An explosion might have sunk the United States Submarine 0-9 off the New England coast last week, it was disclosed here yesterday.
Lieut-Commander Robert Beecher commander of the submarine squad-ton of which the 0-9 was a member, told a Naval inquiry board that "a thousand and one things might have contributed to the disaster, one cause might have been an explosion" in the ent.
It-Comdr. Beecher said that some decking of the after-compartment came to the surface after the sinking. He previously had testified that the 0-9 was rated "far superior to any of the Navy's reconditioned vessels'
The commander revealed that accidental causes or an oversight could not possibly have caused the sinking.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.