UB-148 at sea, a U-boat similar to UB-53.
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History | |
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German Empire | |
Name | UB-53 |
Ordered | 20 May 1916[2] |
Builder | Blohm & Voss, Hamburg |
Cost | 3,276,000 German Papiermark |
Yard number | 298 |
Launched | 9 March 1917[1] |
Commissioned | 21 August 1917[1] |
Fate | Sunk 3 August 1918 at 39°40′N 18°40′E / 39.667°N 18.667°E by mines, 10 dead[1] |
General characteristics [1] | |
Class and type | Type UB III submarine |
Displacement | |
Length | 55.30 m (181 ft 5 in) (o/a) |
Beam | 5.80 m (19 ft) |
Draught | 3.68 m (12 ft 1 in) |
Propulsion |
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Speed |
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Range |
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Test depth | 50 m (160 ft) |
Complement | 3 officers, 31 men[1] |
Armament |
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Service record | |
Part of: |
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Commanders: |
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Operations: | 5 patrols |
Victories: |
14 merchant ships sunk (16,549 GRT) |
SM UB-53 was a German Type UB III submarine or U-boat in the Imperial German Navy (German: Kaiserliche Marine) during World War I. She was commissioned into the Pola Flotilla of the German Imperial Navy on 21 August 1917 as SM UB-53.[Note 1]
She operated as part of the Pola Flotilla based in Cattaro. UB-53 was sunk by mines of the Otranto Barrage on 3 August 1918 at 39°40′N 18°40′E / 39.667°N 18.667°E in the Otranto Strait, 10 crew members died.[1]SS Athenia (1914). On 7 April 1918 the submarine saw an airship catch fire accidentally and crash into the sea near the Strait of Otranto with the loss of all hands. It apparently was the German Navy Zeppelin L 59, modified for long-range flights, on the outbound leg of a flight from Yambol, Bulgaria, in an attempt to bomb the Royal Navy base at Malta.[3]
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