Impossible; Taps Heard London, June 5.
First stories of the drama played out on the ocean-bed in Liverpool Bay by the five Scapa Flow divers fighting to rescue the crew of the submarine Thetis were told when the divers were landed in Liverpool from the destroyer Winchelsea (1,100 tons).
Diving operations were directed by air-compression and the diving expert, James McKenzie. The difficulties he and his companions faced are a commentary on the rescue' chapter of the tragic story now exercising the public mind.
Diver Taylor, describing in the "News-Chronicle" today the first descent of his companion Sinclair McKenzie at 1.55 am. on June 3, said that a tide-race of five knots caused McKenzie to fight every inch of the way down, It was pitch-black on the ocean-bed, he added and McKenzie had to feel his'way. He touched metal and it was the sunken submarine, "Then, with tremendous difficulty and still in danger of being swept away by tidal currents," McKenzie clambered to the deck and knocked four or five times with his hammer. He got a faint response from within.
McKenzie himself said that he was practically all out when he reached the surface.
Taylor said that he and Diver Thomson made the descent at 6 o'clock the same morning, when visibility was fairly good, but conditions were so bad that they had to ascend after 10 or 12 minutes. This time silence greeted their tapings.
They had to wait for the next tide before anything further could be done—Reuter.
'Widows' Plight Birkenhead, June 5.
Widows of the victims of the Thetis submarine disaster want the disabled craft to remain a steel coffin for their husbands because of a desire to avoid undergoing unnecessary pain at inquest identifications, funerals and naval ceremonies honouring the dead men, it was learned today.
At least eight of the widows are expectant mothers.
Mrs. J. A. Morgan, who is only 21 years of age, is one of the widows who is against having to identify her husband, "I couldn't stand it." she said. "Heaven only knows how I got through the week-end.
Another widow who also thought that it would be better for the men to remain sealed in the sunken submarine said that "we have some idea of the terrible sight those men must be."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.