THE
SEARCH FOR M1 AND HMS AFFRAY
The wrecks
of 16 British submarines lie in the English Channel. Of these, half were lost
in accidents whilst in commission. M2, L24, A7, A1 and recently discovered B2
have become diving sites. Swordfish has been found and its location is a closely
guarded secret. Of the rest, M1 and Affray were considered to be lying in water
too deep to be visited by sport divers, even if the wrecks themselves could
be found.
Innes McCartney's special enthusiasm for submarine wrecks led him to hunt for,
locate and be the first to dive M1 and Affray. These landmarks in the exploration
of British wrecks are related exclusively to 990.
One of the tremendously exciting aspects of Trimix diving is the potential to
visit wrecks that have never been seen by divers before. This is made all the
more exciting when the wrecks in question are landmarks in our maritime heritage.
HMS Affray, the last British submarine lost at sea, and the supergun submarine
M1 are two such examples. In 1998 the Starfish Enterprise (of which I am a proud
member) were conducting work-up dives for the Britannic '98 expedition. This
was the perfect opportunity to look for HMS Affray, which we were successful
in finding that year. This year my attentions were concentrated on HMS M1.
We located the wreck in June, the culmination of much detailed research. That
brings the stories of these two boats together is the fact that they shared
similar fates. In some ways there is nothing more tragic than the loss of a
naval vessel with all hands during peacetime. Both losses were front-page news
at the time, in the case of HMS Affray, it relegated Suez to page two of the
national newspapers. I am aware that the discovery of these vessels will be
viewed with mixed emotions by some, they are after all the graves of 144 British
submariners and should be accorded the respect they deserve.
HM Submarine M1 was developed toward the end of the First World War. Unique
in the history of submarine design, she and her sisters M2 and M3 were fitted
with 12inch guns from a scrapped battleship. This unique design was born out
of the frustration of the submarine service with the relatively short range
of torpedoes and their relative expense. These experimental designs were based
on the hulls of the ill-starred K-class. M1 was completed before the war ended,
but not employed in combat. One theory states that this was because the Royal
Navy feared that Germany could copy the design. The U-boat war against British
commerce might have taken a grave turn for the worse if such deadly weapons
had been employed against Britain's merchant marine. It was, after all, Germany
who had made the greatest capital out of the employment of the submarine as
an offensive weapon of war.
After the war, the M-Class submarines were used experimentally in developing
a range of new submarine technologies. M3 was converted into a minelayer and
later scrapped in the 1930s. M2 became the world's first submarine aircraft
carrier, carrying a miniature stainless steel-framed seaplane. M2 was also lost
in tragic circumstances in January 1932.
M1's first commander was Max Horton, a successful wartime submarine commander
who went on to become one of Britain's greatest war leaders when he was appointed
Admiral, Western Approaches in 1942. Horton, the navy man who knew submarines
intimately, became the killer of the German wolf packs. The M1's 12-inch gun
gave her some unique sea-keeping qualities. The gun protected the watch in the
conning tower from the worst the sea could throw at them by breaking the waves.
Moreover the massive 100-ton weight of the gun turret gave it a fast diving
time for such a leviathan. M1 could fully submerge in less than 90 seconds.
Once submerged, the 12-inch gun (which was sealed at either end) became buoyant
and also gave the vessel excellent handling qualities when underwater. However,
when running on the surface, the gun made M1 top heavy and she was not the easiest
vessel to control. The 12-inch gun was powerful enough to project the massive
shells over 15 miles though a gunnery control system that would have permitted
accurate firing was never properly developed. Instead, M1 was intended to be
able to surprise its victims by firing at shorter ranges, with only its gun
and spotting periscope showing above the surface. At
a range of 1200 yards the gun had a totally flat trajectory and could literally
be pointed at a target and fired. Not many vessels afloat in 1918 could be expected
to withstand the devastating effect of such a bombardment. However, one of M1's
drawbacks was that she was a 'one shot deal' because she had to surface to reload,
making her instantly vulnerable to counter-attack. Therefore a close range attack,
coming to firing depth and submerging was the best way she could be employed.
With practice M1 got this routine down to less than 75 seconds.
It must be remembered that M1 was an experimental platform, not a mass-produced
vessel. Because of this there were many teething problems with the design. These
affected many areas and did cause the submarine a few embarrassing moments.
