MEN ABOARD THE THETIS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 132, 7 June 1939, Page 11

MEN ABOARD THE THETIS

UNO THOUGHT OF DISASTER"

SURVIVING STOKER'S DRAMATIC STORY

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.)

(Received June 7, 12.50 p.m.) LONDON, June 6. A survivor of the sunken submarine Thetis, Leading-Stoker W. E. Arnold, relating his experiences, said when it was realised that something was amiss there was shouting. . "People," he said, "shouted from the control-room 'Surface!' and came scrambling from that department, and then from the second department, into the accommodation space.

"We could not shut the door for a few seconds owing to the angle of the boat, but eventually we managed it. The Thetis was then hanging at the steepest angle I have ever known. "No water came into the third chamber, and there was no panic, and no thought of disaster. All were calm and confident. We joked and felt sure we would get to the top within a few hours." Arnold said: "I would like to say a word for the poor men down there now. Although there was all that brain down there everyone was given a chance to express an opinion and there was no argument between the experts and the lower deck. It just began as a talk and everyone joined in and all the suggestions were studied. It was decided that Captain Oram and Lieutenant Woods should try to get out. They went into the chamber and went away.

"Then Mr. Shaw and I decided to make a bid for it. We felt sure that all the others would follow, and I cannot say how I felt when they didn't."

Arnold said that every one of the officers, men, and civilians were the same down below. There could not have been a finer crowd anywhere.

When he was told that Mr. Shaw credited him with saving his life, Arnold replied: "I instructed him and did my duty the same as everyone would have done."

Asked about the condition of the air, he said it was indescribable. He added that there were lights in the Thetis until the time he left. '