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Lost Military · Found, unrecovered

The Golden Submarine I-52

Sank 1944 · located 1995, Mid-Atlantic, ~1,200 mi W of the Cape Verde Islands
COLD TRAIL
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

The Golden Submarine I-52: still unexplained.

2.2 tons of Japanese gold bound for Nazi Germany

The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
2.2 tons of Japanese gold bound for Nazi Germany
Last known, where the trail went cold
The wreck sits at ~5,200 m on the abyssal plain; her 146 gold bars remain in the hull.
The account

On her maiden run the I-52 carried gold, tungsten, and opium across the world to pay Hitler for technology, and US codebreakers read her every move. A hunter-killer group found her in the dark Atlantic and an acoustic torpedo did the rest. She lies three miles down, located in 1995 by a treasure expedition; the gold is still aboard, too deep, so far, to lift.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • A Japanese submarine sunk in the mid-Atlantic in 1944 while carrying two tons of gold to Nazi Germany; it was found in 1995 by Paul Tidwell at about 5,200 meters.
  • The wreck is located but the gold has never been recovered, blocked by the extreme depth and by legal and cost questions.
  • The lead is the well-documented cargo manifest and the precise deep-Atlantic position.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • A Japanese submarine sunk in the mid-Atlantic in 1944 while carrying two tons of gold to Nazi Germany; it was found in 1995 by Paul Tidwell at about 5,200 meters.
  • The wreck is located but the gold has never been recovered, blocked by the extreme depth and by legal and cost questions.
  • The lead is the well-documented cargo manifest and the precise deep-Atlantic position.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 15.200°, -39.600° (approx.) View on the Map