SUBMARINE DISASTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21598, 19 March 1932, Page 15

SUBMARINE DISASTER

SIXTY MEN DROWNED IN M2 THE FRUITLESS SEARCH STERN FIRST PLUNGE. (From Our Own Correspondent.). LONDON, January 2. For 60 hours every available man and every known means were employed by the Admiralty to locate the missing eubmarine, M2. After that the Admiralty had to admit that there was no hope for the 60 men who went down in the ship. The Admiralty is continuing the search, for it is natural they should desire to know what was the cause of the disaster. The M2 was fitted with all the latest safety appliances. The sweepers have discovered obstructions in plenty, for nowhere round the English coast have there been so many shipping casualties as in the stretch of water between Weymouth and Bridport, where the M2 was last operating. On the bed of the sea here are victims of the German U-boats. Here there are also German submarines which paid the price of their piracy. And there are bones of scores of tramps and smaller vessels which have sunk in what is sometimes known as “ Dead Man’s Bay.” DIVE BY THE STERN. Probably the last person to see the M2 before she disappeared was Captain A. E. Howard, of the Newcastle coasting steamer Tynesider, which put into Portland for bunker coal. As soon as the vessel arrived at Portland the captain reported that he had seen a large submarine apparently dive stern foremost, but at the time nothing more was thought of tire matter. Later the Admiralty sent a destroyer to Gravelines, near Calais, where the Tynesider had gone, and an Admiralty official interviewed the captain. In an interview with a press reporter Captain Howard said: “ I was coming from Charleston, Cornwall, with a cargo of China clay yesterday at 11.30 a.m. As I was getting near Portland I saw the submarine. I could read quite clearly her mark M. “ She was on top of the water, but I soon noticed that her head was getting right out of the water. Before 1 could approach I saw her sink rather suddenly, her stern first. I did not pay too much attention to it at first, since I had never seen a submtEVine dive.” The M2 left Portland early in the morning to exercise in the channel independently. Other submarines went out afterwards. All went well until the afternoon, when H.M.S. Titania, the depot ship for submarines, could no longer maintain communication with M2. The wireless operator reported this silence to his superior officers. Later the authorities became alarmed, and men of the mine-sweeping flotilla, on leave in Weymouth and, Portland, were called out from the theatres, kinemas, and publichouses and ordered to rejoin their ships. Police assisted in locating officers on leave in the town. The other submarines returned to port about 4.15. FEVERISH SEARCH.

The last message from the submarine was received at 10.11 in the morning, and signified that she was about to commence exercises. These would involve diving, but nothing out of the routine of exercises. When she did not return at the proper time four destroyers and two submarines were sent out to search for her. The sea was quite calm, but there was a certain amount of fog. As the time went on other ships arrived in West Bay, and the search was continued with feverish activity. H.M.S. Tedworth, equipped with special decompression chambers and the latest appliances for deep sea diving, left Devonport with extra divers on hoard. All through the following day the work continued. Obstructions were located by the sweepers and divers went down to examine these. Owing to tho

