Off the coast of Uruguay near the port
of Monte Vido lies one of the most
mysterious and dangerous Nazi warships
from World War II, the Admiral Graph
Spe. This is the wreck of the Graph Spay
lying on the seafloor just 65 ft under
the South Atlantic. Rusted from the
passage of time and covered completely
in silt and barnacles, no one could have
expected that this longforgotten vessel
hid such dark secrets.
What started as a simple expedition to
uncover artifacts turned into one of the
strangest discoveries made out in the
seas.
One thing is certain, what divers found
inside the sealed compartments of the
graph speed will leave you completely
stunned. But before I reveal the
shocking truth about the graphs, we must
first talk about why this specific ship
was so important that the Allied forces
hunted it across the seas as if their
lives depended on it.
Birth of a legend.
Admiral Graphsp was a terror on the sea.
It prowled like a shadow, huge, fast,
and packing some serious firepower. By
the time the enemy saw it, it was too
late. Fire and explosions awaited
anything that came across this warship’s
path.
And the secret behind it all was
deception.
Deception and lies. The graph speed was
supposedly a pocket battleship. But from
its very conception, the warship was
meant to break rules. The keel of the
warship was laid on October 1st, 1932.
And under the treaty of Versailles
enforced after World War I, ships like
these couldn’t be over 10,000 long tons.
The graph speed was supposed to follow
those requirements and on paper it did.
The reality was far different. The graph
speed had a full load displacement of
16,020 long tons when it was launched in
1934,
going completely against the treaty.
Two years later, the ship was
commissioned into the German service.
The graph speed was a force to be
reckoned with. The 610 ft warship
boasted six 11in guns as its primary
arament and eight 5.9 in guns as a
secondary battery.
Additionally, it also featured strong
anti-aircraft capabilities.
The graph speed was more than a
fortress. It had more firepower than any
other ship in its weight class. And that
didn’t mean it was slow. Powering the
whole thing were four 9 cylinder
double-acting two-stroke diesel engines,
giving it a top speed of 28.5 knots. The
formula the Germans had come up with was
incredibly simple. Any ship that could
have outguned the graph speed could
never catch up to it, and any ship that
could catch up to it couldn’t have
outguned it. With that simple idea,
Germany had designed and created the
apex predator of the sea.
Nothing stood a chance against the
terror of the seas.
The apex predator
graphy’s career before World War II was
quite uneventful. It was during the war
that it really got to shine. Under the
command of Hans Londorf, the Graphspe
was sent out to sea with only one goal
in mind,
to hunt down and destroy Allied supply
ships. The aim was to [ __ ] the supply
route that were fueling the war and when
Graph Spe set out to hunt, it did not
disappoint.
SS Clement was the first to go, its
captain imprisoned, and the ship sunk.
Next came Newton Beach, and after that,
seven more followed. Graph’s speed had
become a symbol of destruction for any
ship that cited it. It had sunk nine
merchant ships without causing a single
casualty. That’s because the graph speed
had strict orders to follow the prize
rules in combat. These rules ensured
that the crew of the ship being attacked
was evacuated before it was sunk.
The hunt.
While this success must have been joyous
to the Germans, it was equally as
distressing for the Allied forces. The
British realized the extent of the
danger they were facing if they let
graphs speed roam freely. It was too
dangerous, too advanced a ship to be
left alone. And so a hunt began. The
British and French Navy pulled their
resources, forming eight groups of
warships. All eight groups had the same
purpose, to find and hunt down the graph
speed.
How one boat inspired such terror is
impressive. One of these groups
consisting of three cruisers, Exiter,
Ajax, and Achilles caught up with Graph
Speed near Uruguay in a confrontation
known as the Battle of the River Plate.
What followed was a tremendous fight.
The massive guns on the ships tearing
holes into each other, killing men in a
matter of seconds. When the dust
settled, there was no clear winner. The
Graph Spe was battered and damaged, but
the Allied ships were even worse off.
