THE LOST SUBMARINE

Evening Star, Issue 17928, 25 March 1922, Page 3

THE LOST SUBMARINE

NO CHANCE FOR GREW.

A QUICK DEATH.

Press Association—By Telegraph-Copyright.

LONDON, March 24. Submarine H 42 was rising to tho surface at mancßUvxea when she was telescoped by the Versatile, which was steaming at the rate of twenty-seven knots. The submarine came to the surface within 20yds of the destroyer, so tho collison was inevitable, the destroyer cutting right through the tiny vessel. Tho Versatile stood by for some hours, but the hope of any rescue was of the smallest. Tho water rushed in, and tho submarine instantly sank in half a mile of water. All tire crew must have been drowned within two or three minutes, without a chance of escaping. The Versatile was not taking pant in the manoeuvre, but was under orders to return to England, and she was on her way when tho accident happened. Her bow was so damaged that she was taj/ed to Gibraltar stern foremost, with two compartments flooded. The commander of the submarine, Lieutenant Sealey, had a distinguished war record, especially in the Baltic. Lieutenant Price, the second in command, won the D.S.O. as a midshipman for heroic service in the Dardanelles. ’ Thirty-three members of the crew belonged to Portsmouth, where they spent their Christmas leave. Pathetic scenes wore witnessed at the dockyard gates, where the mothers and wives waited all night long hoping for details and news that the men had been rescued. It is not certain that all the crew were on hoard, but some reports state that as many as forty died, as extra men were on board for training purposes. The accident follows close upon tho narrow escape of the sister ship, H 24, in February. Tho destroyer belonged to the same flotilla as the Versatile. H 42 was damaged in a collision in 1919, and is not worth salving. Most of the H class were built in Canada during the war. The Navy has now lost ton submarines in pence time and forty-seven in war time. The King sent the following message to the commander of the Atlantic Fleet;— “ I am greatly shocked to hear of the disaster. I wish the deep sympathy of myself and the Queen to be conveyed to tho families of the missing.”

In the House of Commons it was officially stated that H 42 came to the surface 3Cyds or 40yds from the Versatile, which was stemming at twenty knots an hour. There was no spare crew on the submarine.—A. and N.Z. Cable. THE DEATH ROLL. LONDON, March 24. (Received March 25, at 9.20 a.m.) The Admiralty report announces that three officers and twenty-three men perished in H42.—A. and N.Z. Cable.