If the hydraulic tampion gear which kept the barrel dry malfunctioned and the
gun filled with water, when fired it would shatter.
On two occasions M1 lost half her barrel length when it simply went off in the
same direction as the projectile. It is known that on another occasion when
this occurred the steel winding within the barrel remained attached to the submarine
and to the piece of the barrel that had broken off. The broken section landed
in the sea a few hundred yards in front of M1 and effectively anchored her to
the seabed. This is the only recorded time that a submarine has dropped anchor
by firing her gun! In this case it was the seaman responsible for opening the
tampion who had forgotten to do his job. He was most unpopular that evening
because a shore leave could not be enjoyed since M1 was anchored out at sea!
A relatively high level of mechanical unreliability is thought to another compounding
reason why M1 did not see action during the closing months of World War One.
Some historians have suggested that plans had been made to operate M1 on a shore
bombardment mission in the Bosphorous, fortunately these plans never came to
fruition, possibly because of concerns over her reliability or potential for
capture.
On 12 November 1925 M1 was on exercises off the Devon coast when disaster struck.
She last dived at 07.37 and was not seen again for 74 years. Nothing was known
about what had happened to M1 until 19 November when the collier Vidar entered
Varta harbour and reported being in collision with an unknown object off Start
Point at 07.45 on the 12th. Divers were sent down to examine her hull and they
discovered that her bows were damaged. Traces of paint found on the Vidar seemed
to be the same as the special paint used on M1 - a mystery had been solved.
Although it was known roughly where M1 had been lost, she was lying in water
too deep for safe diving operations and although she was located by the primitive
sonar available at the time no attempt was made to inspect her. The M1 has been
in the minds and ambitions of many sport divers over the years. This is because
of the popularity of her sister, M2, as a diving site. Situated off Chesil Beach,
near Weymouth, in 30m of water, M2 has been dived by countless thousands of
wreck divers over the years. The story of the 'lost' sister M1 has always been
a topic of conversation at these times. Until we returned with video footage
which identified her she remained simply a footnote in history books and diver's
logs.
The history of M1 is also now the history of those who sought to find her. Aside
from the Royal Navy's searches in 1925/6, others have tried and failed to find
M1. Claims have been made by commercial outfits and crayfish divers to have
come across a 'giant submarine' while going about their work, but upon investigation
these were found to be incorrect. This is partly because there are at least
seven other submarines in the waters around Start Point. The most interesting
of these claims came from a diving operator called Silas Oates. His M1 'find'
made the national newspapers in 1967, as he claimed to be able to raise her.
The Royal Navy impounded Mr Oates' boat shortly after the news broke. What made
Mr Oates' story implausible was the comparatively shallow 150 feet of water
he claimed she lay in.
To find the M1, I went back to basics and began with the information relating
to the original Naval search for her. Although sonar was in its infancy, the
information in the Public Records Office pointed to a number of interesting
contacts found during 1925/6. However, the conclusion the Navy drew as to where
the M1 was lying was clearly wrong. In fact I feel certain that this amounted
to being a typographical error during the writing of the summary report into
the findings of the search. I was also fortunate to be able to have access to
the books of 'numbers' from Grahame Knott, the Weymouth charter boat captain.
Together we also managed to access some other positional information from trawlers
and other dive charter operators. Within the search area we settled upon were
three wrecks which we believed were undived and also of the right size to be
M1. One site was firm favourite due to its location. On 18 June 1999 Grahame
Knott took myself, Keith Morris, Chris Hutchison and support diver Patricia
Hornabrook to the first position on our list. We had made hasty plans to go
there because one of the invitees of my planned expedition to look for M1 (set
for August) was attempting cut in front of me, get there first and claim the
discovery for himself. What a brotherly lot technical divers have become! Upon
arrival on site in beautiful, flat, sunny conditions, we were all excited at
the prospect of being the first to discover M1. I entered the water and descendeing
the shotline, video recording, out of the darkness in 73 metres came the unmistakable
shape of an M-class submarine. The M1 had been found a last. For me, this was
the greatest and most satisfying moment I have had in diving.
She is upright and leaning slightly over to port, relatively intact, the only
obvious area of damage is the gun turret which is lying on the sand on the port
side of the wreck. Her hatches are all closed with the exception of the forward
torpedo-loading hatch which has popped open revealing a fan and some shelves
neatly stacked with rows of china plates. The wreck is very heavily netted,
with trawl nets wrapped closely around her. There are also several large monofilament
nets in which the rows of dead fish become visible long before the netting.
