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HMS Thetis
HMS Thetis
One of the greatest submarine disasters in the interwar period occurred when HMS Thetis sank in the waters of Liverpool Bay during her first trial dive on 1st June 1939. The submarine had workers from the company that built her, Cammell Laird, visiting onboard at the time. This brought the total to 103 people onboard.
During the trial, the submarine's Torpedo Officer opened the test cocks on the torpedo tubes, but paint blocked the test cock on tube number 5. When no water seeped out the tube, he and another crew member opened the tube's rear door. The torpedo tube bow cap remained open and the sea cascaded in. The inrush of water caused the bow of the submarine to sink to the seabed 150 feet below the surface.
The crew succeeded in raising the stern of the submarine throughout the night, so that when she was found at dawn on 2nd June by the destroyer HMS Brazen around 18 feet of the stern was above the water.
Torch from HMS Thetis (RNSM)
Only four men succeeded in escaping from Thetis, despite the fact that the after-escape chamber was less than 20 feet from the surface. The seaman operating the chamber possibly suffered the lethal effects of carbon dioxide poisoning, making an error in the drill for working the chamber so that the upper hatch could not open.
A salvage operation rescued the sunken boat, which was renamed HMS Thunderbolt for the outbreak of World War Two.
Telegraph regarding return of HMS Thetis crew member's body, 1939 (RNSM)
After this disaster, the Navy introduced the fail-safe 'Thetis clip', which is still used on today's submarines. This prevents a torpedo tube rear door from fully opening until there is no doubt that the tube is empty of water.
