COMMANDER AMONG THE VICTIMS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 11882, 19 January 1914, Page 5

COMMANDER AMONG THE VICTIMS.

HOW THE DISASTER OCCURRED

LONDON, Sunday.

Tho eleven victims of tho Whitosand Bay disaster include Commander Wellman and sub-lieutenant Robert Morrison . The sea was moderate. The submarine was accompanied by The Pigmy, which-Waa attached to the sea-going depot ship Forth. The submarine dived for the purpose of firing torpedoes. She remained an unusual time underneath, and the Pigmy's officers became alarmed and endeavoured to communicate with her but elicited no response. There wore ominous bubbles upon tho smooth swell over tho rocky bottom . The Pigmy placed*a buoy to mark the spot, but the buoy drifted, and was not found. Prompt salvage efforts were continued, but fruitlessly. The searchlight officials stated that it was practically hopeless. The oxygen supply was only sufficient to last for six hours. Two hundred persons have perished in ten years in seven British and nino foreign submarine accidents. The newspapers, commenting-on successive disasters to the A class of submarine, consider tho frail hulls unfitted even for the elementary duties recently assigned to them, namely, exercising within easy, reach, of the shore. The Admiralty is urged to supersede them forthwith. Search for the submarine was resunv ed at daylight. The department forbade the opening of the coning tower, as tho inrUsh of water would prove disastrous.