Graph’s speed damaged exit so severely
that it had to flee. Ajax took a few
hits as well and in the meantime Graph’s
speed had gotten away. Undefeated, the
captains retreated with their ships.
Respite.
Hans Longdorf managed to sail his
battered ship into port and was granted
permission to stay for 4 days to conduct
repairs. When he assessed the damage,
things were not looking good. Graphspe
had been hit 70 times during the
confrontation.
36 of the crew were dead and 60 were
wounded. Langdorf himself had been hit
twice by shrapnel. Worst of all, two key
components of the ship were now badly
damaged. The oil purification plant and
the desalination plant. Without those,
sailing to Germany was going to be
impossible.
On top of that, Langdorf was hearing
disturbing rumors. According to the
newspapers, there was an even larger
navy force gathering to confront the
graph speed as soon as it left harbor.
Langdorf was in a tough position. He
only had two options left. Stay at port
or attempt to break out of the blockade.
Staying at the port wasn’t possible
since sooner or later the enemy would be
granted access to the ship by the
Uruguayan government. And breaking out
would mean losing even more lives.
Langdorf went for a third option to
scuttle the ship. He took a portion of
the crew with him, took the graph out
away from the port, and set up scuttling
charges.
Soon after, the ship exploded into
flames, and the legend that had once
roamed the seas as the apex predator was
laid to rest. The fire burned for 2 days
non-stop, and the column of smoke could
be seen from the port for even longer.
But Langdorf had no idea he had made a
terrible mistake. Turned out the graph
speed was not as trapped in the port as
Langdorf had thought. The whole thing
about British forces gathering to ambush
was just lies.
Propaganda pandered by the British
authorities to spook Langdorf. In
reality, only one ship had come to back
up the Ajax and the Achilles. The graph
speed had a reasonable chance of
breaking out, but the captain never knew
that. However, the saga did not end
there. There was one more act yet to
play out. A very tragic and sad act.
Hans Langdorf, ever the beautiful
captain, probably realized his mistake
and decided to make amends. He got in
his full dress uniform in his room in
the Buenos Cyres Hotel and shot himself
while lying on the ship’s battle
insignia.
Earlier, he had already written a letter
explaining what had prompted him to make
the decision to scuttle the ship and why
he thought it was the right thing to do.
Sometimes ships outlast the legacy of
their captains. The story of Graph Spe
was far from over. In fact, it had only
just begun.
The Wreck
The wreck of the graph speed happened to
be in a rather shallow part of the
ocean. For decades, the top part of the
ship jutted out of the ocean during low
tide. As time passed, the ship started
to fall victim to the elements. It began
to rust and the sea life took over.
But the wreck did not fall into
obscurity. It could be seen from the
port. So naturally, many wanted to go
out and see the wreck up close. and they
did in rented boats and rarely with
scuba gear. Over time, a layer of silt
settled over the ship. The winds and
storms broke it apart until eventually,
decades after its scuttling, the whole
thing was finally covered in water, even
during low tide.
The pieces that had jutted out were now
broken off, scattered nearby on the
ocean floor. The main body was sinking
deeper and deeper into the ocean bed,
listing heavily. At last, the feared
graph came to its last resting position,
down on its side, half buried and half
covered in coral. By all means, this
should have been a fitting end to the
legend.
The curiosity.
But instead of fading into the annals of
history like many others, this Nazi
warship began garnering even more
attention. There was always a question
that hung in the air for those who were
interested in the history of World War
II.
And the question was simple. What
secrets did the graph speed hide within
its bowels? In answer were only more
questions. What were the things the crew
had left in there before scuttling it?
Why had the captain chosen to scuttle
the ship rather than abandon it?
Graphspe was, after all, one of the most
important ships in the German Navy. And
ever since it was sunk, no one had
accessed those sealed vaults and
chambers within it. The curiosity just
won’t go away. But little did they know
that their curiosity would lead to
discoveries that would blow their minds.
A British inspection.
