Confusion in Iron Coffins

I am quite confused about a series of events that happened in Herbert Werner's book "Iron Coffins," and I hope someone has some insight.

I just started reading Iron Coffins earlier today, and found something a little odd. In his book (end of Chapter 3), he briefly talks about arriving over the Bismarck's gravesite on May 29th, 1941, after receiving the emergency signal on the 27th.
What doesn't make sense to me, though is that when I checked the location of U 557 on this site for May 29th ( http://www.uboat.net/boats/patrols/details.php?boat=557&date=1941-05-29 ), and even the 30th, they were over 900 nautical miles away from where the Bismarck actually sank. I can see on the map that the U boat made a sudden turn back to the east, but I couldn't tell if it was them still dodging the convoy or going to the Bismarck.

Am I missing something?

 

I read and reviewed Iron Coffins several months back (see book reviews sub forum) and as I recall the issue of accuracy was brought up by our members on other statements made in the book.

What first must be considered is that his book was written much from his memory which is often a fallible tool for all of us, as we often 'remember' our personal history in lights favorable to our view of what happened. It is not that I am saying that he lied per se, though this is certainly possible, just that all personal histories are subjective to some degree and must be viewed with a critical eye to detail. As I recall he originally wrote this for his "countrymen" to "set the record straight" and I imagine talking about steaming over Bismark's grave has as much meaning to German's of his generation as sailing past the wreck of the Arizona did for many Americans.

To be honest I have doubts that any U-boat officer at the time knew conclusively where the ship actually sank, but only had a a general impression based upon the limited information available to the High command at the time.

Over all I enjoyed and reccomended the book as an insight to the world of the U-boat sailor, but as with all auto-biographies, it facts should be treated with a little discretion.

 

Belasar has nicely answered the OP but a thrad is already doing at :

http://www.ww2f.com/topic/45775-iron-coffins-a-book-review/