THE DEADLY SUBMARINE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1747, 30 August 1905, Page 73

THE DEADLY SUBMARINE.

(From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, July 14. A leading French journal, adverting to the subject of submarines, went somewhat out of its way last week to make comparisons between the risks run hv Britisih sailors called upon to man our types of underwater cval’t and their French contemporaries. The safety of liio French type of boat was particularly insisted upon, and the tale of disaster to British submarines produced at length, to show that the building and navigating of such vessels was, one of (hose- things they do hotter in France.” Tho paper was barely In circulation before Paris, and, indeed, al! France, was in possession of the first intimation of the unpremeditated and fatal dive of the Farfadoi. to the hollo M of Lake Bizerta. r l he tales that swiftly followed on the heels of that first brief message played upon tin: whole gamut of human emotions Horn hilarious joy to blank despair. ’The nr.A news of the Farfadet’s sinking

with thirteen of her crew imprisoned arrived in Paris early on Thursday altomoon. It was speedily followed by messages that inspired strong hopes that, in spite of the submarine being stuck deep by tire nose in the muddy sands of Lake Bizerta 50ft below the surface, the vessel would be raised in a very shout time. Divers were already at work, cables had been fixed round tiro submerged ship, and her crew were alive and in no immediate danger of" death by suffocation. Later messages were equally favourable, and a still later message reported the ’actual raising of the Farfadet and the “ escape of the crew, none the worse for their terrible experience.” Paris celebrated this news with great rejoicings, hut, alas! there was no> vestige of truth in tho report. The Farfadet, when Friday morning broke, was si ill at the bottom, and though three cables had been got round the ship and a fourth was being fixed, the divers could get no response to their signals to those imprisoned in the tomb of steel. That was the first news Paris received that day, but a later message revived hope. Tho Farfadet had been raised within six feet of the surface, and communication had been again established with thy crew, of whom at least six in the after-part of the ship were still alive, and had a plentiful supply of oxygen. But no sign could be got from the men in the fore part of the ship, and the rapping interview with the six aft came to a sudden conclusion, for jusfc as the top of the manhole was being dragged above the surface the arm of 0110 of the cranes used to raise her broke, and down to the bottom went the Farfadet again, and with hot* the hopes of aii France for the salvation of the living in her. Tho dying embers of hope's fires were, however, fanned into flame again by later news from tiie scene of the disaster. Fresh vessels and mere power! u I cranes had arrived, and the authorities were confident that the work or raising the submarine would be but a matter of hours. And the moil —six, at any rate —were still, living. Salurd&y morning came, bn., the news it brought was as water on. hope’s lire. The ship had sunk so deeply in the mud that the work of encircling her with cables had been rendered. exfi eaieiy difficult, and the imprisoned men had signalled that they were beginning to find breathing difficult . A Sew hours passed, am! hope was moribund, if mot dead, w hen a fur-

ther cable summoned that the crew of tho " submarine having signalled at 10.30 a.m. that they could not live ■another quarter of an hour, Admiral Aubert hud ordered the Farfadet to be raised by the stern till her afterhatchway rose above the surface; that being the only way by .which the distressed sailors could be given immediate relief. This was done, and the hapless men given a fresh supply of air through one of the small stern port-holes. Hardly, however, had the men inside exchanged greetings with, their wouldbe resellers than the crane which had been the chief instrument in raising the Farfadet broke, and the two supplementary cranes giving way as the full strain of tho submarine’s weight was thrown upon them, the nearly rescued men were plunged once more to the bottom. Operations were renewed with, feverish haste, but in 'spite of everything the Farfadet could not bo raised again. Up to five o’clock tho tortured inmates responded to the divers’ signals, but then tho frantic knocking* of the workers round tho sunken hull ceased to meet with any response. Then and only then did the Admiralty abandon all hope, and consent to an announcement or the deaths of the submarine’s crew being sent to their relatives and friends. The only survivors of the Far-' fadet’s crew were her commander and a sailer who were on deck when the craft took its fatal plunge, and were washed off as the water closed over her, and picked up by the accompanying destroyer.