The fake cipher machine on board the USS Pampanito

Kommentare (11)

1. #1 Thomas

   29. Februar 2020

   @Klaus:

   Since the image is quite blurry: Was it an ordinary or a crypto Underwood (https://oztypewriter.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-crypto-underwood-typewriter.html) that you saw on board?

2. #2 RPGNo1

   29. Februar 2020

   20 $ corresponds to about 18 €. A heavy sum.

   If you visit U 995 in Laboe, you pay 5 € as an adult.

3. #3 gedankenknick

   29. Februar 2020

   @RPGNo1 #2
   But I cant remember there is an Engima-Device in U995 at Laboe. Not even a fake-enigma… 😉

4. #4 Klaus Schmeh

   29. Februar 2020

   @Thomas:
   Thanks for the comment. I have never heard of the “Crypto Underwood”. Perhaps because it’s not really a cipher machine but a machine that translates Jappanese Morse code to European Morse code.

5. #5 RPGNo1

   29. Februar 2020

   @gedankenknick
   Well, I definetely wouldn’t pay 18 € to visit a submarine. With or without a cipher machine (fake or real). 🙂

   BTW, the visit of Wilhelm Bauer (former U 2540, Type XXI uboat) costs 3,50 €.
   The entrance fee for HMS Otus is Sassnitz is 8 €.

6. #6 Doc Cool

   Germany

   29. Februar 2020

   The audio guide needs an update to: “The device that looks like a typewriter is an ordinary typewriter looking a little like a SIGABA”

   Yes, kick it out of your travel guide.

7. #7 Richard SantaColoma

   https://proto57.wordpress.com/

   29. Februar 2020

   I’m sorry for the loss of your $20 and the disappointment, but the story is actually pretty funny! I will also bet that you are the first person who even noticed this was just a typewriter… 99.9% of the visitors probably look at that old Underwood (I have a nicer one on my piano), and think, “Wow… a real cipher machine!”.

   And for the massive fees they collect, perhaps they ought to cough up the $$$ and buy one of their own.

8. #8 Klaus Schmeh

   1. März 2020

   Nils Kopal via FaceBook:
   What a disappointment… sorry for you Klaus :/

9. #9 Klaus Schmeh

   1. März 2020

   David Allen Wilson via FaceBook:
   The guide should have refunded you. But then again, I’d be a little leery of having a museum piece next to so much humidity and salt.

10. #10 Klaus Schmeh

    1. März 2020

    Nils Kopal David via FaceBook:
    Allen Wilson you are right. I also think, best would be to put a replica for exibition on the ship. And not a typewriter and write that it is a Sigaba

11. #11 Jerry McCarthy

    England, Europa...

    1. März 2020

    This reminds me a little of a visit I made to one of the houses, Max Gate, of the famous Dorset-based writer Thomas Hardy.

    In his writing room, which was supposed to contain “his” typewriter, there was what was obviously a Romanian typewriter (with Romanian alphabet). I was puzzled. I asked how it came to be that he would have used a Romanian typewriter.

    They were now puzzled too, and found their “expert” to talk to me. She admitted that it was “just a typewriter that they had in their stores”, but she commented that nobody had mentioned it in some five years, so they thought they’d got away with it 🙂 .

    Hey ho…