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The Vanished Golden Submarine’s Final Journey and Fate

Khalid Elhassan December 8, 2024 14 min

I-52 - Underwater wreckage of the Golden Submarine — Underwater wreckage of the Golden Submarine. National Geographic

1. Rediscovering the I-52 Half a Century Later

I-52 - Sinking site of the I-52 — Sinking site of the I-52. Sixtant

Five decades later, Paul Tidwell found the Golden Submarine’s remains in a debris field three miles beneath the Atlantic. The I-52 was resting mostly upright, with her conning tower and hull number still visible. Plans to raise the submarine were objected to by the Japanese government, which considered the wreck site a grave. Tidwell eventually worked out an agreement that allowed him to recover the submarine’s cargo, put it on display, then return all artifacts – except the gold – to Japan. In the end, however, the recovery efforts only managed to locate a single box of opium, but no gold.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Combined Fleet – Sensuikan! IJN Submarine I-52: Tabular Record of Movement

History Collection – Agent 50: The Heroic Spy Who Saved Hundreds From Japanese Clutches in World War II

Nauticos – I-52

Naval Historical Society of Australia – I-52, Japan’s Golden Submarine, Sunk in the Atlantic in 1944

New York Times, July 18^th, 1995 – Lost Japanese Submarine With 2 Tons of Axis Gold Found on Floor of Atlantic

Pacific Wrecks – I-52 Japanese Submarine

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.