The R-8 was used in 1936 as a target in aerial bomb testing off the coast of Delmarva. Submitted Photo
OCEAN CITY — A World War I-era submarine sent to the bottom of the sea in a bombing training mission in the 1930s was recently located on the ocean floor of the coast of Ocean City.
Atlantic Wreck Salvage (AWS) and the crew of researchers on the D/V Tenacious on Thursday announced the discovery of the submarine known simply as R-8 off the coast of Ocean City. The vessel has yet to be dived and visually identified, but based on side-scan sonar, the location of the site and the historical record, the research team firmly believes it to be the R-8, a submarine sunk by experimental aerial bomb testing in 1936. The discovery is historically significant because the R-8 is one a few American submarines from that era resting in east coast waters that had yet to have been located.