The first ones to try to explore the
graph speed were none other than the
British. The Navy officials went in
quietly. Their main interest, the
technology on board. They wanted to see
how advanced the radar and fire control
systems of the ship were, which had
given the German Navy such an advantage
during the war. The hope was to find
some new tech that had survived the
scuttling to maybe advance the
technology Britain had.
Britain was no stranger to reverse
engineering German tech, and this was a
golden opportunity. Unfortunately for
them, the crew had been quite thorough
in destroying everything important.
After all, they were no amateurs. They
knew that if any of this information
fell into the enemy’s hands, it would
spell disaster.
So, when scuttling, they had destroyed
anything and everything. And to top it
off, they had spread all the ammunition
around the ship before setting off the
scuttling charges just to really make
sure everything was destroyed.
The findings from the British expedition
were never really made public. It was
one of those hush hush operations done
in as much secrecy as possible. And
since wartime records are still sealed
in most cases, we will not know those
findings anytime soon.
A dangerous expedition.
After the British had left, the graph
speed nearly fell into obscurity. But
legends don’t die so easily. In the
early 2000s, there were talks of an
exploration mission. With the backing of
private funders, local divers were being
recruited to do an expedition to the
wreck.
The aim was to retrieve some of the
artifacts buried within the ship. This
mission was going to be tough. While the
wreck was indeed in shallow waters, that
didn’t mean diving into it was going to
be safe. The cloud of silt and dirt
reduced visibility, while the strong
ocean current made every movement more
taxing on the body. But these divers
knew these waters like the back of their
hand. They were locals.
They knew what they were getting into
and were ready for it. The expedition
took place in 2004 and it was every bit
as challenging as expected. But the
efforts were about to be worth it
because what the divers found was enough
to blow the minds of the experts around
the globe.
The first find of the expedition was the
gunnery range finding telemeter of the
graph speed. It was a critical piece of
equipment that allowed the crew to track
the target and fire with precision. It
must have played a key role in its last
fight against the British ships. The
massive piece was retrieved and brought
back to the surface as a marvel of World
War II engineering. But the more
significant find turned out to be a Nazi
memorabilia.
The divers uncovered a 6’7 statue of an
eagle bearing the Nazi swastika. The
statue was made out of bronze and
weighed nearly 900 lb. No one was
expecting to find this statue in the
wreck. Turned out it had once been
placed at the stern of Graphspe, a sign
of the Nazi ideals and pride. But this
was far from being the strangest thing
found aboard Graphspy’s wreck. As the
experts found out later,
the fate of the statue.
The eagle statue became the center of
controversy as soon as it was found. It
made international news and no one
seemed to be able to figure out what to
do with it. First, it was placed as an
exhibit, but the public complained
saying it was glorifying Nazis.
It was quickly taken off the display and
placed in a warehouse. Since then, the
statue has remained out of public sight.
The Uruguayan government at last came to
the conclusion of melting down the
statue and having an artist turn it into
a dove statue, a symbol of peace. After
the backlash, they retracted that
decision in no time, too. Punta DeLstee,
a Jewish businessman, even offered to
buy the eagle just so he could blow it
up.
But as expected, the government refused
to entertain that offer. The Nazi statue
became a point of contention. If it were
destroyed, it would be destroying a
piece of history, no matter how hateful.
And if it was kept and exhibited in a
museum, there was the accusation of
holding on to Nazi symbols. Even today,
no one knows what to do with the statue.
What hides in the wreck?
Despite these staggering discoveries,
the divers knew there was more yet to be
explored. They had only been able to
access a small portion of the wreck. A
lot more of it remained untouched,
sealed away from the world.
And these inaccessible compartments
happened to be the most important ones
on the ship. They included the captain’s
cabins, the command center, and the
communication room.
The most important things on the entire
ship would have been stored in one of
these rooms.
Who knew what was inside these hidden
compartments? Secret messages to Berlin,
treasures, maybe even information on
secret missions. The theories were
everywhere in the diving community. With
that one expedition, the divers had
opened a Pandora’s box of questions. And
until they got the answers, the world
was not going to rest.