The fact that the gun turret has fallen off points to this being the point of
collision with Vidar. Where the gun turret stood one can see the turntable upon
which it sat with the rest of the conning tower silhouetted behind.
Subsequent to the dive we made on M1, I learned that HMS Bulldog, the Navy's
survey vessel, had looked for her in 1991. The position given as being the most
likely to be the wreck of M1 was in fact the position we dived - it goes to
show that there is more than one way to skin a cat. Since being found M1 has
been dived by several interested parties including a team from the BBC who are
making a documentary about her.
As part of this program the marine accident investigation branch is investigating
the sinking. I personally believe that Vidar was undoubtedly involved and that
the gun turret was the area that was struck, flooding the boat. However the
results of the official investigation into her loss will inevitably throw up
more clues and produce much more solid evidence surrounding the sinking. We
all await the findings with keen interest.
When she slipped from the docks of Cammell Laird, Birkenhead on 25 October 1945,
HMS Affray (P421) was the embodiment of the latest submarine technology. The
great submarine building programme of World War Two was coming to an end and
HMS Affray was the culmination of several years of rapid submarine development.
Her modular style of manufacture and all-welded hull were unique at the time.
The
A-class submarine was designed to operate mainly in the Far East. With this
in mind she was fitted out with the highest degree of creature comfort for the
crew ever seen on a British submarine. Affray boasted two air conditioning plants
and refrigeration, all of her accommodation was fitted as far away from the
engine room as possible. Most importantly, the A-class carried the biggest offensive
punch ever fitted into a British submarine (with the arguable exception of M1)
because she was fitted with a massive total of ten torpedo tubes.
HMS Affray was commissioned on 25 November 1945 and for five years was on travel
and exercises all over the globe, visiting such exotic places as Durban, Cochin,
Yokohama, Tangier, Singapore and Bergen. The last the world ever heard of her
was on 16 April 1951, when she made a radio report while on exercise in the
channel. After that, she simply disappeared. She was on a training cruise with
a small party of commandos and 23 submarine officers under training, her entire
complement totalled 75. When she failed to report on the morning of the 17th
the largest ever search operation for a missing submarine was launched covering
a huge area from Land's End to The Isle of Wight to the Channel Islands. A vast
armada of vessels and aircraft were unable to find any trace of Affray. After
three days of fruitless searching the hunt was scaled down because there was
no longer the urgency to save life.
Affray had to be found however, her loss had caught the public imagination and
wild speculation was rife as to what had happened to her. Rumours persisted
that she had been captured by the Russians and many other equally implausible
stories went about. Behind all of this, the Navy patiently searched for Affray.
The search, which has become an epic tale in the annals of underwater salvage
went on into the summer of 1951. Each time a new sonar contact was discovered,
the naval salvage vessel Reclaim was anchored overhead and divers were sent
down to investigate. This was a painstaking process, carried out in an area
with literally hundreds of shipwrecks. Late in May Reclaim took possession of
the first underwater television camera. Although initially sceptical of its
utility, the crew quickly realised that it could vastly quicken the search process
because it could be used for several hours either side of slack water.
On 14 June, two weeks after taking possession of the camera, Affray was located.
She was south of the initial search area, on the north side of Hurd Deep in
278 feet. Investigations now followed to discover how she had sunk. Initial
pictures of the wreck showed her to be intact, listing slightly to port, with
her search radar and after periscope extended, as if she had been cruising at
periscope depth at the time. It quickly became apparent that no attempt had
been made to escape from the submarine and that her emergency buoy had not been
deployed. This pointed to some sort of catastrophic failure which must have
quickly overpowered the vessel and her complement. The only clue to show that
some attempt had been made to save her was the sight of the bow hydroplanes
being set to hard arise.
On the second examination of Affray, Reclaim noticed that the snort mast had
snapped off. This 30-foot steel tube with a float valve on the top enabled Affray
to run underwater on her diesel engines. The snort mast drew air down from the
surface and returned exhaust gasses the same way. The snort mast was salvaged
and sent away for investigation, where it was found to have broken off due to
material weakness. Further investigations into the sinking continued for some
weeks. Possible theories being investigated fell into two broad areas:
1) A battery explosion causing the boat to flood and snapping the snort mast
due to shock (either from the explosion or from impact with the seabed)
2) Snort mast failure which caused the boat to sink directly.
