Tuesday,
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
June 20, 1939.
Survivors Tell of Thetis' Last Plunge
WATER ROSE OVER MY HEAD. MY MIND
ΑΝ
WAS GOING
By
I How
A COPYRIGHT INTERVIEW WITH THE LONDON “DAILY EXPRESS". MR. FRANK SHAW GAVE A DRAMATIC STORY OF HIS RESCUE FROM THE THETIS, IN THE COURSE OF THE INTERVIEW, HE SAID:
It was a fine morning when we left Cammell Laird's at Birkenhead in the Thetis for the sub- marine to do her acceptance trials în Liverpool Bay. The sea was very smooth.
I was in the control room when the order was given to dive. I didn't think much about it;' the ship had been down before.
or
any-
We
But I did have an idea she began to dip a bit steeply, and soon the angle was very steep. Then we hit the bottom. There was a heavy jolt-not a crash thing but it sent every one flying off his feet. fell against the forward bulkhead and had to catch hold of something to try to stand up.
The deck was cocked at about 45 degs. Tools and binoculars and all sorts of loose gear came crashing down. Orders were given by shouts and by phone through the ship to shut all the watertight doors. We had to clamber about like monkeys because of the angle of the ship.
There was suddenly silence. All the machinery stopped-not because of the bump, but no orders from the control room. It was so quiet that you could hear men moving about. I looked at the men near me, and they looked at me. I suppose they realised, too, that something had gone wrong.
were
I helped to close our watertight doors. Though we locked up in compartments the officers, using the phone, were able to speak at once to almost all parts of the ship.
We soon realised the forward compartments were flooded, but we discovered the men had managed to escape and close the watertight doors behind them.
Reports
So far as I can remember the lights were still on. came to the control room from other parts of the Thetis "that nothing had apparently been broken when we hit the bottom. We opened our watertight door leading to the next compartment, us because of the ship's which was then almost underneath angle.
They got into the escape This was the wardroom, where a couple of fellows had been chamber and disappeared.--You- caught when the orders were can imagine what it was like given to shut the doors. We then. We could only wait, and shouted down to ask if they were the air was bad. There did not seem much we could do. Some all right.
of them were still joking about the farewell party.
Ropes were lowered, and Lieu- tenant Chapman and Commander Engineer Glonn climbed down to make an inspection. When they found everybody in the ship was O.K. they held a conference.
So far as I know, no one had then thought about using the Davis apparatus. The idea was to set about getting the ship back to the surface. Ordered To Pump
Out All The Fuel No one thought about leaving her. We were all joking. There was to be a farewell party when we got back to, Birkenhead after the acceptance trial. They made-a lot of jokes about that.
It was not very cold, because it kept your blood going having to climb about the submarine. But it was getting colder. I be- gan to feel bad..
I can't remember much after · that till we heard tapping. It I don't know was very clear. what the message was. We tapped back. It was a great re- lief.
We were told the message was
from Captain Oram, saying to begin sending the rest of us up with the Davis outfit.
Even then not many of us knew how many destroyers and tugs were overhead.
The outer hatch that lets you The first move to try to sur face the submarine was an order get into the sea was closed soon after they had gone from the
to get out fuel pipes, and pump submarine, so the chamber was out all fuel to make her lighter all ready for the next couple. That was how people came to see There was no picking or choosing patches of oil on the sea.
There was no panic. All the who it was to be.. machinery was under control.
Having To Climb
Kept Us Warmer
There was another escape jchamber, but it was in the flood- [ed forward compartment..
D
WATE
65FT MUD
'Alive, Kicking' Wired Survivor
LEADING stoker W. C. Arnold sent two telegrams to his wife as soon as he escaped from the Thetis and woS picked up by the destroyer Brazen.
♣
One read: "Am alive and kicking." The other, addressed to "Maisle and Mackie" (his nickname for his year- old baby), said: "Am Oke. Will see you soon.-Mac."
.
Mrs. Arnold said: "This is his second submarine neeldent-but, al- though he is due to retire, he said he'd sign on for another twelve years, and I don't suppose this will make him change his mind."
Leading Telegraphist W. E. Allen, one of the men in the Thetis, is the tallest man in the submarine service. He is 6ft 3ins. His father is boxing editor of the South Wales Echo.
•
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Lending Seaman A. H. Smith has been seventeen years in submarines. His wife said: have always been afraid something like this would hap pen. For years I've begged him to Kive up submarines-and six weeks ago he said he would
Would consider it." Tearful young sweethearts, waiting for news at Cammell Laird's Birken- head yard, said that shortly the crew of the submarine were to hope held 9530. their farewell dance before leaving for Falmouth.
