Originally Posted by
_Agrajag_
Did anyone make a fuss when we recovered a sunk U boat off the north of Ireland to salvage it's non-nuclear steel for use in medical scanners decades ago?
Non-nuclear steel (steel smelted before Hiroshima) attracts a hefty price premium. It's a dwindling resource that cannot be replenished. Everyone is salvaging it where they can.
You may be referring to one of the German submarines ("U-Boats") deliberately scuttled at sea by the Royal Navy post-war.
The day before the conclusion of hostilities in Europe, all sea-going submarines of the Kriegsmarine received instructions from Karl Doenitz (nice moniker, by the way) to surface and surrender themselves at one or two allied ports. Apart from a few of the later designs which were distributed between the victor-nations for research and development purposes, the remainder were assembled in Loch Foyle and, in a massive operation lasting around 3 months under the auspices of Operation
Deadlight, all were towed to a location around 150km north of Ireland and scuttled.
All were unmanned and, so far as I am aware, there were no casualties.