Unfortunately, the diving team didn’t
have the technology or the funding just
yet to reach the sealed chambers. This
ship was too damaged, too old, and the
conditions were too dangerous. Getting
to the sealed vaults would mean death,
so any attempt at uncovering the secrets
was halted.
A new expedition.
It wasn’t until 2025 that another
expedition was launched. An
international effort with experts from
around the world coming together to plan
an exploration mission of the graph
speeds wreck.
But accessing the wreck was just as
dangerous as it was during the 2004
expedition. It was the same strong
currents and low visibility making every
wrong move deadly. But there was one big
difference. The difference in
technology.
With the backing of organizations in the
United Kingdom, Germany, the US, and
Uruguay, the divers were able to bring
in fully autonomous submersibles to get
the job done. That way, no divers’s life
was going to be in danger.
These submersibles were fitted with
state-of-the-art tech such as sediment
penetrating radar, ultra highfrequency
sonars, and 3D photoggramometry rigs.
The wreck that had been badly damaged
could now be explored safely.
These submersibles, really small in
size, could access the inner chambers,
which humans couldn’t get to due to the
tight squeezes and the inherent danger
of diving in an unstable wreck. And what
they found had the whole world shocked.
Initially, the divers found nothing of
great interest, but that was because
they hadn’t made it yet to their
ultimate goal, accessing the section
just behind the ship’s conning tower.
This part of the ship had never been
explored since the scuttling, meaning if
the divers were going to find anything
of value, this was the spot.
Kronos descent.
And to get to this spot, the divers
deployed the Kronos, a submersible
custom made for dangerous missions like
this one. With everything in order, the
descent began. The submersible took to
the sea, approaching the wreck swiftly.
Navigating through the wreck, the
submersible soon came across the sealed
compartment, but the door was closed
shut as it had been for decades.
However, the Kronos was equipped to
handle this. It employed one of its
mechanical arms to open the hatch. It
took some effort, but the operators
managed to open it. And inside they saw
something unexpected. The compartment
was remarkably well preserved. The
reason why was right there in front of
them, silt. The fine material had
covered everything inside the
compartment, preserving it by shielding
it from the elements. It was everything
the marine archaeologist could have
hoped for. But what was even more
startling were the contents of the
chamber. There was the usual stuff you
would expect to find on a warship, like
shelves, cabinets, and tables.
But the attention of the operators was
immediately drawn to one thing inside
the room. It was a metal case covered in
silt, but still holding its shape. Could
it be completely sealed even now? What
did it contain?
What valuable artifacts or documents
could the captain and officers on the
graph speed have kept within it? Those
were all the questions that ran through
the minds of the operators. And to get
to the answer, they had to retrieve the
locked box.
Then came another surprise. The
visibility was not great, but what the
operators managed to see was an outline
of the Nazi eagle insignia right there
on the metal case. This case was
definitely of German origins and
probably contained something very, very
important.
The retrieval began soon after. The
submersible was not up to such complex
tasks, so it was sailed back. Divers
then started planning a second dive,
this time with the proper equipment
needed to conduct a retrieval mission.
Meanwhile, everyone was wondering about
the metal case inside the ship. The
divers counted a total of three weather
sealed storage trucks, and the vault
they were found in was accessible only
to the top officers during the ship’s
life. Not only that, but they were
placed in such a way that they weren’t
easy to spot. Were they being hidden? If
so, why? No one knew the answer, but
soon they would find out.
Retrieval.
The sealed containers were brought to
the surface through the combined effort
of the whole diving team. It was no easy
task, but it was done expertly and with
practiced efficiency. Thankfully, no
lives were lost in the process. With the
trunks now in front of them, it was time
to open them up. Mystery lingered all
around the sealed trunks, and with just
one hand movement opening the lid, it
would all come to fruition.
All those hours of diving into the
dangerous waters were going to be paid
off. And when the trunks were finally
opened, it shocked everyone watching.
None of the historians could believe
their eyes at what they were seeing. As
each one of the trunks was opened in a
clean room, more and more pieces of
World War II history began unfolding.
Revelations.
