dispatched 22 U-boats to prowl the Gulf of Mexico, including the Texas coastline. 
 
 For the past 10 days, Robert Ballard, the underwater explorer who discovered the Titanic, has been searching shipwrecks that U-boats left behind along our Gulf Coast. 
 
 "Hitler brought the war to our doorstep shortly after they declared war on us, so this was something that most American people do not realize: How close the war came, and how threatening it was," Ballard said. "They were extremely successful." 
 
 Historians say U-boats sank at least 50 American ships in the Gulf, one in the very mouth of the Mississippi River. 
 
 Americans managed to sink only one U-boat in the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 "It is a static time capsule, and all of these shipwrecks in deep water are just that. They’re moments frozen in time... in history," Ballard said. 
 
 And they’re a ghostly reminder of a time when Hitler’s navy came startlingly close to the shores of Texas. ||||| Gulf camera reveals site of WWII sinking of SS Robert E. Lee, German U-boat The German U-boat fired upon the American steamboat as it approached the mouth of the Mississippi 
 
 Spectacular footage detailing World War II wrecks thousands of feet down in the Gulf of Mexico has been released by scientists doing a months-long deep sea expedition in the area. 
 
 Their ship, Exploration Vessel Nautilus, is loaded with experts from around the world, as a team lead by Penn State University checks the Gulf for damage from the BP Deep Water Horizon oil spill in 2010. 
 
 Scientists control two remote operated submersible vehicles equipped with cameras and sample collection tools which are used to scour the murky bottom. Real-time video feeds pump out their every move on the web. 
 
 Over this past weekend, amazing footage of two of the Gulf's most famous wrecks has been beamed back. New high definition images of the the SS Robert E. Lee and the German U-boat that sunk it in 1942 have been collected by the crew. 
 
 The stricken vessels lie almost 5,000 feet deep and serve as silent grave sites for the souls who lost their lives as they went down. 
 
 SS Robert E. Lee was carrying survivors from sister ships torpedoed in the Gulf, from Trinidad to New Orleans. On the June 30,1942, as it reached just 25 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River, a German torpedo hit. 
 
 According to historical accounts, a lookout spotted the torpedo coming in and alerted the steamer's escort, the American submarine chaser USS PC-566. The ship immediately began dropping depth charges. 
 
 The German U-boat, U-166, which launched the attack, was sunk with no survivors. Its wreck cannot be disturbed, now protected as a war grave for the 52 crew lost. 
 
 On board the SS Robert E. Lee, lifeboats were scrambled and all but 15 of the 283 passengers and crew on board survived. They had just 15 minutes to get off before the boat disappeared under the waves. 
 
 The Nautilus' ambitious deep sea expedition launched last month and is partly funded by BP oil spill reparations. It has given web viewers a unique look at life at the bottom of the Gulf. 
 
 After starting with corals and moving on to rare sea life like the deep sea vampire squid and the bright blue siphonophore, efforts are now focused on investigating the area's rich military history. 
 
 "I didn't know World War II was fought in our backyard," said Dr. Robert Ballard, who leads the trip. Ballard is among the world's most accomplished and well known deep-sea explorers, credited with the 1985 discovery of the wreck of RMS Titanic. 
 
 "Many souls were lost on these wrecks and others, but now they are teeming with corals and undersea creatures. It's the amazing tapestry of life," Ballard said via email from on board the Nautilus. 
 
 Photos show guns once used to protect the ship at the height of battle, now covered in majestic and colorful anemonies - a stark contrast to the violence of war. 
 
 The expedition team will spend the week putting together detailed high resolution mapping of the wrecks using the latest in undersea technology. 
 
 From the SS Robert E. Lee and U-166 they will move onto the Gulf Penn, a second world war tanker taken down by a U-boat in May 1942. They will then begin a dive on the SS Alcoa Puritan, a cargo ship torpedoed and sunk the same month. 
 
 In total, 200 explorers will take part in the 120-day expedition which culminates in the fall with a tour of Kick 'em Jenny, the most active and dangerous submarine volcano in the Caribbean, just off the coast of Grenada. 
 
 A close up look of world's second largest coral reef, the Belize/Honduras Mesoamerican reef is also included, all of it streamed back to viewers watching at home. 
 
 "This is a voyage of discovery everyone can make," said Dr. Ballard in the expedition launch release. 
 
 You can follow the Nautilus team live at Nautiluslive.org and via their Facebook page. ||||| Petroleum Survey discovers U-Boat 
 
 Petroleum companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico’s outer continental shelf routinely provide the government with sonar data for areas with potential archaeological potential value. 
 
 Several federal agencies review oil and natural gas-related surveys every year, and over the years the data have revealed more than 100 historic shipwrecks in U.S. waters. In 2001, scientists at the Minerals Management Service noted that “a German submarine definitely got our attention.” 
 
 During World War II, U-boats prowled the Gulf of Mexico to disrupt the vital flow of oil carried by tankers departing ports in Louisiana and Texas. 
 
 In just one year, the Kriegsmarine sank 56 Allied ships, including 17 tankers, while losing only one submarine – the Unterseeboot 166. 
 
 German submarine predations so threatened the war effort that American government and industry responded with the longest petroleum pipeline project ever undertaken, building the “Big Inch” and “Little Big Inch” from East Texas to Illinois, and as far as New York. See WW II Big Inch and Little Big Inch Pipelines. 
 
 But for the U-166, the war was over. Its final resting place remained a mystery for almost 60 years. 
 
 The last victim of the U-166 was the passenger freighter Robert E. Lee, sunk by a single torpedo on July 30, 1942, while on its way to New Orleans. Her Naval escort ship, PC-566, rushed in to drop ten depth charges. The U-166 was believed to have escaped. It did not. 
 
