About Us

The UB88 Project began in early 2001 as a collaboration between Gary Fabian and Ray Arntz to locate the elusive WWI German submarine UB88. The story of that collaboration, through the discovery of the sub, the addition of deep divers Kendall Raine and John Walker, photo documentation of the sub and reproduction of rare photographs and wartime records, is recounted on this website.

What began as a search for one sunken vessel has evolved into a quest to locate other “lost” submerged wrecks. Sometimes this involves solving mysteries surrounding their crews and bringing closure to families, some of whom have wondered for decades as to the fate of their loved ones. These wrecks are both ships and aircraft. Each is afforded a section on the UB88.org website and we have compiled histories of the crews, the loss of the craft, history of the respective search efforts and photo documentation of the craft then and now.

From Gary and Ray’s work on the UB88 came a growing collaboration with aircraft archaeologist Pat Macha (
aircraftwrecks.com). Pat’s work centers on finding lost aircraft, civilian and military, in the mountain and desert regions of California. Working with Pat, the Project is in its fifth year of trying to locate the remains of Gertrude Tompkins Silver and her North American P-51 Mustang which went missing in 1944 - presumably in Santa Monica Bay. During the search for the missing P-51D, the Project located, identified and documented the wreck site of a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star in Santa Monica Bay which went missing on a training flight in 1955. Pat also collaborated on the Project’s location and documentation of the Convair B-36 Peacemaker lost off San Diego, CA in 1952.

We maintain active search efforts for other submerged wrecks off the Southern California coast and publish our finds from time to time.

In the eight years since the inception of the Project, the UB88 team has been privileged to work with some truly wonderful people who’s interests and skills have added immeasurably to our efforts to bring forgotten corners of history to light. Those individuals are mentioned throughout the various sections of this website. Though the disciplines of these respective individuals differs, the unifying element is a thirst for discovery, adventure and a desire, when possible, to help others resolve painful questions about the disappearance of relatives.

We are committed to respect the dignity of the sites we document and remember that the remains of these machines are in some cases grave sites. As such, we don’t disclose the locations of these sites to the public or disturb the sites or collect artifacts. While there are a few, particularly in the tech diving community, who resent this non-disclosure decision, we think it’s the right thing to do.

We welcome you to our website and hope you will find the histories and adventures described here interesting and inspiring. We look forward to the opportunity to work with other like-minded individuals and teams on future projects.

Team Bio's

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