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SM UC-57

1916 Type UC II submarine

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ821136 ↗
Source-derived summary

SM UC-57 was a German Type UC II minelaying submarine or U-boat in the German Imperial Navy (German: Kaiserliche Marine) during World War I. The U-boat was ordered on 12 January 1916, laid down on 14 March 1916, and was launched on 7 September 1916. She was commissioned into the German Imperial Navy on 22 January 1917 as SM UC-57. In seven patrols UC-57 was credited with sinking 5 ships, either by torpedo or by mines laid.

UC-57 disappeared in 1917 after landing a party of Finnish Jägers and 4 tons of munitions on the island of Hamnskär, circa 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Loviisa, on 18 November. UC-57 was going to remain on the seabed overnight and then return to Germany but never arrived. She was probably sunk by a Russian mine.

Design

A Type UC II submarine, UC-57 had a displacement of 415 tonnes (408 long tons) when at the surface and 498 tonnes (490 long tons) while submerged. She had a length overall of 50.52 m (165 ft 9 in), a beam of 5.22 m (17 ft 2 in), and a draught of 3.61 m (11 ft 10 in). The submarine was powered by two six-cylinder four-stroke diesel engines each producing 290–300 metric horsepower (210–220 kW; 290–300 shp) (a total of 580–600 metric horsepower (430–440 kW; 570–590 shp)), two electric motors producing 620 metric horsepower (460 kW; 610 shp), and two propeller shafts. She had a dive time of 48 seconds and was capable of operating at a depth of 50 metres (160 ft).

Editorial summary

“SM UC-57” enters the record as 1916 Type UC II submarine. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what UC-57, Type and submarine can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1916, 1917—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around UC-57, Type and submarine.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“SM UC-57” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, UC-57, Type and submarine provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q821136. Authority coordinates are 59.000, 23.000. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1916 and 1917.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow SM UC-57 primary sources, SM UC-57 archive and UC-57 research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “SM UC-57” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.