Theme Collections

Nautical and Naval

Photos and Postcards - Navy Ships in Halifax Harbour and Surrounding Area

Photo Postcards

This section contains three photo postcards of captured German U-Boat UC-97 in Halifax Harbour, May 17, 1919.

At the end of World War One, the United States Navy acquired from England six captured German u-boats and sailed them home to the U.S. east coast. The government intended to display them to the public in a Victory Loan drive to raise money to help pay the war debt. One of the u-boats, UC-97, spent some time in the vicinity of New York City  before sailing to the Great Lakes via Halifax, the Saint Lawrence Seaway and the Welland Canal. It attracted huge crowds in ports along the Great Lakes. The photos in this section were taken during UC-97’s stopover in Halifax in May, 1919.

UC-97 was a UC-III class submarine designed primarily to lay mines rather than attack ships, although she was armed with a 3.4-inch deck gun and seven torpedoes. She was able to carry a compliment of fourteen mines. At a length of 185 feet, with a crew of 32 men, UC-97 was considered a small u-boat. She was constructed too late in the war to participate in any combat missions.

At the conclusion of the Victory Loan drive, UC-97 was stripped of equipment and armaments, and towed out into Lake Michigan to be used by the United States Navy as a target. On June 7, 1921 she was sunk by shell fire from an American ship.

After its sinking, UC-97 was lost for decades, but in 1992, the wreck was re-discovered by a commercial salvage operator who has periodically dived on it since then.

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