TRUCULENT RAISED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 128, 15 March 1950, Page 3

TRUCULENT RAISED

Two Months’ Battle * (Rec. 11.55) LONDON, March 14. After a two-months’ battle with gales, liigh seas, racing titles and clinging mud, the Royal Navy to-day raised tlnT gashed hull of the British submarine Truculent from the bed of the Thames Estuary. Ten salvage ships, using steel hawsers passed beneath the submarine s hull’ assisted in lifting the Truculent, which sank on January 12 after a collision with the Swedish tanker Divina. Sixty-four of the crew were lost. Naval experts said to-day that the Truculent may go into service again, but her future would depend on a detailed dockyard inspection. When the submarine was raised to the surface a 10-foot rusty gash which sent her to the bottom could be seen in the hull. The hoisting operation took two hours. When the conning tower and upper works came above water tugs to-night began towing the Truculent five miles to a sand-bar off Sheerness, where the vessel will be beached, pumped out and searched for bodies. Naval experts believe that there may be 20 entombed. Dockyard riggers will fasten patches over the gashes in the hull, and the submarine will be towed into Sheerness for docking. While the salvage ships were clustered around the stricken vessel to-day, the King, at Buckingham Palace, gave next-of-kin Albert Medals posthumously awarded to two heroes of the disaster—Lieut. Frederick Hindes and Chief Engine-room Artificer Francis Hine. They lost their lives after arranging the escape of other men from the submarine.