*
Tomato Argument
Rises
SAN JOSE, Cal
As a result of sudden Interest by the United States Department of Agriculture in the development white tomatoes being raised
here,
a controversy has arisen as to who was the first to produce the species. F. A. Bravo insists he has been growing pure white tomatoes for the last 11 years. His variety is a cross between a white beet and a red fomato.
decided to send a naval man and a civilian for a last try.
Stoker Arnold was picked. They all call him “Mac." Some, one pushed me to the hatch and said, "You go."
Jimmy Lunceford & His Orch.
..Art Shaw & IIls New -Musle.
Callecita De Mi Novia. Tango, Orquesta Tiplea Francisco Canaro, Sweetheart. (Film.) Waltz
Romany. Tango.,
Maxwell Stewart's Ballroom Orch
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Same Old Story. S.FT.
0532.
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Billy Cotton & His Band.
Jay Wilbur & His Band.
Freddy Gardner & His Swing Orch.
ETC., ETC., ETC.
TSANG FOOK PIANO COMPANY,
Marina House, 19 Queen's Road C.,
Tel. 24648.
SA
1 just happened to be near by. A SPECIAL EVENT
that's all. I had to go or I could not have lasted out.
Mac helped me fix my Davis and we got in. He opened the cocks and the water started com- ing in. It's a dreadful feeling -a feeling that you're trapped.
You can please yourself how fast it comes, because you can regulate it. He let it come in pretty fast. You can't imagine. what I thought. It did not help aceing the others die. Water Over My Eyes
I Could Hardly See But some one had to go. When the water got to my neck I whipped on the mouthpiece and waited.
Stern of the Thetis was at one time above water; This diagram completes the picture; shows how the submarine was stuck in the
mud. Here is the key to the diagram A-Oil fuel storage tanks. `H-Batteries.
The water got higher and B-Engines.
J-Forward escapo chamber higher till it was over my eyes in mud. Men using Davis and I could not see properly. escape apparatus emerged My mind was going fast. I from after chamber (not wondered if the hatch was jam- visible in diagram).
med, K-Torpedoes.
C-Water release valves. D-Air bottles.
E-Control room.
F-Conning tower.
G-Periscopes.
You don't know what it felt like. But you have got to keep
creep up from their ankles to They were both civilians, cool till the pressure inside is their waists, their chests, their Others waited their turn, al-the same as outside. necks.
though it was not known for
•
which they were to escape.
The first pair to, follow Cap- tain Oram and Lieut. Woods in- But everything was oddly to the escape chamber were mouthpieces of the Davis arti-hatch had jammed. Two naval some signals. He pointed to the He saw them slip on the certain whether or not the outer Mac caught my arm and made - quiet, except for the pumps, drowned. That would be what was heard- Poor chaps, they lost their fetal lungs. When the water men, who know the gear volun- outside hatch and made as if to by some of the destroyers. nerve, and tried to open the reached their cheeks I'm told he teered to be locked in to see if push it. I knew what he meant, Every one was working to get outer hatch before the pressure saw them banging their hands they could make it work.
and nodded. + "There was still a little food of the water outside. They But the regulation time for window, and the chamber was He opened it very easily.
inside was equal to the weight against the outer hatch through
He moved the catch and wo Commander Glen went to the both strained against the hatch. and were not strong enough to push them to shoot out and up to the flooded again. But he soon had
surface came to an end still to give the order to pump it dry. It seemed quite a while when they were there, and the outer When they opened the inner I was in the chamber, but it did
hatch was still closed."
hatch they found another dead [not tako long to reach the sur- start the pumps to empty the ing on his cheet.
The only thing to do, was to man with the mouthpiece hang-face. I flew up Hike a rocket but chamber. Then to open the in- The second man was still alive, God, was I glad to
never saw Mac,
see the ner hatch and lift them out his mouthpiece in position, but light up at the surface? When They were dead.o
hd was only semi-conscious. He I broke through, the first thing whispered that the hatch would I saw was a small boat from one not open
of the destroyers, the Brazon. I came up right undor it. MAA Now I keep remembering the much longer down there. They men I was the last to see alive.
the
her up. laft biscuits and choose some chicken. -
that open. -We could not use. the radio
Commander Glen-was peering under the water, and it seems through a small, thick glass win machinery for making dow, about the size of a post- underwater signals had been put card, through which he could seu out of action as soon as we hit into the escape chamber, which Is big enough only for two men.. Captain Oram and Lieutenant Woods, we heard, were going to Water Crept Up C take the risk of findings som To Their Necks Two Volunteered body on the surface. Some ar* He watched those two when
To Be Locked ·· ·In rangement was made that Cap they were locked in and the Both had taken off the mouth- tain Oram was to signal us in cocks were turned to flood the picces, They must have panick don't think I would have lasted some way if he was saved:
chamber. He saw the water ed at the last moment,
bottom...
|""
was very thick
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