SM UB - 6 SM " UB - 6 " was a German Type UB I submarine or U - boat in the German Imperial Navy ( ) during World War I . The submarine was interned after running aground in neutral Dutch waters , and was scuttled by her crew at Hellevoetsluis . " UB - 6 " was ordered in October 1914 and was laid down at the Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel in November . " UB - 6 " was a little more than in length and displaced between , depending on whether surfaced or submerged . She carried two torpedo es for her two bow torpedo tube s and was also armed with a deck - mounted machine gun . " UB - 6 " was broken into sections and shipped by rail to Antwerp for reassembly . She was launched in March 1915 and commissioned as SM " UB - 6 " in April . " UB - 6 " spent her entire career in the Flanders Flotilla and sank , the first warship credited to the flotilla in May 1915 . Through September 1916 , the U - boat accounted for fourteen additional ships sunk , two ships damaged , and one ship seized as a prize . On 12 March 1917 , " UB - 6 " ran aground near the Maas River in the Netherlands due to a navigational error by her commander ; the submarine and crew were interned by the neutral country and taken to Hellevoetsluis . Six days later , " UB - 6 " was scuttled by her crew , which remained interned for the rest of the war . The wreck of " UB - 6 " was ceded to France in 1919 and broken up at Brest in July 1921 . Design and construction . After the German Army ' s rapid advance along the North Sea coast in the earliest stages of World War I , the German Imperial Navy found itself without suitable submarines that could be operated in the narrow and shallow seas off Flanders . Project 34 , a design effort begun in mid - August 1914 , produced the Type UB I design : a small submarine that could be shipped by rail to a port of operations and quickly assembled . Constrained by railroad size limitations , the UB I design called for a boat about long and displacing about with two torpedo tube s . " UB - 6 " was part of the initial allotment of eight submarines — numbered to — ordered on 15 October from Germaniawerft of Kiel , just shy of two months after planning for the class began . " UB - 6 " was laid down by Germaniawerft in Kiel on 22 November . As built , " UB - 6 " was long , abeam , and had a draft of . She had a single Daimler 4 - cylinder diesel engine for surface travel , and a single Siemens - Schuckert electric motor for underwater travel , both attached to a single propeller shaft . Her top speeds were , surfaced , and , submerged . At more moderate speeds , she could sail up to on the surface before refueling , and up to submerged before recharging her batteries . Like all boats of the class , " UB - 6 " was rated to a diving depth of , and could completely submerge in 33 seconds . " UB - 6 " was armed with two torpedo es in two bow torpedo tube s . She was also outfitted for a single Deck gun . " UB - 6 " s standard complement consisted of one officer and thirteen enlisted men . After work on " UB - 6 " was complete at the Germaniwerft yard , " UB - 6 " was readied for rail shipment . The process of shipping a UB I boat involved breaking the submarine down into what was essentially a knock down kit . Each boat was broken into approximately fifteen pieces and loaded on to eight railway flatcar s . In early 1915 , the sections of " UB - 6 " were shipped to Antwerp for assembly in what was typically a two - to three - week process . After " UB - 6 " was assembled and launched sometime in March , she was loaded on a barge and taken through canals to Bruges where she underwent trials . Early career . The submarine was commissioned into the German Imperial Navy as SM " UB - 6 " on 8 April under the command of " Kapitänleutnant " Erich Haecker , a 29 - year - old first - time U - boat commander . On 19 April , " UB - 6 " joined the other UB I boats then comprising the Flanders Flotilla ( ) , which had been organized on 29 March . When " UB - 6 " joined the flotilla , Germany was in the midst of its first submarine offensive , begun in February . During this campaign , enemy vessels in the German - defined war zone ( ) , which encompassed all waters around the United Kingdom were to be sunk . Vessels of neutral countries were not to be attacked unless they definitively could be identified as enemy vessels operating under a false flag . The UB I boats of the Flanders Flotilla were initially limited to patrols in the Hoofden , the southern portion of the North Sea between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands . Although had made both the first sortie and sunk the first ship of the flotilla in April , " UB - 6 " sank the first warship credited to the flotilla . On 1 May , Haecker spotted two old Royal Navy destroyers , and , about southwest of the Galloper light vessel . Just before noon , Haecker