Among the highlights of the Evergreen Maritime Museum collection are German U-boat artifacts. U-boats (an abbreviation of Unterseeboot) are German military submarines. The names of individual boats are combinations of the letter U and a number, such as U-47. During World War II, U-boats operated in “wolf packs” enabling them to blockade key supply routes.

In 1939, U-47 penetrated into the Scapa Flow, a British naval stronghold, and sunk the leading British battleship, HMS Royal Oak, shocking an unprepared Britain. U-47 went on to sink some 30 other allied battleships.