Submarines Collide; Four Men Killed

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32382, 22 August 1970, Page 13

Submarines Collide; Four Men Killed

(N .Z.P.A.-Reut er—Copyright) TOULON, August 21. South Africa’s first submarine, the Maria van Riebeeck, and a French submarine of the same class collided during Mediterranean exercises near Toulon and at least four men aboard the French vessel were killed.

Officials said today that there were no casualties aboard the French • built South African warship handed over less than a month ago. It returned to the French Riviera naval base of Toulon under its own power after last night’s collision.

of the Cape colony in 1652 was handed over at the Atlantic port of Lorient on July 24 amid an international storm over supplies of arms to the apartheid republic. The 850-ton submarine Is one of the three ordered from France which will form the nucleus of a South African force to guard the sea route round the Cape of Good Hope. Her sister ships are the Emily Hobhouse, launched last October, and the Johanna Vandermerwe, launched on July 20.

The collision occurred in the same area where the Daphne submarine the Eurydice exploded and sank with 57 men aboard on March 4 this year. Another Daphne submarine the Minerve was last seen in the Mediterranean in 1968. A French Navy spokesman said that the crew of the Galatee left the vessel after it was run aground and refloating would be attempted today. An official inquiry into the collision was already underway, he said.

The French vessel, the Galatee, was beached on nearby Cape Cepet, with four of its men dead, two missing and several injured. A Defence Ministry announcement in Paris said that both ships were on the surface when they collided' but gave no other details. Unconfirmed reports said that there was an explosion aboard one of the submarines just before the impact South African officials were not available for comment early today and damage to the South African vessel was not known. The South African submarine—named after the wife of Jan Van Riebeeck, founder Cholera Spreading Twenty - seven countries, mostly in Asia, have been stricken by cholera, the World Health Organisation has reported. Reports from Guinea have now raised fears that it may have spread to Africa. The W.H.O. has said there is little chance of cholera spreading to North America or Europe, but that poor health conditions make Africa and Latin America prime targets.—New York, Aug. 21.