TO RAISE VESSEL

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

TO RAISE VESSEL

PREPARATIOiNS MADE

EFFECT OF TIDES

VICTIMS' BRAVERY

(British Official Wireless.) (Received June 7, 11 a.m.) RUGBY, June 6. Speaking in the House of Lords, the First Lord of the Admiralty said that camels (refloating apparatus) had now been secured to the sunken submarine Thetis by 3^-inch wire to a ball-ring at the stern and by another ! wire to the bow cable, and three lifting wires had been placed under the submarine. "If the fine weather continues it is considered possible that a trial lift may be made in about forty-eight hours," he said.

He observed that survivors' reports showed that the bearing of the officers and men of the Thetis during the terrible period from the time of the accident was of the highest order and in accordance with the best traditions of the Service, while the behaviour of all the civilians on board was of an equally high standard.

"I was at Devonport when the disaster occurred," he said, "and was in close touch with the commander - in-chief at Plymouth, who was responsible for initiating action. The public does not fully appreciate the effect of strong tides in causing difficulty for the divers at work," and the sharp angle of the submarine turned the accident into a disaster."

In his speech ,in the House of Commons yesterday, the Premier said that Mr. Johnson, managing director of Cammell Laird and Co., had said that the Admiralty had done everything possible to save life, and expressed the opinion that the diving bells which had been employed successfully in the Squalus accident would have been of no help in the circumstances of the Thetis disaster.

Thetis relief funds have been opened by the Mayor of Cape Town and the Lord Mayor of Melbourne.