LOST TORPEDO

Hokitika Guardian, 23 December 1931, Page 6

LOST TORPEDO

AUSTRALIAN NAVAL INCIDENT. SEARCH ABANDONED. Leaving a £2OOO torpedo in the silt at the bottom of Port Phillip Bay, near Melbourne, the four vessels of the Australian squadron sailed recently for Sydney. The torpedo was lost off Frankston. Remarkably little information was obtainable from the Navy Board on the subject. It was not officially knjwn how the torpedo was • lost. It is strongly rumoured, says the .“Age,” that the accident happened in one of those extraordinary coincidences that only the sea can produce, namely, a collision between two torpedoes'. Such a probability would seem fantastically remote—that with all the expanse of seai to move about in two comparatively slender cylinders should collide. The lost torpedo belonged to the Australia, and the other missile, which was recovered in a damaged condition, to .the Canberra, Dummy torpedoes are so constructed as to float upright at the end of their run. The lost torpedo sank, and, sweeping the sea bed had to he resorted to. A tempest rendered search operations impossible. Big ships cannot take part in sweeping, and small boats have to be lowered for the purpose. Proceeding abreast, a wire is dragged over the sea bed by two boats. When obstructions are encountered, divers are sent down to investigate. Heavy seas rendered precarious the position of the small boats, and turgid water seriously restricted the range of vision of the divers. All day on November 22 the search was continued, but, although the area in which the torpedo was last 6een was marked by a buoy, there was no sign of the missile.