First, they took out paper documents
kept within the trunks. The paper had
been expertly preserved using oil cloth
and sealed in a waxed enclosure. And on
these papers were records and coated
transmissions used by the graph speed
crew.
Each piece revealed more and more about
how the ship operated and how in the
pre-digital world warfare was being
conducted. But when these documents were
read closely, they revealed even more
shocking secrets.
Some of the documents were marked with
high-level codes, meaning they were for
the eyes of the top brass. Several even
had the insignia of Zikri Slidong
stamped on them. These documents were
going to be extremely valuable, not only
for historians who could use them to
piece together more of World War II’s
timeline, but also for collectors who
would pay big bucks for these items.
These documents included logs and
guidelines for the ship to follow,
outlining strategies during combat and
navigation issued by the Nazi high
command. One tactic mentioned showed how
the Graph Spe used to tail neutral
flagged cargo vessels in order to hide
its radar signature.
The documents also revealed that the
Graph Spe had access to more information
on enemy movements and better
communication with Berlin than
previously thought.
Experts long believed the graphi was
most of the time issuing its own
commands, but the documents showed that
the ship was in touch with Berlin way
more often. These documents challenged
what we knew of the war. The history was
changing in front of the experts eyes.
Many theories were confirmed and many
more were debunked based on these
records. It was a treasure trove of
information, but then again, that was by
far the least interesting find the
trunks contained.
There were also some notebooks and
papers containing the scribbles and
thoughts of the officers aboard the
graph speed. It was their personal
opinions right there on paper, often
showing discontent with the orders from
the high command on the ship’s movements
and tactics. These notes showed that
after all, the sailors manning these
seas were human beings.
and they too had their doubts about the
war and how it was being managed. It
gave the wreck a human aspect, showing
how despite being a Nazi warship, the
graph speed was once the home of many
souls. Several of them died on board
during the only battle the ship ever
fought,
the Enigma of the seas.
And now to the most interesting find of
the bunch. Two encryption machines
similar to the Enigma machines used by
the Germans. Only these ones were
especially modified for the needs of the
graph speed and naval communication
and that alone made them extremely
unique.
These machines were used by the graph
speed to communicate with underwater
submarines. The discovery of these
machines sheds more light on how the
warships and submarines communicated and
planned out their attacks during World
War II.
With two of these custom machines at
hand, cryptographers had just caught a
new glimpse into the ingenuity used
during World War II to run the Naval War
of Germany. And to top it all off, the
divers also found a configuration sheet
for the machines extremely well
preserved, same as the other documents.
Another landmark discovery and
understanding World War II cryptography.
With this configuration sheet, they
could reconstruct the cipher cycles used
back then,
ghost ships.
But the surprises were not over yet.
Many of the documents found in the
trunks revealed something even more
shocking. The officers had been talking
about German vessels operating across
the ocean alongside graph speed during
the war.
However, there were no such vessels
recorded in the war records. That raised
an important question. Did Germany have
more vessels sailing the seas and
hunting the Allied ships during the war
than we are told?
If so, shouldn’t there be other records
of those vessels being cited or being
tracked? To be honest, there should be,
but the governments involved aren’t very
keen on making those records public.
These logs from the graph speed are our
only source for information on these
mystery vessels for now, at least until
more records are unsealed to confirm or
deny the existence of these ships.
All of this has been from just one
chamber opened in the graph speed. Just
one single chamber. Who knows what more
lies hidden in the other unopened
vaults. And judging by the significance
of the finds, the other chambers could
hold information and artifacts equally
as valuable and historical in nature.
This wreck could be hiding things that
will change what we know of history.
The graph speed is not done giving and
no doubt it won’t stop providing more
groundbreaking discoveries anytime in
the near future with so much yet to
explore. With that we are done for
today. Why did the documents from graph
speed conflict so much with what we know
of World War II? Is the government
trying to hide something? Let me know
your theories in the comments down
below. I would love to read them all.
And while you are at it, be sure to like
the video, share it, and subscribe to
the channel. Until next time, goodbye
and stay curious.