MISSING SUBMARINE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 49, 28 January 1932, Page 7

MISSING SUBMARINE

SUNKEN BRITISH CRAFT.

REPORTED TO HAVE BEEN LOCATED.

NO OFFICIAL CONFIRMATION.

(United Press Association—By Electric

Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received Januaiy 28, 9.30 a.m. LONDON, Jan. 27

Though it is not confirmed by .the Admiralty, the Standard’s special Weymouth correspondent says that two destroyers located the submarine M2, to’ which salvage vessels are hurrying. The correspondent asserts that the submarine has not answered the signals. The Admiralty announced at 1.30 o’clock this afternoon that there was no communication with the submarine. Great anxiety, therefore, is felt for the safety of the crew. The Admiralty insists that M2 has not been found, but the Standard declares that the mothership Adamant wirelessed the Portland dockyard :■— “Have definitely, located M2. Am surrounding the position and will send divers down.” Six officers and fifty men are aboard. WARSHIPS ON THE SPOT. DIVERS’ EFFORTS. LONDON, Jan. 27. Worships are grouped, in a wide cirele around the spot below which the M2 is lying. • The destroyer Sabre, with specially-trained deep-sea divers and two Admiralty salvage ships with special lifting apparatus are rushing to get operations started at daylight. According to 'the Daily. Mail, divers will first attempt to discover whether anybody is 'alive by tapping 'the hull and listening for a reply. The submarine ■is provided with valves enabling the-divers to pump fresh air into any compartment. It is stated as being possible that the men could live for 80 hours if there* is no extensive leakage, but in Naval circles at Portland the worst fears are entertained. One theory is that the submarine dived-with an open hatch and the inrush of water prevented the inmates from reaching the Davis apparatus. It was officially announced that an object presumed to be the M2 had been located three miles weßt of Portland Bill in 17 fathoms on a sandy bottom. Salvage craft and divers were sent with the utmost dispatch from Portsmouth to West Bay, the precise scene of the mishap. Lifting lighters and the hest divers of the Navy have been rushed to West Bay, where a circle of. flickering lights two and a-half miles off Chesil Beach indicates where the M2 is lying. The sea is moderate. After the first news was received destroyers and submarines from Portland searched the area where the submarine was last known to have been, and every endeavour was made to establish communication. 1

The Daily Telegraph’s naval expert says: “It is ominous that M2 has vanished in circumstances recalling the loss of Ml on November 13, 1925. It is surmised that Ml got out of control during a dive ana was crushed by the pressure of water when she passed the limit of safe submergence. Salving a wrecked submarine is a long and tedious process. To in-, dicate tnat there would be a possibility. of raising the boat in time to save the men would be encouraging false hopes.” SUBMARINE NOT LOCATED. ADMIRALTY TAKES SERIOUS VIEW. Received January 28, 12.30 p.m. LONDON, Jan. 27. Contrary to the hopes raised in the afternoon the Admiralty is now definitely of the opinion that the submarine has not been located.

The general belief is that the vessel sank in a stretch of water with the sinister name of “Dead Man’s Bay,” owing to the number of ships wrecked there during the war. Sweeping continues in an area about a mile square, though it is too rough for tne divers to descend.

The skipper of a coasting steamer who was in the vicinity yesterday savs that he believes that* he saw the submarine diving in a strange fashion.

The naval authorities are slowly coming to the conclusion that there may have been an explosion aboard, in which case the men must have been immediately suffocated. The serious view the Admiralty, has taken is shown by the fact that officers have been sent to visit the men.’s wives and tell them that they should not build hopes that their husbands will be found alive.

When the MI was struck by a merchant vessel and sunk off Start Point, Cornwall, in November, 1925, the loss of life made that occasion the worst disaster Britain has suffered in her submarine divisions, outside of the war period. Following is a' list of previous disasters in which British submarines have been involved:

1904—A1, struck by liner off Isle of Wight; all on board lost. 1908—A8, sank in Plymouth Sound ;

14 lost. 1905—A5, explosion of petrol vapour; . six killed, nine injured. 1909 —Oil, sank off Cromer. 1912—A3, sunk' in collision off Isle of Wight : 14 lost. 1912 82, in collision; 15 lost. 1913 E 6, explosion ■ three killed. 1914 A 7, lost off Plymouth; 11 lost. (War years excluded). 1921 K 5, sank in English Channel; 57 lost. ' 1922 H 42, rammed' by warship off Gibraltar.; 23 lost. , ' 1924—L24, rammed by warship off Port-

land ; 47 lost. 1925 Ml. sunk off Start Point; 68lost. 1926 H 29, sank.

1931—Poseidon, rammed by Chinese merchant vessel in Far East; 24 lost. Tho Davis life-saving apparatus—“third lung,” as it has been called—is self-con-tained and consists of a collapsiblo breathing bag which contains an oxygen cylinder and a canister of chemicals for purifying the exhaled air. A tube through which the man breathes is also provided. With its aid men can live for some time under water or in foul air. If the tubos are connected with the oxygon cylinders, carried by submarines life can be sustained even longer after tho. supplies from the apparatus itself have become* exhausted. As the result of roccnt tests conducted by tho Admiralty it has been established that the Davis apparatus can be" used practicably at a depth of more than 200 feet. It is. expected that with care and proper discipline it may be used as deep as 300 feet. The inventor is a London submarine- engineer. >