SUBMARINE AGROUND

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28481, 10 January 1958, Page 11

SUBMARINE AGROUND

Crew In No Danger

CAMPBELTOWN (Scotland). January 9. The British submarine, Taciturn, went hard aground in a gale this morning at the entrance to Campbeltown Loch, but her crew of 50 were reported to be in no danger, the Admiralty announced.

The Campbeltown lifeboat went out to stand by. Because of 80-mil6-an-hour winds, telephone lines to coastguards in the district were down and messages had to be relayed by radio.

H.M.S. Taciturn is a T-class “patrol” type submarine of 1090 tons, launched in 1944.

She is based in the Clyde where she was exercising when she went aground early today, the Admiralty said. The little Belfast motorship, Ballyhalbert, of 743 tons, was also aground in the Firth of Clyde this morning. Her signals for aid were picked up by the Netherlands News Agency early today when she was drifting helpless in the teeth of a gale. A lifeboat was standing by her at daybreak but a lifeboat official said the Ballyhalbert did not appear to be in any danger.

Londonderry and the north-west of Ireland were struck by a gale last night which reached a velocity of 99 miles per hour. Branches blown across an overhead cable caused damage to fuses in an electricity sub-station and affected the power line to a new television transmitter. The station went off the air and an apology broadcast from London was received by viewers, some of whom were able to switch over to the Belfast station.

ATOMIC POWER AND HEALTH

LONDON, January 8. An acute shortage of health and safety experts existed in Britain’s Atomic Energy Authority, a Government-appointed committee warned today. The committee, describing the matter as of urgent national importance, said there were only 90 experts in the authority engaged full-time on health and safety work. They were seriously overburdened. The committee has been investigating the organisation of the authority’s industrial, health and technical groups since the radiation accident at the Windscale plutonium plant in Cumberland last October.