 Finding U-166 
 
 In 1986, a Shell Offshore vessel using a deep-tow system of the day recorded two close wrecks about 45 miles off the Louisiana coast in 5,000 feet of water. 
 
 Thought to be the Robert E. Lee and cargo freighter Alcoa Puritan, it was May 2001 before an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) using side scan sonar revealed the U-166. 
 
 The lost World War II submarine was separated from Robert E. Lee by less than a mile on the sea floor. 
 
 The AUV, which required no cable connection to its mother ship, found the Alcoa Puritan 14 miles away. Learn more about the petroleum industry’s offshore robotics in ROV – Swimming Socket Wrench. 
 
 Six other World War II vessels have been discovered in the course of Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas surveys. 
 
 As a result of the U-166’s discovery, BP and Shell altered their proposed pipeline to preserve the site and government archaeologists notified the U.S. Navy Historical Center of the discovery. “They, in turn, notified the German Embassy and military attaché,” the MMS article explains. “Since the remains of the U-166’s 52 crewmen are still on board, the German government has declared the site to be a war grave and has requested that it remain undisturbed.” 
 
 Editor’s Note – Since 2011, the Minerals Management Service has become the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. 
 
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 The American Oil & Gas Historical Society preserves U.S. petroleum history. Support this AOGHS.org energy education website with a contribution today. For membership information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. © 2018 Bruce A. Wells. ||||| *TWO WEEKS LEFT* Know a creative young explorer? Their artwork could go on an ocean adventure aboard E/V Nautilus! We're looking for original artwork from artists 6-18 years old to design our official 2019 expedition patch. Apply by January 31: https://t.co/urOvDR92Fg ||||| GULFPORT -- Out of the shadows of the deep it slowly appeared. The railing, and what looked like cargo studded with coral, emerged to the crew aboard of exploration vessel Nautilus. 
 
 In the Gulf of Mexico for a number of missions under the umbrella The New America, the Ocean Exploration Trust identified the USS Peterson (DD 969), a destroyer built at Ingalls' Pascagoula Shipyard. About 10 years ago, the U.S. Navy sank the decommissioned ship as part of a weapons test. Its exact location was unknown until July 7, when the Nautilus pinpointed its watery grave. 
 
 The destroyer's identification is part of the mission of the Nautilus' crew, led by Robert Ballard, world famous for discovering the Titanic, among other wrecks. 
 
 Between July 6 and July 14, the crew explored a number brine pools and deepwater coral reefs in addition to the wrecks. 
 
 Sunken German U-boat 
 
 Arguably the expedition's most exciting moments for history buffs came when the crew probed the wreckage of German U-boat U-166 -- the only known U-boat sunk in the Gulf of Mexico -- as well as several of the U-boat's targets, such as the SS Gulf Penn and SS Robert E. Lee. 
 
 Spokeswoman Susan Poulton said the crew already knew the German sub's location, but returned to explore 
 
 further with Hercules and Argus, two remotely operated vehicles controlled from aboard the Nautilus. 
 
 "To our knowledge, this particular wreck site has not been mapped with 3-D mapping," Poulton said Tuesday while Nautilus was docked at the Port of Gulfport. "Our mapping team went in and did surveys of the area, which will help our archaeologists better understand what happened and how she sunk. 
 
 "We have the historical references, but now we actually have the physical evidence and the physical forensic archaeology." 
 
 Poulton said the Robert E. Lee could be seen with a torpedo in it, and the U-boat was split in two by a depth charge that sank the sub and its 52-man crew. Most the passengers aboard the Robert E. Lee, which was carrying survivors from other U-boat attacks, survived. 
 
 Discovering the unknown 
 
 Poulton said discovering the unknown -- such as the Peterson -- often provides the biggest thrill. 
 
 "So little of the ocean has been explored to begin with, photographed even less, mapped even less. So, you're talking about .0000 (percent)," she said. "Some of these scientists have spent their lives studying organisms and they've never seen a live sample." 
 
 The Nautilus will head back out to the Gulf on Thursday as part of the Gulf Integrated Spill Response Consortium to better understand and predict the fundamental behavior of petroleum fluids in the ocean.
– Many never knew how close German U-boats came to US soil during World War II, but new high-def footage reveals several wrecks on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. Robert Ballard, known for discovering the Titanic, is now mapping some of these wrecks, including the SS Robert E. Lee that was torpedoed by the German U-166 in 1942 and sank 45 miles off the coast of Louisiana. While most of the Lee's 286 passengers survived, the U-166 was hit by the Lee's Navy escort and sank less than a mile away with all 52 still aboard; it now slumbers as a protected war grave. Though U-boats sank more than 50 US ships in the Gulf, the U-166 is the only U-boat of the 22 that were directed to the Gulf that Americans managed to down, reports WFAA. Though the sub's location has long been known, a rep for the expedition tells the Sun Herald that the new "surveys of the area ... will help our archaeologists better understand what happened and how she sunk." The 120-day deep-sea exploration, launched last month, is being carried out by Ballard and what will eventually total 200 explorers; they're searching the area using the Exploration Vessel Nautilus, in an effort funded in part by BP oil spill reparations. The explorers first investigated the area's corals and rare sea life, including the deep sea vampire squid, and are now turning their lenses on the region's military history. "Many souls were lost on these wrecks and others, but now they are teeming with corals and undersea creatures," Ballard tells the Houston Chronicle. "It's the amazing tapestry of life." Follow the explorers' live stream here or view photos here. (Another German sub, the U-550, was found off Nantucket.)