WRECKED SUBMARINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21099, 5 February 1932, Page 9

WRECKED SUBMARINE.

DISCOVERY OFF PORTLAND. THEORY A 5 TO DISASTER. LONDOX". Feb. S. The Admiralty announces thai til® sunken submarine 112 has been located fire miles off Portland Bill. The position of the submarine is whera the captain of the steamer Tynesider saw it submerge stern first. It is also close to 'where Sags were found. The position was detected by ths destroyer Torrid by using a powerful sound-delecting apparatus which picked up sounds indicating the presence of a newly-sunk vessel. Mine-sweepers swept the area and discovered the "M2 Divers descended. but were not able to reach the bottom owing to a strong tide. They are awaiting a slack tide. The Torrid located a wreck in this vicinity on January 26. Divers subsequently found it was the. wreck of a Q boat sunk during the war. They buoyed the spot. It is expected that the submarine will be raised and towed to shallow water to-day. The Admiralty has now revised the previous arrangements for the funeral services of the victims. The naval correspondent of the Daily Telegraph quotes the .opinion of a submarine officer that the most likely cause of the loss of the M2 was the explosion of a battery. ' " The M boats aje probably the safest submarines in existence, but they carry | storage batteries to feed tie electric | motors, and these are a perpetual and deadiv peril," said the officer- ' If thfi j boat heels ax an acute angle the tail bat- | teries may break loose, hut the most I likelv cause is a hydrogen explosion while I the batteries are being charged. " The batteries occupy a space extending from the bows to the conning tower. Thus the entire forepart of the vessel may have been wrecked, .jjjjgbaatly,, explaining the complete £sence from the wreck. There would ijftSt even be time to close the watertight door. Ifc is possible that the doors of the seaplane hangar in the foredeck may have been prematurely opened, but a battery explosion, is the only theory which covers tie available facts."

Submarines are now leaving Parfclaaad for exercises in pairs as a precaution, against a recurrence -of the M2 disaster. Wien "rvp dives tie other wfi place » buoy on the spot and will rpraa.m until it rises.