SINKING OF THETIS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23400, 17 July 1939, Page 11

SINKING OF THETIS

EVIDENCE AT INQUIRY EARLY SALVAGE EFFORTS FAILURE TO LIFT CRAFT RESCUERS HANDICAPPED By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received July Ki, s.:U) p.m.) LONDON, July 15 Afc the adjourned hearing of the inquiry into the disaster to the submarine Thetis, it was intimated that Captain 11. B. Oram, one of the survivors, would be recalled to give evidence on the suggestion that the submarine's underwater signalling apparatus was out of order, thereby preventing her calling to neighbouring vessels. An Independent Cable Service message states that Captain Nicholson, commanding the 6th Destroyer Flotilla, said that when he arrived at the position of the Thetis tho submarine's stern was sticking eight or 10 feet out of the water. He passed a line around the stern in an endeavour to lift it. "We decided at all costs to try to enter the submarine in order to save life. At the hack of our minds was the idea of drilling a hole somehow or other," said witness.

"We managed to lift the stern clear of the water-, but the submarine canted and slithered around and assumed another position." Captain Nicholson said it was then decided to try to pass a wire around the stern of the submarine in the hope of forming a cradle with a view to lifting tho stern further out of the water, but the wire parted and the stern of tho submarine passed under the water. '• The Thetis relief fund now totals £121,657, says a British official wireless message.