Stories of monsters lurking within the world's oceans are nothing new, having persisted in folklore and maritime tradition for centuries.

In previous episodes, including our sister series, Wartime Stories, we have examined some of the most notorious examples.

Yet despite centuries of exploration, the deep remains one of the least

understood environments on Earth. Vast stretches of the ocean floor have never been seen by human eyes.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise then that some still believe unimaginable things may be

hiding down there, within a cold and

unforgiving realm known simply as the lair of the Leviathan. The If you have been a subscriber or even a casual consumer of our content,

then you have almost certainly encountered stories

involving alleged sea monsters before.

Perhaps the most infamous example we have covered to date

is the tale of Captain Gunth the Kreck

and the crew of the Imperial German submarine UB85.

On the 30th of April 1918, Captain Kreck and the 34 sailors under his command were rescued by the Royal Navy after being discovered adrift off the coast of Belfast.

According to the story that would later circulate among sailors and maritime enthusiasts, Kreck informed his

captors that his crew had fallen victim to a monstrous creature. The entity was said to

climbed onto the bow of the submarine whilst it lay motionless on the surface, its lookout scanning

the horizon for potential targets. Although the crew eventually succeeded in driving

the creature away, it allegedly caused substantial damage to one of the vessel's forward

hatches in the process. Unable to stem the flow of seawater flooding into the submarine,

Creck and his men were ultimately forced to abandon UB85 before being captured sometime later by British forces.

The story made the rounds for almost a century before entering the wider public consciousness in 2016,

when divers surveying underwater power cables located the wreck of the long-lost submarine.

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