Paukenschlag, Hardegen, and the SS Octavian

This book is not a mystery novel. I did not write it in that form, with clues, false leads, red herrings, and a revelatory climax with a twist ending. In form, this book is more of a research procedural. It is not about an unidentified perpetrator who meets a just fate. There is little justice in the real world, in which the perpetrator goes free while his victims remain dead, buried, and for the most part neglected or forgotten. This is not to say that a great deal of detective work was not required in order to achieve an ultimate conclusion. In that sense, this book is about what the police call a "cold case:" one that was never solved and remains open on the books. This crime occurred in 1942. Its case was not solved until 2018: seventy-six years after its commission. To skip to the chase: Sean Manni discovered a shipwreck; Rusty Cassway identified it. "It" is the steamship Octavian, torpedoed by a German U-boat during World War Two. How these situations were set in motion, what predicaments resulted, and what circumstances eventuated, are subjects of the present volume. The tale is long and convoluted, filled with side trips that set the pace for a group of individuals known as "wreck-divers." This is their story. This book is not a mystery novel. I did not write it in that form, with clues, false leads, red herrings, and a revelatory climax with a twist ending. In form, this book is more of a research procedural. It is not about an unidentified perpetrator who meets a just fate. There is little justice in the real world, in which the perpetrator goes free while his victims remain dead, buried, and for the most part neglected or forgotten. This is not to say that a great deal of detective work was not required in order to achieve an ultimate conclusion. In that sense, this book is about what the police call a "cold case:" one that was never solved and remains open on the books. This crime occurred in 1942. Its case was not solved until 2018: seventy-six years after its commission. To skip to the chase: Sean Manni discovered a shipwreck; Rusty Cassway identified it. "It" is the steamship Octavian, torpedoed by a German U-boat during World War Two. How these situations were set in motion, what predicaments resulted, and what circumstances eventuated, are subjects of the present volume. The tale is long and convoluted, filled with side trips that set the pace for a group of individuals known as "wreck-divers." This is their story.