launched a torpedo that hit " Recruit " and split the displacement ship in half , killing 34 men ; 26 men were rescued . One month later , on 1 June , " UB - 6 " sank what would be her largest ship , the British cargo ship " Saidieh " , of . " Saidieh " was en route to Hull from Alexandria with a load of onions and cottonseed when " UB - 6 " sank her at the mouth of the Thames ; eight crewmen lost their lives in the attack . In late June , " Korvettenkapitän " Karl Bartenbach , head of the Flanders Flotilla , used " UB - 6 " to test a theory that British defenses in the Straits of Dover — anti - submarine net s and mine s — were not insurmountable . On the evening of 21 June , " UB - 6 " departed Zeebrugge for a round - trip to Boulogne . " UB - 6 " sailed past Dunkirk on the surface and made Boulogne in the early morning of the 22nd , having to crash dive once during the voyage when discovered by a British destroyer . " UB - 6 " immediately made the return trip and arrived safely at Zeebrugge later the same day . Three other UB I boats , , , and , soon followed with patrols in the Channel , but bad weather and fog hampered the boats and none had any success . Even though no ships were sunk during these forays into the English Channel , by successfully completing their voyages , the submarines helped further prove the feasibility of defeating the British countermeasures in the Straits of Dover . On 12 July , while patrolling between off Lowestoft , " UB - 6 " attacked five British fishing vessels , sinking four of them . All four of the sunken ships were smack s — sailing vessels traditionally rigged with red ochre sails — which were stopped , boarded by crewmen from " UB - 6 " , and sunk with explosives . Two weeks later , " UB - 6 " torpedoed and sank the 406 - ton " Firth " from the Aldborough Napes Buoy . " UB - 6 " sank the 57 - ton " Leander " , another smack , on 11 August . Germany ' s submarine offensive was suspended on 18 September by the chief of the " Admiralstab " , Admiral Henning von Holtzendorff , in response to American demands after the sinking of the Cunard Line steamer in May 1915 and other high profile sinkings in August and September . Holtzendorff ' s directive ordered all U - boats out of the English Channel and the South - Western Approaches and required that all submarine activity in the North Sea be conducted strictly along prize regulations . It would be five months before " UB - 6 " would sink another ship . In mid - November , " Oberleutnant zur See " Ernst Voigt succeeded Haecker as commander of " UB - 6 " ; it was the first U - boat command for the 25 - year - old Voigt . Under his command , " UB - 6 " sank her next vessel in January 1916 . The 57 - ton smack " Crystal " was boarded and sunk by explosives southeast of Southwold on the 27th . Second submarine offensive . By early 1916 , the British blockade of Germany was beginning to have an effect on Germany and her imports . The Royal Navy had stopped and seized more cargo destined for Germany than the quantity of cargo sunk by German U - boats in the first submarine offensive . As a result , the German Imperial Navy began a second offensive against merchant shipping on 29 February . The final ground rules agreed upon by the German " Admiralstab " were that all enemy vessels in Germany ' s self - proclaimed war zone would be destroyed without warning , that enemy vessels outside of the war zone would be destroyed only if armed , and — to avoid antagonizing the United States — that enemy passenger steamers were not to be attacked , regardless of whether in the war zone or not . " UB - 6 " s first attack in the new offensive came on 17 March , when the U - boat torpedoed the Swedish ship " Ask " near the North Hinder lightship . The 1 , 041 - ton ship was en route to London from Westervik with a load of timber , but did not sink ; there were no reports of casualties on the damaged ship . The attack on " Ask " was followed up two weeks later by the sinking of another Swedish ship . The 1 , 115 - ton " Hollandia " was at anchor from the Galloper lightship when " UB - 4 " torpedoed her on the last day of March . " Hollandia " was in ballast and in the process of sailing from Rouen to Rotterdam when sent under without loss of life . In March , " UB - 6 " s commander , Voigt , was assigned to the newly commissioned , and replaced on " UB - 6 " by " Kapitänleutnant " Karl Neumann , the former commander of two of the submarine ' s sister ships , and . In his U - boat career , Neumann sank over 100 , 000 tons of shipping , but none at the helm of " UB - 6 " . In July , Neumann was succeeded by " Oberleutnant zur See " Karsten von Heydebreck , a 26 - year - old , first - time U - boat captain , who was Voigt ' s classmate in April 1908 cadet class . Near the end of April 1916 , Admiral Reinhardt Scheer , the newest commander - in - chief of the German High