SM U - 118 SM U - 118 was a type UE II mine laying submarine of the Imperial German Navy and one of 329 submarine s serving with that navy during World War I . U - 118 engaged in naval warfare and took part in the First Battle of the Atlantic . Career . " SM U - 118 " was commissioned on 8 May 1918 , following construction at the AG Vulcan Stettin shipyard in Hamburg . It was commanded by Herbert Stohwasser and joined the I Flotilla operating in the eastern Atlantic . After about four months without any ships sunk , on 16 September 1918 , SM U - 118 scored its first hit on another naval vessel . About north - west of Cape Villano , U - 118 torpedoed and sank the British steamer " Wellington " . Early the following month on 2 October 1918 , U - 118 sank its second and last ship , the British tanker " Arca " at about north - west of Tory Island . With the ending of hostilities on 11 November 1918 came the subsequent surrender of the Imperial German Navy , including SM U - 118 to France on 23 February 1919 . Beaching at Hastings . Following surrender U - 118 was to be transferred to France where it would be broken up for scrap . However , in the early hours of 15 April 1919 , while it was being towed through the English Channel towards Scapa Flow , its dragging hawser broke off in a storm . The ship ran aground on the beach at Hastings in Sussex at approximately 12 : 45am , directly in front of the Queens Hotel . Initially there were attempts to displace the stricken vessel ; three tractors tried to refloat the submarine and a French destroyer attempted to break the ship apart using its cannons . These attempts however were unsuccessful and the proximity of the submarine to the public beach and Queens Hotel dissuaded further use of explosive forces . The wreck of the submarine immediately became a popular tourist attraction with thousands of visitors to Hastings that Easter flocking to see the beached vessel . The vessel was put in charge of the local coastguard station and the Admiralty allowed the Town Clerk of Hastings to charge a small fee for people to climb on the deck of the submarine . This continued for two weeks , during which time the town collected almost £300 ( UK£ in 2018 ) which helped fund an event to welcome the town ' s troops returning from the war . Two members of the coastguard , chief boatman William Heard and chief officer W . Moore , were tasked with showing important visitors around inside the submarine . The visits however were curtailed at the end of April when both men became severely ill . It was thought that rotten foodstuffs in the submarine were causing the problems however , despite the visits being discontinued , the illnesses continued and got worse . Moore died in December 1919 and Heard followed in February 1920 . At his inquest it was heard that a noxious gas , possibly chlorine released from the submarine ' s damaged batteries , had caused abscesses on the lungs and brain of the dead man . Even after visits inside the submarine had been stopped it remained common for tourists to take pictures of themselves standing alongside or even on the deck of the U - boat . Eventually , between October and December 1919 , U - 118 was broken up and the pieces removed and sold for scrap . The gun was left in place but later dug up in 1921 . It is believed that some of the keel from the submarine may still lie underneath the sand of the beach .