Norway recovers 22 mercury containers from Nazi U-boat wreck sunk in 1945
Norwegian authorities have recovered 22 containers of mercury from the wreck of a Nazi U-boat, U-864, which was sunk by a British submarine in 1945. The recovery is part of an ongoing effort to mitigate environmental risks posed by the hazardous cargo.
Why it matters
The operation addresses a long-standing environmental threat from World War II-era shipwrecks that contain toxic materials on the ocean floor.
In February 1945, the British submarine HMS Venturer sank the German U-boat U-864 off Norway’s Fedje island, killing all 73 people aboard. More than eight decades later, the wreck has become the centre of a very different problem: a potentially massive mercury cargo that remains on the seabed. In June 2026, Norwegian authorities recovered 22 mercury containers from the wreck during an underwater investigation, as per a report by Diario AS.According to Norway’s Coastal Administration, Kystverket, a wartime Japanese order found in British archives referred to 1,867 mercury containers intended for U-864. If the entire shipment was loaded, it would have amounted to between 65 and 67 tonnes of metallic mercury.
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