German U-boat prepares to move to new Wirral home

Mar 8 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

A GERMAN wartime submarine moored in Wirral has been cut into three in preparation for its move to a new home.

The insides of U-534 can now be seen as never before as it awaits transportation to her new home at the Woodside Ferry Terminal.

The vessel will be the centrepiece of a new tourist attraction depicting the history of undersea warfare.

Splitting the submarine into three has been condemned by some heritage campaigners but defended by Merseytravel, which rescued U-534 after the demise of the Historic Warships Museum at Birkenhead.

The passenger transport authority said the cost of transporting the submarine in one piece would have simply been too much and led to its demise.

Experts spent two weeks using a diamond wire to dissect the vessel which is more than 250 feet long and weighs over 1,000 tons.

On Monday, the floating crane Mammoth will start the next stage of the operation carrying each section to its new berth at Woodside.

High-quality glazed panels will be installed over the end of each section to allow visitors to see inside the submarine from specially built viewing platforms.

The new attraction is expected to open in the summer.