U298 was commissioned in 1944 and set sail on 23rd July with 52 men aboard.

It was sunk by an American mine off the coast of Samoa on 15 January 1945. The uboat sank in 20 metres of water, and all the crew survived by escaping from an emergency hatch.

In 1963 the boat was salvaged by New Zealand businessman John Stevenson who intended to restore the uboat and turn it into a museum. The salvage operation, however, was expensive, costing Stevenson over $3 million. When Stevenson went bankrupt in 1974, the uboat was sold for scrap metal to the Deep Waters Community for a mere $10,000, though it cost a further $30,000 to transport the uboat to the Coromandel. The submarine sat on the beach in Wainuiototo Bay for twelve years while the commune restored it.

Mason allegedly spend several million dollars on this restoration over a period of fifteen years, selling off tracts of prime beach-front land to finance the venture.

In 1979 an Auckland engineering company, Overland Engineering, became involved in the project and sent a team to work on the restoration. This team was led by Troy Renata who single-handedly rebuilt the boat’s engines. Renata was on the uboat’s fateful maiden voyage which set sail from the Coromandel on 23rd January 1986. Radio contact was lost after three weeks and no survivors from the submarine were found. The location of the submarine was unknown until a maritime archaeological expedition from Canterbury University discovered the wreck and conducted an exploration of the ship.

Investigators discovered that at least one of the crew had been shot, suggesting that the voyage had come to a violent end, despite the fact that the community was made of up peace activists. Mystery still surrounds the ship as only nine bodies were found aboard, though ten had apparently set sail.