strong currents set up by the spring tide, however, the divers found it impossible to descend below 70 feet. On the following day the diving teams were strengthened by the arrival from Portsmouth of a deep sea observation chamber, in which descent can be made with less likelihood of interference from currents or even from boisterous seas. Destroyers, submarines, and their parent ships, lighters equipped with diving and lifting gear, patrol vessels, mine-sweepers, and seaplanes continued the work. Some of the searching vessels worked in pairs with sweeping apparatus between them. Seaplanes circled above, but the water proved ,to be too'much discoloured to permit anything to be seen from overhead. HOPE ABANDONED. On the third day hope of rescuing the 60 men was abandoned. The final abandonment of hope by those in authority was intimated by the following official announcement: — “ The Secretary of the Admiralty regrets to announce that in view of a report now received from the Rearadmiral (Submarines), who has been attempting to salve the sunken submarine M2, it is no longer possible to hope for the rescue of any of the officers and men on board.” With this announcement the Admiralty issued a list of seven officers and 53 petty officers and other ratings who were on board M2 when she disappeared, adding that “their death must therefore now be presumed.” The names of the officers are:—Lieut.commander J. D. de M. Leathes, R.N.; Lieutenant S. Macdonald, R.N., Lieut. H. C. Toppin, E.N., Lieut. C. R. Townsend, R.N.; Lieutenant H. C. W. Head, R.N.; Warrant Engineer W. .A. Hayes, R.N.; Lieutenant-corn. C. K. Arbuthnot, R.N.; of H.M.S. Adamant; Acting-C.P.O, J. King, C/J 18133. On the third night the sea currents had lessened in strength and all the obstructions up till then located had been visited by divers, but without exception they proved to be old wrecks. OFFICERS’ RECORDS. Lieut.-commander Leathes had a long experience in command of under-water vessels. During the past seven years he commanded L 52, H 44 and L2G, and during the war saw service in the North Sea aboard the sloop Verbena. He was regarded as an officer of infinite resource, and possessing high scientific and technical qualifications. He was a member of a well-known Suffolk family being the son of Major Herbert Leathes, of Earl Soham. He was married, with two sons. The second in command, Lieutenant Townsend, had been attached to the Fleet Air Arm since 1925 as a pilot and latterly as an observer. He joined M2 in November, 1930. Lieutenant Toppin had also spent some time in the Fleet Air Arm, from March, 1928, to September, 1931, but was previously in submarines. Lieutenant Macdonald had been in the submarine service since October,, 1926, with a brief interval as a watch-keeper in H.M.S. Revenge on the Mediterranean station in 1929-30. The son of the late Mr J. W. Macdonald and Mrs Macdonald, of Hambledon, Hants, he was married at Weymouth in September, 1930.

Lieutenant Head had only been in submarines for about 16 months, previous to which he was in the battle-cruiser Renown. Lieut.-commander Arbuthnot was the executive officer of the depot ship Adamant, and served in H.M.S. Collingwood during the war. A POSEIDON SURVIVOR. Able-seaman Thomas Morris, one of the missing, was a survivor of the submarine Poseidon, which sank off China last summer. When the Poseidon went down he was among the men who jumped over the side and was rescued. This was to have been the last trip of Telegraphist Ernest Thomas, aged 29, whose wife and two children live at Portsmouth. Mrs Thomas stated that she had queer dreams on the night before the vessel sank. Premonition came also to Louis MacDonald, a stoker petty officer, whose wife stated that for two days before joining the ship he had a foreboding that all would not be welL

SERIES OF MISFORTUNES. Specially pathetic was the case of Able-seaman Jarrett, whose home is at Rainham, Kent. In recent months an accumulation of misfortunes has befallen the family. Seaman Jarrett was at home for Christmas, but instead of the usual festivities attended the funeral of his youngest child, an infant. About the same time his eldest girl, aged six, fell on some broken glass, some of which penetrated an eye. Two other children are ill with bronchitis, and Mrs Jarrett is an invalid. Because of his wife’s health, Jarrett endeavoured to transfer to Malta. His wife went ahead with the family, after selling up her home. The transfer did not mature, and she had to come back. To complete her ill-fortune, the man to whom she sold her old home did not pay up. THE “M” GLASS. The "M” class of submarines, three in number, were part of Lord Fisher’s “ mystery fleet,” which he ordered early in the war for operations in the Baltic. They were, in effect, submarine monitors, and were the first underwater craft to mount heavy guns. Each boat displaced 1450 tons, and had a surface speed of 15£ knots. Forward of the conning tower was a closed shield containing a 12-inch gun, taken from an old battleship. In -the M2 the gun had been replaced by a light seaplane. FUND FOR DEPENDENTS. A fund to aid-'the dependents of the victims of the M2 submarine disaster is being organised by the Lady Mayoress of London, Lady Jenks. The fund has been opened with a gift of £2O by the Lord Mayor, Sir Maurice Jenks, and one of £lO by hia wife. The following appeal is made by Lady Jenks in a letter to the newspapers:— Sir, —My husband and I, having experienced the wonderful courage and generosity of all naval ratings towards torpedoed men, women, and children during the war, frequently giving up their own rations to needy and hungry passengers picked up by them, and counting nothing too _ much to do for the sufferers, I feel "myself impelled to take the initiative in raising a fund for the dependents of those who have lost their lives in this terrible disaster. I therefore appeal to the generosity of all who admire the pluck of the British Navy to send me a contribution, however small, for this fund. Chrisxabel Jenks.