Final piece of Wirral's Nazi U-boat jigsaw is put in place

Mar 17 2008 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

THE final piece of what had become a very large jigsaw puzzle was put into place at Woodside ferry terminal in Wirral at the weekend.

The final section – the bow – of the U534 submarine was transported from Birkenhead docks to sit alongside the four other sections for what will become an unusual tourist attraction.

Merseytravel had bought the submarine, previously part of the historic warship collection at Birkenhead, last year after it closed due to funding problems.

One of believed to be only five surviving World War Two Nazi U- boats, the U534 had been sliced up using diamond covered wire - described as being like cheese wire on a far larger scale - and moved by the Mersey Mammoth floating crane.

Over the course of last week the pieces were moved and slotted into place next to the ferry terminal building.

Chief executive of Merseytravel Neil Scales was there on Saturday to see the final piece arrive.

He said: “The weather interfered with the move of the third section on Wednesday but sections one and two went very well. And I was very pleased that the first section of 240 tonnes was lifted off the dock onto the crane successfully on Monday and then floated down here.

“So we’re very happy in total with the way it’s gone.

“Basically the U-boat itself is about 1,200 tonnes in weight, so you can’t move it by road because the bridges won’t take that sort of weight.

“Secondly, to see inside it, you need to be an Olympic athlete. So we thought that by sectioning it into parts of not more than 250 tonnes means we can move it more easily but also makes it fully accessible for people to see what it was like to be in one of these.

“The visitor centre will tell the story of U534 as well.

“So there are two reasons for sectioning it. We used a diamond cutter rather than a blow torch which is very neat. So at some point you could put all the pieces back together again – and we might do that in the future.

“We’re going to build a visitor centre which will be open in July or August this year – certainly ready for when the tall ships come back. You can really see what a tough life these guys had sailing this thing.”

“We’ll dig out the ramp which was used to put all five sections into the graving dock, then the U-boat sections will be jacked down into the final position. Then we’ll start constructing the visitor centre around it.

“Because we’ve put pretty big lumps of steel on either side of each section for strenghtening and lifting purposes we would be able to lift them out at a future point if we had to.

“Then what will happen is we’ve been in touch with the LairdFoundation and some of the Cammell Laird apprentices will be used to put the decking on which will be good experience for them and a very interesting project.

“They are also going to totally refurbish the Resurgam 2 which we will bring back in the late summer as well. It will be a good place to come and visit.”

Merseytravel is building up a portfolio of tourist attractions in and around the Mersey Ferries to encourage people to spend more time on and around the river.

Mr Scales said: “We’ve got a Royal Charter which means we have to operate a ferry across the river and the only way you would ever get out of that is to have a piece of primary legislation through Parliament which is never going to happen.”

“We took the decision in 1999 to invest in the ferries and bring them into the visitor and tourism economy rather than just a passage across the river.”

He highlighted Spaceport at Seacombe which also has the children’s Pirates Paradise play area and a cafe, and the planned off-shoot of the Beatles Story at the Pier Head terminal in Liverpool.

Mr Scales said: “Linking it all together you have a full day out on the river.”