DOUBLE DISASTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18664, 21 March 1924, Page 9

DOUBLE DISASTER.

■(JAPAN'S• NAVAL LOSSES':

SINKING OF- SUBMARINE.

FORTY-POUR MEN ABOARD.

AIRSHIP BURNED ALOFT.

ONLY ONE BODY FOUND.

By Telegraph—Press Association—

(Received 9.15 p.m.)

A. and N.Z.

TOKIO. Mar. 19.

A message from Sascho states that the Japaneso 800-ton • submarine, number 43, collided with the warship Tatsuta during manoeuvres and sank with four officers and 40 men in 26 fathoms of water ten miles outside the harbour.

The Navy Office, during subsequent attempts to rescue the crew stated that there was little hope of finding any survivors.

This is ".he second submarino Japan has lost since August. On the last occasion one sank off Kobe.

At the time of the disaster submarine No. 43 was undergoing a speed trial. Naval circles in Japan were further depressed when half an hour after the submarine sank they learned that a naval dirigible of the 58 type had caught fire as the result of an explosion while she waft aloft and had fallen in the Ibaraki Prefecture, north east of Tokio, lulling tho crew of five.

The commander's body was the only one found. Tho remainder of tho crew probably leaped from the blazing airship before, it pi.inged down ii.to the forest.

The lost, dirigible was imported from England three or four years ago. She was 51 metres long.