THETIS DISASTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23828, 7 June 1939, Page 11

THETIS DISASTER

SINKING OF SUBMARINE A FULL PUBLIC INQUIRY STATEMENT IN PARLIAMENT RESCUE EFFORTS DESCRIBED fßritlsh Official Wireless) fUnlted Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) RUGBY. June 5. In the House of Commons. Mr Chamberlain announced that a full public inquiry into the Thetis disaster would be held. Meantime, the usual naval inquiry would take place, and the report and evidence at this; inquiry would be available for the public inquiry, which would be held as soon as the submarine was salvaged. The personnel of the committee of inquiry was under active consideration. Mr Chamberlain expressed, on behalf of the Government and the House, profound sorrow at the loss of so manv valuable lives, and deep sympathy with the bereaved relatives. ; He gave an assurance that the dependents of the crew would receive pensions and gratuities, and mentioned that the Cammell, Laird firm would make provision for dependents- of their personnel.

The Cause of "Sinking

The Prime Minister said that, so far as could be ascertained, the sinking of the Thetis was caused by the flooding of two forward compartments through one of the bow torpedo tubes. The main ballast tanks were emptied «by compressed air with the intention of bringing the submarine to the surface, but she continued to dive, and hit the bottom at 130 feet and an angle of 35 degrees. She then came to rest on an even keel. The impact on the bottom destroyed the vessel's signalling apparatus, and she was unable to riommunicate with surface vessels- Mr Chamberlain made it clear that the additional personnel above the, submarine's normal com: plement which was usual on acceptance trials had in no way contributed to the "sinking. After the accident, with a view to facilitating the escape of the personnel, all possible measures were taken' by the crew to lighten the submarine, and the stern came to the. surface at daylight on Friday, the Thetis having been due on the surface at 4.10 p.m. on Thursday. The Search Begun Oh Thursday evening the com-rriandeE-in-chief. at Plymouth, under' whose command the subsequent operations fell, was informed that the Thetis had failed to come to the surfaced at 6.50 p.m. According to prearranged procedure for such an emergency, the following vessels proceeded at maximum speed to the scene:—The Brazen (Plymouth command), eight destroyers of the* Sixth Destroyer Flotilla, six mine-sweep-ers, ■ two submarines, 'J and another vessel.. The Admiralty, got in touch with the Air Ministry, in consequence of which a search by aircraft took place at 9.20 p.m. by Number 239 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, which sighted the marker buoys which the submarine had released. The Brazen, arrived at 8 p.m. and began to search for the submarine. Having received news of a buoy being sighted by aircraft she proceeded to search throughout the night, and at 7.54 a.m. on Friday reported that she had located the submarine with the stern 18 feet out of the water. On the previous evening the admiral commanding-in-chief at Plymouth had" been in touch with the Liverpool Salvage Company, the Mersy Harbour Board, and Cammell, Laird, with a view, to obtaining all the technical appliances which might be required. On Friday morning shortly aftef the Brazen found the submarine and indicated her presence by signalling, the first two survivors came to the surface by the Davis escape apparatus through the special escape hatches. One of these was Captain Oram, who, with very great gallantry, took on himself, before it was known that the submarine had been located, to try t° escape in order to direct operations. Captain Oram reported that conditions were becoming bad, but that ail aboard were still alive. At 9.54 two more men made their escape, and at 10.30 the Sixth Destroyer Flotilla arrived, and her captain took command,, '.. j The Rescue Efforts Mr Chamberlain went on to describe the rescue efforts. He said that on Friday exceptionally strong spring tides had been running, and it was impossible to undertake diving operations, which could only be carried out in slack water. As soon as possible a diver from the Vigilant was sent down, but he had great difficulty in working. At 12.40 p.m. sn attempt was made from the Vigilant to get the stern still higher above the water, since to cut a hole in the stern of the submarine in the position it was at that time in would have involved risk of flooding, which was quite unjustifiable. This attempt to raise th«> stern was unsuccessful. It was then decided that no further attempt should be made until 6 p.m., at slack tide. A further attempt to raise the stern during slack water was made, but this was again unsuccessful. No further escapes were made by the Davis escape apparatus, but it was believed that three men were killed when trying to escape, Mr Chamberlain said that shortly before low water at 7.15 p.m on Friday a wire was placed round the submarine and a ' camel" was placed in position, but the wire slipped the wrong way, at the same time butting away the indicator buoy. The submarine was located again at approximately 11 p.m By this time on Friday night deep-sea divers from Scapa Flow had arrived to assist the Liverpool divers, and diving operations were again carried out. In view of a report by a diver that he thought he heard tapping inside the submarine, efforts were made to try and pump air into a compartment, but it Was found that the operation could not be undertaken in time to save lives, and the attempt was abandoned. It had become clear that any further possibility of saving lives must be abandoned.