Priory service to mark 70th anniversary of Thetis disaster

May 27 2009 by Lorna Hughes, Birkenhead News

WIRRAL will remember the victims of the Thetis submarine tragedy this weekend, 70 years after it sank with the loss of 99 lives.

Tragedy struck just a few hours after the Thetis left Cammell Laird on June 1, 1939 for its sea trials with 103 people on board – twice the number she was designed to carry.

Two compartments in the vessel took on water after an inner torpedo door was opened, leaving the men on board trapped and oxygen running out, just 38 miles from shore.

Only four people managed to escape.

Over 200 people, two travelling from Australia, are expected to attend a private service marking the anniversary at Birkenhead Priory on Sunday.

Harry McLeish, who worked at Cammell Laird for 45 years and started his working life on the Thetis, will be at Fort Perch Rock, New Brighton on Saturday at 7pm to re-dedicate its HMS Thetis exhibition after a refurbishment.

At 7.30pm Derek Arnold, the son of the last man to escape from Thetis, will be giving a free talk, repeated on Monday at 7.30pm.

Derek Arnold’s father, leading stoker Walter Arnold, was 27 at the time of the tragedy.

Mr Arnold, 71, from Bebington, said: “It is one of thousands of shipping disasters but the Thetis was so close to home and it remains the Royal Navy’s worst peace time submarine disaster.”

The inrush of water caused the bow of the submarine to sink to the seabed.

The crew dumped 60 tonnes of drinking water and fuel-oil, allowing the Thetis to rise to the surface stern first.

A wire hawser was strung around the submarine and held in place by a salvage ship but it snapped, leaving Thetis to plunge to the bottom of the sea. Bodies remained inside for months before it was salvaged.

Only 69 of the crew were sailors, with the rest mainly engineers from Cammell Laird, observers and two catering staff.

Steve Maddox, chief executive of Wirral Council, said: “People talked about the tragedy as it unfolded as, for three days, the men waited for rescue that never came. This anniversary is particularly poignant as we are aware that as the years progress, there are less and less families around who remember the men who died, or who are able to make the journey.”