LOST SUBMARINE

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 72, 25 March 1922, Page 7

LOST SUBMARINE

NO CHANCE FOR THE CREW. DESTROYER BADLY DAMAGED. DEATHROLL OF THIRTY. (Ey Cab'.e.—Press Association.—Copyright.) LONDON. March 21. Further details of the loss of submarine H42 off Gibraltar slioav that after she had been struck by the destroyer Versatile when emerging, the Aleetor and the Versatile stood by fulsome hours, but the hope of any rescue was acta- small. The Avater rushed into the submarine, and she instantly sank in half-a-mile of water. All aboard her must have been drowned within two or three minutes without a chance of escaping. The Versatile aviis not taking part in the manoeuvres, but Avas under orders to return to Kngland. and was on her way when the accident incurred, tier bows were so damaged that she had to be towed to Gibraltar stern foremost. Two compartment.-, were flooded. The commander of the submarine. Lieutenant Sealey. bad a distinguished Avar record, especially in the Baltic Lieutenant Price. theb second in command. Avon the 1J.5.0. as a midshipman for heroic service in the Dardanelles. Thirty-three of the crew belonged lo Portsmouth. Avhere they spent Christmas leave. Pathetic scenes were witnessed at the dockyard gates, where mothers and Avives Avaite'd throughout the night hoping for details and even neAVs of rescues. It is not certain that all the crew were aboard the submarine. Some early reports stated that as many as 40 had perished, as it was believed that extra men were aboard for training purposes, but it Avas officially stated in the House of Commons to-night that there Avas no spare personnel in the submarine. The accident follows close upon the narrow- escape of a sister submarine. H24, on February 12. i na collision with a destroyer of the same flotilla as the Versatile. The H4l Avas damaged in a collision in 1010. and aviis found not to be Avortb salving. Most of the H class submarines were built in Canada during the Avar. The Navy has noAv lost ten submarines in peace time and 47 in Avar time. The King, in a message to the Com mander of tbe Atlantic Fleet, states: "1 am greatly shocked to hear of the disaster, and I Avish that th edeep sympathy of myself and the Queen be conveyed to the families of the missing." — (A. and N.Z. Cable.)

CREW OF TWENTY-SIX. (Received 11 a.m.) LONDON, March 24. An Admiralty report announces that three officers and twenty-three men perished in 1142.—(A. and N.Z. table.)