Naval officer may have solved 90-year mystery of "submarine under the park"

For nearly a century an urban legend about a submarine buried beneath a park has been told among locals of a Devon town.

They say that after the end of the Great War, Coombe Mud and neighbouring Sandquay in Dartmouth became a breaker’s yard for unwanted First World War warships, including at least two of submarines.

However, ever since the site was purchased by the local authority in the late 1920s and filled in to create the five acre Coronation Park, oral and written histories have referred to the submarine under the park. Some claim it is a British vessel while others say it is a German U-boat.

Now, after studying contemporary documents and photographs, Lieutenant Tom Kemp, an officer from Britannia Royal Naval College, suspects he may have solved the mystery.

Lieutenant Kemp, who teaches navigation to future generations of naval leaders at the college, said he has been “fascinated” by “the story of ‘the submarine under the park’” and likened his workings to “a case of following a very cold trail of breadcrumbs”.

“I had been desperately hoping to find a bill of sale or something along those lines with a name on it, but I had to go a little further off-piste to find my answers,” he said.

Ask me anything

Explore related questions

> World