SM UB-88

SM UB-88 was a German Type UB III submarine or U-boat in the German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) during World War I. She was commissioned into the German Imperial Navy on 26 January 1918 as SM UB-88.

Construction
She was built by AG Vulcan of Hamburg and following just under a year of construction, launched at Hamburg on 11 December 1917. UB-88 was commissioned early the next year under the command of Oblt.z.S. Johannes Ries. Like all Type UB III submarines, UB-88 carried 10 torpedoes and was armed with a 10.5 cm deck gun. UB-88 would carry a crew of up to 3 officers and 31 men and had a cruising range of 7,120 nmi. UB-88 had a displacement of 510 t while surfaced and 640 t when submerged. Her engines enabled her to travel at 13 kn when surfaced and 7.4 kn when submerged.

Service history
UB-88 was surrendered to the United States on 26 November 1918 in accordance with the requirements of the Armistice with Germany. She was refurbished and did an exhibition tour in 1919 from New York, down the East Coast, and up the Mississippi River before passing through the Panama Canal and touring the West Coast as far north as Seattle, Washington.

After having all useful parts and salvage stripped from her, she was sunk as a target on 3 January 1921 in waters off Los Angeles County, California. The propellers were saved and placed on display in the city of San Pedro but were stolen in 1923 by metal thieves and were never recovered.

The wreck of the vessel was found in July 2003 using publicly available sonar data from the Pacific Seafloor Mapping project. She sits upright approximately 12 km south of the entrance to the Port of Los Angeles at a depth of 190 ft. The outer hull has corroded revealing the inner pressure hull. Divers have entered the wreck and found the interior to be almost completely bare. As she was given a special commission to the United States Navy, she is protected by the Sunken Military Craft Act.