DISPATCH OF SALVAGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 5, 6 July 1939, Page 9

DISPATCH OF SALVAGE

QUESTION OF DELAY

CONDITIONS FOR DMNG

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London Representative.)

LONDON, June 5.

Official reticence and lack of information given to the Press are two of the chief reasons that explain the demand for a public inquiry concerning the loss of the Thetis, and the lives of 99 men on board her. It was this lack of news which apparently gave rise to various criticisms that precious time was waste<f in the attempt to save those in the submarine.

The Press Association naval correspoadent at Birkenhead stated that it was impossible to see anyone in authority at Cammell Laird's or pene j trate further thai} the outer office, where all inquiries were brusquely dealt with. Newspaper men were fre- J quently ordered ofi. the premises. It was not until representatives of nearly every agency and newspaper in the country sent a tetter to Mr. R. J. Johnson, managing director of Messrs. Cammell Laird, builders of the Thetis, which had not been handed over to; the Admiralty, that a representative! deputation was allowed to pass the gates. Commenting on the suggestions that the Admiralty should, on this and similar occasions, have taken the Press into its confidence, Mr. Hector C. Bywater, the "Daily Telegraph" naval correspondent, said: "The 'semi-hush-hush' policy which was adopted in the case of the Thetis disaster .night have been understandable in war time, but is inexplicable in times of peace. Official reticence must inevitably give rise in the public mind to a suspicion that there is something to be hidden, though in the present instance there do not appear to be any grounds for such an assumption." FIVE HOURS ELAPSE. A record of the tragedy shows that the Thetis dived 16 miles north of Llandudno, 48 miles from Liverpool, on Thursday, June 1, and was due at the surface agsia at 4.30. At 5 p.m.

the escort tug, Grebe Cock, reported the submarine's non appearance to the Liverpool pilot ooat. At 6.<5U the Grebe Cock reported to the Admiralty, Cammell Laird, and Mersey Dock and Harbour Board that the Thetis was overdue, and the salvage ship Vigilant was immediately told tc collect gear. Two hours later the Thetis was reported i as missing, and at 9.30 the Vigilant left! Liverpool to begin the search. Ten| minutes later the Admiralty ordered I all warships in the vicinity to Liver- j pool Bay. j •THE REAL TRAGEDY." "The real tragedy of .he Thetis," j Lieutenant-Commander Kenneth Ed-1 wards, R.N., wrote in the "Sunday Times," "is that when the four survivors escaped by means of the Davis apparatus on Friday morning they were not followed to the surface by j every one of the ninety-seven other men on board. It is easy to form an opinion that the Davis escape apparatus had failed, and there is no denying that in the case of H.M.S. Poseidon I only four lives were saved by this' means, while there were no survivors j from M 2 and no men escaped from i the U.S.S. Squalus by means of the i American version of the artificial lung.!

"The question seems to be aggravated by the fact that for several hours the alter escape hatch of H.M.S. Thetis was only a few feet under water. The Davis apparatus has, however, saved lives, while it is being tested and retested every week when the men of the submarine service undergo training in its use. The failure is, therefore, more likely to have been something to do with the escape compartments and hatches by which the men using the apparatus can emerge from the submarine.

"When H.M.S. Poseidon was lost, the only means of using the Davis apparatus was to flood one of the large compartments of the submarine to such an extent that the internal pressure equalled or exceeded the outside sea pressure and allowed a, hatch to be opened. Today all modern submarines are fitted with special escape chambers built into bulkheads forward and aft. Men make individual escapes through these chambers.

"What went wrong in H.M.S. Thetis after four men had escaped? Unless the vessel is raised it is improbable that we shall ever know. It seems clear, however, that one of two things happened. Either one man about to escape j was drowned in the escape chamber and his body jammed in the hatch, or it was decided by those inside the submarine to abandon this form of escape." DIVERS' STORIES. One of the divers from Scapa Flowsaid that he had got to the scene shortly after midnight on Friday. It was easy for people not there to make I criticisms, but the work was con-i ducted in the dark with a strong tide ) running, and the divers could remain j under for only an hour. "If only we could have been there 13 or 14 hours earlier, we all feel confident that we could have saved every man in the submarine; As :t v/as, everything that could be done has been done."

Another diver said that he went down to the submarine at 1 o'clock, and while he was there heard faint tappings some distance away from where he was. There was no regular Morse communication. He could not hang on any longer, and had to come away because the tide was so strong. He never got near the hatch through which the four men escaped, so he could not say whether it was damaged.

The submarine was lying on her keel on a firm, hard shingle bed, but had a list of about 30 degrees. He was down trying to put =a mark buoy on the wreck. There was a wreck buoy marking the position, but they wanted a buoy made fast to the wreck so that they could know where she was lying. They had almost succeeded when they were called to the surface again because of the tide.