NAVAL TRAGEDY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 267, 9 October 1933, Page 7

NAVAL TRAGEDY

EXPLOSION ON SUBMARINE. THREE AIEN KILLED. SCOTTISH COAST FATALITY. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received October 9, 11.25 a.m. LONDON, Oct. 8. Three ratings were fatally injured, 14 were seriously liurt and five were gassed as the result of a mysterious explosion on submarine L 26 ■at Campbeltown Harbour while the men were at dinner. Tlie officers were unhurt. Yesterday L 26 was proceeding to manoeuvres and ran aground at Kintyre, but was successfully refloated and proceeded to Campbeltown. A fishing fleet rushed to the assistance and lifted the injured men from the submarine, which remained afloat after the explosion, and took them to tlie quayside, where they were rushed to hospital on lorries. A doctor declared that otio was dead before lie reached shore and the other two, who ivere terribly injured, died in hospital. Alost of the injuries are serious, including fractured spines and legs. Tlie men’s faces ivere black with smoke. Eyewitnesses say the explosion was heard a mile away. It left a huge hole in the submarine’s side. L 26. was damaged in the Mediterranean in 1924 and is a sister ship to L 24, which was rammed at Portland in 1924 witli the loss of 43 lives. Ll 9 also grounded at Kintyre, but was refloated. Campbeltown is a seaport of Argyllshire, on tlie east coast of tho Kintyre peninsula, 83 miles south-west of Glasgow.