MYSTERY TORPEDO

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 17, 21 January 1937, Page 11

MYSTERY TORPEDO

SPANISH AFFAIR SOLVED

I A report reached quarters in London on December 23 in touch with I Spain that seems to throw light on the attack on the Spanish Government cruiser Miguel de Cervantes. The story is that "the attack was carried out by a Spanish submarine which had gone over to the insurgents, says the "Manchester Guardian." This submarine, the number of which is said to be knowri but which the few people who know it will not divulge, was sent out a week or two ago by the Government authorities to patrol the Straits of Gibraltar and interfere with the transport of troops for Franco. It did not re-l turn to harbour at the end of the prescribed period, and the naval chiefs assumed that she had been lost with all hands by some accident. The news was suppressed, and until the last few days no one knew anything about her. Then rumours began to come through that the insurgents had a submarine. During the weekend a report was received that, by means which are still unknown, the crew were won over to the insurgent cause, and that the vessel is actually working on that side.

One point in the Spanish Government's communique on the subject surprises those acquainted with the anatomy of a torpedo. It is there stated that examination of the "debris" left inside the cruiser by the explosion showed that the "type of screw" differs considerably from those used in Spanish and Italian torpedoes. The only "debris" left inside an attacked ship would come from the head of the torpedo. The screw is at the tail end and would sink to the bottom of thef sea after an explosion.