Seas Fleet , called off the merchant shipping offensive and ordered all boats at sea to return , and all boats in port to remain there . As with the end of the first offensive in August 1915 , " UB - 6 " would not sink any more ships for the next five months . Grand Fleet ambush attempts . In mid - May , Scheer completed plans to draw out part of the British Grand Fleet . The German High Seas Fleet would sortie for a raid on Sunderland , luring the British fleet across nests ' of submarines and mine - fields " . In support of the operation , " UB - 6 " and five other Flanders boats set out at midnight 30 / 31 May to form a line east of Lowestoft . This group was to intercept and attack the British light forces from Harwich , should they sortie north to join the battle . Unfortunately for the Germans , the British Admiralty had intelligence reports of the departure of the submarines which , coupled with an absence of attacks on shipping , aroused British suspicions . A delayed departure of the German fleet for its sortie ( which had been redirected to the Skagerrak ) and the failure of several of the U - boats stationed to the north to receive the coded message warning of the British advance caused Scheer ' s anticipated ambush to be a " complete and disappointing failure " . In " UB - 6 " s group , only " UB - 10 " sighted the Harwich forces , and they were too far away to mount an attack . The failure of the submarine ambush to sink any British capital ships allowed the full Grand Fleet to engage the numerically inferior High Seas Fleet in the Battle of Jutland , which took place 31 May – 1 June . Later in August , the Germans set up another ambush for the British fleet , when they drew up plans for another High Seas Fleet raid on Sunderland ( as had been the original intention in May ) . The German fleet planned to depart late in the day on 18 August and shell military targets the next morning . As in May , " UB - 6 " was part of a group intended to attack the Harwich forces . As one of five boats forming the second line of boats from the Flanders Flotilla , " UB - 6 " was stationed off Texel by the morning of 20 August . Once again , British intelligence had given warning of the impending attack and ambush , causing the Grand Fleet to sortie at 16 : 00 on 18 August , five hours before the German fleet sailed . Faulty intelligence caused Scheer initially to divert from Sunderland , and then to eventually call off the whole operation . Although U - boats to the north sank two British light cruisers , " UB - 6 " and her group played no part in the action . On 10 September , " UB - 6 " was patrolling off the Maas lightship and torpedoed the 400 - ton Norwegian steamer " Lindborg " , with a general cargo for London ; there were no casualties . While patrolling in the same area on the 23rd , " UB - 6 " sank four Belgian lighter s . The following day , the Dutch ship was seized as a prize and sailed into Zeebrugge by a prize crew from " UB - 6 " . " Batavier II " was the last success for Heydebreck in command of " UB - 6 " ; he was assigned to command the newly commissioned minelaying submarine in January 1917 . " Oberleutnant zur See " Oskar Steckelberg , another member of the April 1908 cadet class , replaced Heydebreck on " UB - 6 " . Unrestricted submarine warfare . The British blockade of Germany , which prevented neutral shipping from reaching German ports , had severely limited imports of food and fuel into Germany . Among the results were an increase in infant mortality and as many as 700 , 000 deaths attributed to starvation or hypothermia during the war . With the blockade having such dire consequences , Kaiser Wilhelm II personally approved a to begin on 1 February 1917 to help force the British to make peace . The new rules of engagement specified that no ship was to be left afloat . On 10 March , " UB - 6 " departed Zeebrugge to patrol off the Mass lightship . Two days later , " UB - 6 " entered Dutch territorial waters after Steckelberg made a navigational error , and ran aground at the mouth of the Maas River . Because the Netherlands was neutral during the war , and " UB - 6 " did not leave Dutch territorial waters within 24 hours as required by international law , the submarine and her crew were interned by the Dutch . The Germans protested , but because " UB - 6 " s grounding was merely the result of an error and not because of distress , the Dutch could not release the submarine . " UB - 6 " was taken to the port of Hellevoetsluis for internment , where , on 18 March , " UB - 6 " s crew scuttle d her . The crew of " UB - 6 " was interned for the duration of the war . After the end of the war , " UB - 6 " s wreck was surrendered to France , taken to Brest , and broken up in July 1921 . Ships sunk or damaged . < nowiki > * < / nowiki > damaged but not sunk < br > < nowiki > * * < / nowiki > captured as a prize