§ 2.37 p.m.
§ VISCOUNT SWINTONMy Lords, I beg to ask His Majesty's Government the following Question, of which I have given them private notice—namely, whether any further statement can now be made with regard to the submarine "Affray."
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY (VISCOUNT HALL)My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Viscount for putting the Question, as I have a statement to make. After it became clear that hope of saving life must be abandoned, a searching force, using the Asdic equipment, was formed to search on a 14-mile front along the probable course of the submarine. The search covers the area from just short of her diving position to the position where she expected to be the following morning—an area of 1,000 square miles. The search is complicated because the bed of the channel is littered with wrecks, and the Asdic echoes from them cannot easily be distinguished from 806 echoes from a submarine. More than seventy objects on the bottom have been pin-pointed, of which roughly one half have been eliminated, but the House will realise that identification is a slow process. Divers, who go down in doubtful cases, are hampered by tides and the weather. The contacts they have investigated so far have proved to be old wrecks of surface ships. A considerable searching force is at work, but it does not seem possible to cover the area thoroughly in much less than three weeks from now. The work of searching for her will be pressed on.
The "A" Class submarines have operated successfully, and without loss, for five years in all parts of the world. But as the reason for the loss of the "Affray" is still unknown, and as she is the first of her class to be lost, a full re-examination of the design and characteristics of the class has been made. As a result, I can assure your Lordships that vessels of the "A" Class are in every way satisfactory operational submarines, when on the surface, submerged or resting on the bottom. As regards escape, it is Admiralty policy to provide two methods, one through a small escape compartment situated just forward of the conning tower, which allows one or two men to escape at a time without flooding the main compartment. This is called a dry escape. The other method is through escape hatches which cannot be opened until inside and outside pressure is equalised by flooding the compartment in which they are fitted. "Affray" was fitted with both methods of escape. Investigation shows that if an "A" Class submarine is so severely damaged that two-thirds or more of the submarine becomes flooded with water, she may lie over on the bottom at an acute angle. With extensive flooding the number of survivors would in any case be small, but the chance of escape of any left alive would be made more hazardous by the flooding of a further compartment for the purpose of escape. Future drill for escape from "A" Class submarines will emphasise the importance of the dry-escape method which avoids additional flooding.
I should emphasise that the foregoing can have had no bearing on the accident to "Affray." Indeed, further 807 analysis and interrogation throw considerable doubt on whether any message or communication was received from "Affray," and the absence of marker buoys, oil, wreckage or survivors seems to indicate that major flooding took place at once and that all were lost. It has been decided to lift the temporary sea-going ban on "A" Class submarines fitted with the dry-escape equipment. Fitting of the remainder of the submarines in the class will be expedited and they will not be permitted to dive until this is done.
§ VISCOUNT SWINTONMy Lords, the House will be grateful to the noble Viscount the First Lord of the Admiralty for that full statement, and for the assurance of the complete re-testing and re-examination which have been made and which I am sure will inspire confidence.