Photo: Ocean Exploration Trust
On July 30, 1942, Herbert Claudius in command of the patrol boat PC 566 was escorting passenger ship passenger ship Robert E. Lee in the Gulf of Mexico, southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. The German U-boat U-166 attacked and sank the passenger ship. Claudius and PC 566 fought back with gun fire and depth charges. They saw oil and debris and thought that they had sunk the German submarine, but they Navy did not believe their report.
Now 72 years later, a National Geographic/NOVA expedition located the wreck of U-166 which indeed had been sunk by Captain Claudius and the PC 566. The Navy has admitted its error. As reported by National Geographic: “Seventy years later, we now know that [Claudius’s] report after the action was absolutely correct,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in a small ceremony attended by members of Claudius’s family.
Last May, 
The 
Back in 2010, 
Another case of “I read it on the internet so it must be true.” The Internet spoof site, World News Daily Report posted “
This morning we posted that the SSV 
Here is yet another case of the media taking a wildly inaccurate sets of claims about ships at face value. The 
Tall Ships Philadelphia – Camden
This feels like a bad joke, but sadly, it isn’t. In May of 2010, we posted about “
After spending a month on dock at Colonna’s Shipyard in Norfolk, VA, the Liberty ship 
Since being sold by Cunard in 2007, the classic liner