SUBMARINE DISASTER

Hokitika Guardian, 24 January 1921, Page 3

SUBMARINE DISASTER

LOSS OF K 5. BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSN., COPYRIGHT. AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. A SUBMARINE LOST. LONDON Jan 23. Official.—Submarine K 5 was lost with all hands near the entrance to the English Channel on Thursday. The Admiralty is investigating the cause. (Received this day at 8 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 22. It is unofficially stated that K 5 was rammed while submerged, during exercises, designed to test the vulnerability of big ships to a submarine attack. The 'submarine Ivo, belonged to the supertype evolved during the war. She carried cigfyt torpedo tubes, one four inch and one three inch gun. The crew of fifty mostly belonged to Ports- . mouth. The disaster occurred one T* Imndred miles off Lands End. hive of K class submarines were accompanying the Atlantic fleet on a cruise in Spanish waters, after the fleet had refuged for several days in Torbay owing to storms.

FURTHER PARTICULARS. (Received This Day at 8 a.m.) . LONDON, Jan. 23. James, commander of K 5, discovered a secret passage into Heligoland and laid a minefield practically in the antisubmarine gate of the boom at Near Island. A German patrol boat cruising two hundred yards off James, heard laughter but probably mistook him for a German officer. K 5 class was already in‘service when Germany was boasting of the submarine Deutcliland’s transAtlantic cruise. They were declared to be as.efloctivc as the largest destroyers, and made U boats obsolete. The Admiralty declares the rcpoi that K 5 was rammed while submerged, is unfounded. . . The “Sunday Express” states officia circles are of opinion that K 5 was lost while diving, being possibly Mown «P by an internal explosion or a driftn g mine, some distance below the surf a A court of inquiry sits wßeu the fleet anchors at Rosa Bay.