SUBMARINE LOST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 June 1939, Page 8

SUBMARINE LOST

THIRD IN TWENTY=FOUR DAYS FRENCH VESSEL VANISHES. SIXTY-THREE MEN ON BOARD. 3y Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) PARIS, June 16. The third submarine disaster in twenty-four days occurred on the morning of June 15, when the French submarine Phoenix, with four officers and 59 men vanished during diving exercises at Camranh, Indo-China. A thirty hour sea and air search has been fruitless and hope has been officially abandoned. It is presumed that the Phenix is sunk at least 300 feet deep. The hull, therefore, must be crushed, but there are no signs of wreckage. The Phenix did not possess escape apparatus and would wholly depend on surface aid. DESPERATE SEARCH ALL AVAILABLE FORCES MOBILISED. FEARS THAT LOST VESSEL WILL NEVER BE FOUND. (Received This Day, 11.25 a.m.) PARIS. June 16. France’s Far Eastern naval forces. associated with colonial seaplanes, have been mobilised in a desperate search of the deepest parts of the China Sea. No salvage ships capable of raising the submarine are stationed%in the China Sea and it is feared that the submarine will never be located. The tragedy occurred forty -eight hours after an announcement that prance was purchasing four diving bells from America. The Ministry of Marine advised relatives tonight and also issued a statement confirming the disappearance. They added that grave anxiety exists, but that the search is continuing. The Phenix was posted to the China station in November, in.view of the tension existing there.

THEORY OF DISASTER LOSS OF EQUILIBRIUM WHEN DIVING. CREW MOSTLY YOUNG BRETON CONSCRIPTS. (Received This Day, 1.20 p.m.) LONDON, June 16. Messages from Saigon state that the Phenix sank during the manoeuvres of the Far Eastern Fleet, ten miles from Camranh. The Phenix advised the flagship that she intended to perform a practice dive and remain below for half an hour. Other ships manoeuvred within a five-mile radius and attempted to communicate by !means of wireless telephone. Darkness interrupted the search. It is now fifty hours since the submarine vanished and the air supply would last only for forty hours. The authorities are of opinion that the disaster was caused when the vessel lost equilibrium while submerging. The crew consisted chiefly of conscripts from the Breton coast; 20 to 22 years old.