Today marks the anniversary of the Royal Navy’s worst peacetime submarine disaster—the sinking of HMS Thetis in Liverpool Bay with the loss of 99 men at the time of the disaster, and one later.
Thetis was built by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead. During sea
trials on 1 June 1939, she sank suddenly to the seabed on her first dive.
It is believed a piece of hardened paint had blocked one of
the torpedo tubes, so that when it was opened it was no longer watertight, and water
flooded in.
My connection with the disaster is that my father’s cousin,
Captain Harry “Joe” Oram, was one of only four survivors.
Captain Oram
Captain Oram’s part in the story is told better than I ever
could by the Chicago Tribune from 5 June 1939:
“The heroes of the submarine disaster were revealed today to
have been seven men who volunteered to let their bodies serve as buoys to guide
rescuers to the sunken British submarine. Three of the seven died in the
attempt, four came through alive.
“The story was told to THE TRIBUNE correspondent by F. F.
Shaw, one of the survivors [a Cammell Laird engine fitter], who said the
greatest praise should go to Capt. H. P. K. Oram, another survivor.
“Capt. Oram, he said, was first to volunteer to try to get
through the escape chamber, though the submarine was tilted at such an angle it
was believed a man would be drowned before he could get clear of the hull.
“There was a chance, however, that he might get the outer
hatch open before he drowned, in which case his body, floating to the surface
with the exact position of the Thetis in watertight containers strapped to his
wrist, would guide rescue ships.
“Oram, commander of the Fifth submarine flotilla, insisted
on going first. He got through. The next three men who tried were drowned
before they could get the outside hatch raised and were pulled back into the
submarine. Then Shaw, a civilian technician, went through successfully, and was
followed by Lieut. F. C. Wood and W. C. Arnold.
“All had strapped on them the containers giving directions
to rescuers.”
The stricken HMS Thetis
The submarine's crowded conditions - she was carrying twice as many men as she was designed for - meant that the air inside would not have lasted long enough to save the passengers, who were poisoned by the carbon dioxide from their own breath.
A memorial marking the tragedy was unveiled a year ago today
at the River Walkway, Birkenhead, and metal plaques, one for each victim of the
disaster, can be seen in the clock tower of Birkenhead Priory, St Mary’s Gate,
Birkenhead.
The submarine was raised and salvaged, and re-commissioned
as HMS Thunderbolt, but sunk off Sicily in 1943…with the loss of another 99
men.