THE LOST SUBMARINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15549, 5 March 1914, Page 9

THE LOST SUBMARINE.

LONG SEARCH IN VAIN.

MYSTERY OF THE DISASTER.

rFKOM OTJR OWN' CORRESPONDENT.] \ London, January 21. The shadow of sorrow rested last weekend over Plymouth and Devonport, and little else was talked of in streets and houses than the mysterious disaster to submarine A 7. This craft, with A 9, a sister vessel, left Devonport for tactical exercises on Friday morning, accompanied by the gunboat Pigmy and the destroyer Griffon. The little squadron took position in Whitesand Bay, the clean open stretch of water beyond Eddystone lighthouse, late in the forenoon of Friday for torpedo exercise, the submarines being ordered to dive and to attack with practice torpedoes the Pigmy. A 9 carried out her attack, successfully diving and discharging a torpedo at the Pigmy. It was then the turn of A 7. She retired to make her attack—the feature of the practice being, of course, that the submarine was to be lost sight of until she had delivered he? "blow in the dark." The Vessel Disappears. Knowledge of the nature of the practice is necessary to explain how it comes to be that there is m} definite knowledge as to where the A 7 was lost, or exactly at what time she went below the surface. Having gone out to make her attack, the A 7* disappeared— was in the natural course. It was only when her disappearance stretched beyond a reasonable time that anxiety began to be felt. Tense moments passed in the Pigmymoments of doubt as to whether the A 7 was making a particularly secret attack from an unexpected quarter, or had met with some misfortune. At last the order was given to signal to her to return to the surface. This signal would be visible in the submarine if her periscope had been above water, as should have been the case for the attack she was making. The waters of the bay were closely watched for some moments, and then the fact was recognised that the submarine had met with an accident and that her periscope was no longer above the surface. Search was at once made, eager, anxious search, around the area where the A 7 had last been seen. It was vain. The Pigmy then turned back to Devonport to seek assistance, leaving the Griffin to patrol the waters of the bay. All Hope Abandoned. Unfortunately the submarine salvage lighter No. 94, the only one in the service, was at Sheerness, but lighter No. 25, not specially suited for the kind of work, was fitted out as quickly as possible, and sent to the scene with a tug. Another lighter was got ready, and a mosquito fleet of tugs and small craft went back with the Pigmy. The Griffin meanwhile had stayed at the scene and kept up a despairing search until late at night. The object of that search was the hope of coming across some of the crew who had escaped in diving helmets, rather than the hope of finding the A 7. At 10.50 p.m. all hope was abandoned, and search given up until the morning. It was then recognised that what remained to be done was to drag the bay for the lost submarine and her dead. This was done without success.

The A 7 is the eighth British submarine, which has sunk, or been sunk, within the past 10 years. Of the eight, five have belonged to the A class, one to the B, and two to the C class. All save two of these eight were sunk by collision. The remaining two were AB, which ran under while manoeuvring on the surface, and A 4, which sank after an explosion had taken place on board her. Now it seems to be clear from the reports that the A 7 at the time of her loss was not in the act of diving, but that she had already been submerged for some time, seemingly for some considerable time, though its duration is not stated. This being so it is apparent l that she must have suffered some mishap, causing change of trim. i

" Sudden and Complete."

There is no mention that she was in collision with any other vessel. Ithas not been stated that any explosion is known to have taken place in her. The cause of loss is, in fact, entirely a mystery, and any attempt to determine what it may have been must be frankly guesswork; with this reservation that those who were intimately acquainted with the vessel's mechanism would possibly be in a position to frame a better guess" than others. The loss may have been due to collision with some submerged body; to a failure of the horizontal rudders, causing the ship to strike the bottom violently; to explosion : to a failure of mechanism; to a. leak. But to whatever casue it was due it seems apparent that the accident was sudden and complete, otherwise the submarine by blowing out her ballast tanks would have been able to rise to the surface. That she could not do so points to her wither having become so far filled with water that the buoyancy gained by discharging ballast was not enough to bring her to the surface; or that for some mechanical reason she was unable to get rid of her ballast. No answer to the question suggested can be expected unless, or until, the wreck is raised and brought into port for examination.