RACE AGAINST TIME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 July 1939, Page 6

RACE AGAINST TIME

IN ATTEMPTED SALVAGE OF THETIS MARINE SURVEYOR’S STORY. CHANCE THAT VANISHED. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day. 10 a.m.) LONDON, July 17. At the Thetis inquiry Captain Hart, a marine surveyor who was aboard a salvage tug. described a dramatic race against time, to gain entry to the submarine when her stern was about fifteen feet out of the water. Shortly before the Thetis, plunged for the last time, the wreckmaster clambered on the Thetis to remove the outer cover and began to loosen the bolts of the inner cover. He reported that there was considerable air pressure, whereupon Captain Hart ordered him to screw up. The wreckmaster jumped off as the submarine swung dangerously. The chances were then a hundred to one against rescue. The weight and strain during the unsuccessful lifting operations a week later indicated that the submarine had taken in 450 tons of water since the stern rose the first time. An inrush probably caused the. final submergence. Captain Hart agreed that when the destroyer flotilla arrived with drilling plant, it would have been possible to bore a hole in the stern to attach an air pipe, but when the submarine had submerged it was certain that no diver in the United Kingdom could have descended at any stage of the tide, and drilled a hole or anything else.