On September 11, 1942, German U-boat captain Rolf Mützelburg ended his life by methods unusual to both the U-Boat fleet (where the only pistol in the boat was readily available to the captain) and in general. He had created (and thankfully was the only patron of) the unusual sport of conning tower diving, that is, diving off the conning tower and into the water. Because type VII U-Boats had outboard fuel tanks below the waterline, in addition to the risk of the boat rocking in a swell, this endevor was even more dangerous than it would sound. At one point, Mützelburg was visiting the boat of Captain Joachim Schepke (Mützelburg was returning from an unsucessful patrol, and was transfering his spare torpedoes to Schepke's boat at the time). To quote his autobiography:

"Mützelburg ran up the conning tower and dived in elegantly head first off the top of the bridge into the water. My hair stood on end, and I said to him 'What did you do that for? You wouldn't catch me doing that. It's reckless: the boat is so narrow that with its bulging fuel tanks on its side it's not that easy to dive across them.' But he laughed, and told me he did it quite often, and wouldn't be put off doing it"

The rest of the story is probably best stated in Lawrance Paterson's U-boat War Patrol:

"...Fifteen days [into his boat's next cruise], during a swimming break...Mützelburg had dived head-first from the conning tower. At the moment he sprang into the air the U-boat rolled in a long lazy swell, and he struck the saddle tank with his head and shoulder. Dragged back aboard...he was taken below, where he died of his injuries the next day, 12 September 1942"

Submitted on 04/18/2005

Submitted by: Donald Winship
Reference:

Copyright © 2005 DarwinAwards.com

Daniel said:
Neutral: Darwin Award
I like this one mainly for the historical aspect. Of course, he had done it many times, but a captain should be aware of how his boat rolls.

Kelly said:
Neutral: Other
I found uboat.net but there's no way to search the site. Please provide a url to the actual account.

Jack said:
Maybe Toss: Lacks Excellence
He had done it before and had every expectation that he could do it again.

Charles said:
Neutral: Darwin Award
Even in a boat as narrow as these, it should be possible to gauge the roll... I'll side with Daniel.

Tracy said:
Neutral: Darwin Award
I think it's stupid - a captain should understand the dangers. Does need verification though - I found this link http://uboat.net/men/muetzelburg.htm

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