Left to Right: MMS Director Johnnie Burton, Robert Church, Daniel Warren, and
Offshore Minerals Management Associate Director Tom Readinger

The MMS honors marine archaeologists Mr. Robert Church and Mr. Daniel Warren for their exceptional contribution to the history of the Gulf of Mexico OCS. They discovered the lost German submarine U-166 in nearly 5,000 feet of water in the Mississippi Canyon area. While serving as consultants to Shell and BP Oil for their NaKika Pipeline project, they persuaded their clients to expand their remote sensing survey area. This expanded area included two potentially significant shipwrecks that had been located in a 1986 survey by Shell. A German U-boat sank one of these wrecks, the passenger steamer Robert E. Lee, on July 30, 1942. The second target, located less than a mile away, was unidentifiable from the low–resolution image obtained by this early deepwater survey.

Since Shell and BP proposed to route the pipeline between the two sites, Mr. Church and Mr. Warren convinced them to expand their surveys to ensure that pipeline construction would not adversely affect debris fields surrounding either site. Using their revolutionary new Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, the Hugin 3000, C&C Technology acquired sidescan sonar and multibeam data at both sites. While analyzing these data, Mr. Church and Mr. Warren discovered that the size and configuration of the second target closely matched that of the only German U-boat lost in the Gulf of Mexico in World War II, the U-166.

Of the 24 U-boats that preyed on U.S. and allied shipping in the Gulf of Mexico during World War II, the only one reported lost was the U-166. Historians long believed that the U-166 was the submarine bombarded south of Houma by the crew of a U.S. Coast Guard torpedo plane on August 1, 1942. The pilot and radioman of the aircraft were both decorated after the war. They sank the U-boat some 130 miles west of where Mr. Church and Mr. Warren had identified their suspicious sonar target.

When the two archaeologists discovered that a second U-boat, the U-171, was in the Gulf on August 1, 2 days after the Robert E. Lee sank the discrepancy was resolved. The U-171 was most likely the vessel sighted but not sunk by the Coast Guard plane. The U-171 had survived the aerial bombardment and had made it safely out of the Gulf only to sink from a mine in its homeport of Lorient, France. Because of this research, Mr. Church and Mr. Warren surmised that the Coast Guard had not destroyed the U-166, but rather sunk by depth charges from the Lee’s U.S. Navy escort vessel, the PC-566.

In May 2001, Mr. Church and Mr. Warren reported their hypothesis to MMS. They subsequently were instrumental in collecting additional remote sensing data at a much higher resolution that left little doubt that the mysterious target was, in fact, a German submarine. Within days, BP and Shell sponsored a remotely operated vehicle investigation of the site to collect video footage of the two wrecks. Mr. Church and Mr. Warren, along with archaeologists from MMS, successfully identified the sub as the U-166, a type IXC German U-boat. A news conference, held at the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, announced the find. At present, the U-166 discovery is the subject of a documentary for the History Channel produced by the German television network ZDF. The network plans to broadcast the documentary in the spring of 2002.

Because of Mr. Church and Mr. Warren’s dedication and diligence, BP and Shell Oil elected to move their proposed pipeline well away from the sites of the U-166 and the Robert E. Lee. This assisted MMS in fulfilling its obligation to protect historic resources that may be affected by its actions. Because of Mr. Church and Mr. Warren’s work, MMS received favorable exposure in many worldwide newspaper reports, industry publications, and an upcoming History Channel documentary. Finally, their efforts to go beyond what was merely required resulted in a discovery that literally has re-written the history of the Gulf during World War II. Their work solved an enduring mystery, provided closure for the families and descendants of the crew of the U-166, and brought long overdue credit to the wartime action of the men of the PC-566.

For these reasons, Mr. Church and Mr. Warren are most deserving of the MMS Corporate Leadership Award.