NOAA Ship RONALD H. BROWN, R-104
Commander Wade J. Blake, NOAA
Commanding Officer (acting)
09 October 2003
On the occasion of laying a wreath
over the wrecks of the United States passenger freighter Robert
E. Lee and the German submarine U-166 in the Gulf of Mexico.
We are gathered here to place this
wreath and remember the people from both the United States and
Germany who were killed when the passenger freighter Robert E.
Lee and the submarine U-166 both sank, over 61 years ago, in
this very place.
For many years the fate and the
remains of the German submarine U-166 and its crew remained
undiscovered. Now, through cooperative efforts, we have been
able to more completely document their final resting place.
History, and ultimately the price of
war, lay strewn on the seafloor almost a mile below us. Let us
take a moment to pause and remember all those who were lost at sea
on that fateful day in 1942, and also remember the families, in both
countries, that were left behind when our nations were at war.
