A World War I U-boat wreck off the Irish coast has been targeted by souvenir hunters because it is not an official war grave, according to a report by The Independent newspaper.
The German authorities are now in talks with the Irish government in a bid to impose a strict exclusion zone around it. The UC-42 was laying mines off Cork Harbour when it sank after detonating one of its own explosives in late September 1917.
A total of 27 crew members died when the submarine plummeted to the seabed about 90 feet below just off Roches Point.
The vessel’s location was discovered by a team of two Irish divers in 2010.
