- "Tarn gave a small bark of a laugh. 'Yes. Yes, good. Kindling. Yes, I do have special kindling in the form of a somewhat ancient Russian submarine. She's old, rusty, noisy, I think a little leaky also, but I've put money into her as well.'"
- ― SeaFire.
The Type VIIC U-boat was an attack submarine operated by Nazi Germany's navy, the Kriegsmarine, during the Second World War. A depiction of a Type VIIC U-boat was used prominently in John Gardner's 1994 James Bond continuation novel, SeaFire.
Appearances[]
In the Autumn of 1993 Sir Max Tarn acquired an old Type VIIC U-boat.[2] With its Cyrillic labels and modifications, the black, rust-encrusted former German submarine had probably been captured by the Russians and converted for their own use until they began building their own fleet during the Cold War. Among the improvements included more-modern escape equipment — state-of-the-art escape trunks fore and aft, with a hatch hidden from the companionway below. The vessel was initially armed with three torpedoes. However, in late February of '94[2], one was wasted in a costly error of judgment by the craft's inebriated captain, Jock Anderson, who inadvertently fired upon one of Tarn's own cruise liners, the Caribbean Prince. It was housed at Tarn's villa on the island of Puerto Rico, near the town of Ponce, on the Caribbean side. To keep its presence a secret, the vessel was kept in a cave behind a thick mesh curtain camouflaged in the colours of the surrounding rock.
The U-boat was intended for use in a practical demonstration of anti-oil-pollution technology (AAOPS), dubbed "Operation SeaFire". On 30th April 1994[2], the submarine would intercept an oil tanker off the north coast of Puerto Rico. She would torpedo the vessel - creating the natural disaster which another experimental vessel would neutralize; spraying a foam which would suck up the resulting oil spill and purify the water. Knowing that the AAOPS was incapable of preventing the catastrophe, British operative James Bond boarded and sabotaged the submarine with explosives before it could fire on the tanker.
Behind the scenes[]
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