As bad weather closed in, the examination of Affray was suspended without either
case being truly proven. To this day no definitive answer has emerged. The diving
conditions on the edge of Hurd Deep can be extremely challenging, it is an exposed
area, taking in excess of four hours to reach from Weymouth. Tidal currents
run strong and the visibility can be extremely poor. More importantly we were
diving a very deep wreck and our long decompressions had to be carefully monitored.
Fortunately we were operating from Skin Deep and were under the watchful eye
of (the now sadly departed) Andy Smith, a skipper with much experience of diving
in this area. Nevertheless, a dive such as this is not for the fainthearted.
As it turned out the mark which was denoted as HMS Affray proved to be correct.
On the Sunday of our first weekend of searching for her, we found HMS Affray.
As we descended down the shotline, a large dark shape emerged from the gloom.
Little ambient light penetrates to 83 metres even on a good day on the edge
of Hurd Deep and it was a while before we recognised the unmistakable shape
of a submarine. She is a hugely impressive sight, sitting almost totally clear
of a hard seabed, offering in excess of 10 metres of relief in places. Our lighting
showed that she is now covered with sponges and anemones, offering some welcome
colour in the darkness. The first thing that struck me about the wreck was her
sheer size. She is one of the largest submarine wrecks in the Channel and a
diver is hard pushed to swim all the way around her on a single dive. I was
also amazed by her remarkable state of preservation. Her bridge is completely
intact with speaking tubes, the projector binnacle and radio aerials all in
evidence. On the side of the conning tower her navigation lights are present
and the conning tower ladder is still in place. Her periscope shafts stand proudly
upright and even the cables than ran between them are still there. Forward of
the tower the foredeck is intact with the gun layers hatch clearly visible.
I was keen to find the cradle in which the snort mast was located when in use.
This was on the port side, aft of the tower and on our second dive on the wreck
I found it. The base of the snort mast was still in place, with the area where
the mast broke off clearly visible. On a later visit to the Royal Navy Submarine
Museum, I saw the base of the section of the mast that was raised. They would
still fit together perfectly. The fore and aft hydroplanes are still in position
and the external torpedo tubes on the bow are a very impressive sight.
Our lengthy decompressions left the dive team with plenty of time for reflection
about HMS Affray. As we quietly idled away in excess of 90 minutes of decompression
stops we had time to think about her tragic loss and yet to take pride in the
achievements of our submarine service. On the dives on HMS Affray, it was impossible
not to be deeply moved by the quiet serenity of the wreck site. This is obviously
in contrast to her last moments as she sank. Her loss was a terrible shock to
the whole nation. To have seen her in her last resting place is an experience
which left a profound mark upon all of the diving team. She lies, now, quietly
at peace with the world.
The loss of HMS Affray is still a mystery. Considerable bodies of material relating
to the investigations into her loss remain closed and outside the public domain.
The material that has been made available to the public does little to add to
the findings published in 1951.
Interestingly, I found some drawings in the Public Records Office which were
done by HMS Reclaim. They show the snort mast leaning head down against the
side of the submarine. We can deduce from this that the mast was still attached
to Affray when she hit the seabed. In this case it appears unlikely that it
broke off at the surface while in use because the mast would then be expected
to be lost elsewhere, downstream of the wreck, on the bottom of the Channel.
A more likely explanation is that it fell off as the submarine impacted with
the bottom.
An explanation that I favour for the sinking is that the snort mast float valve
jammed open, flooding the boat. A flow rate of around 13 tons per minute has
been calculated for the volume of water which would have entered the submarine
in this instance. This would have overwhelmed it very quickly and a manual shut
off valve in the engine room needed to be closed in the case of such an accident.
However, running with a reduced number of regular crew, it is possible that
there simply wasn't time. It was not proven in 1951 whether this valve was open
or closed as it was too difficult for the diver to access.
In stories of the location of new and historic wrecks the unsung heroes are
often the captains of the charter boats used to take the intrepid explorers
to their destinations. In case of Affray and M1, Grahame Knott in Wey Chieftain
and the late (and greatly missed) Andy Smith in Skin Deep made these dives possible.
Without them, it is unlikely that we could have made these discoveries. The
Starfish group and myself have been longstanding customers of both captains.
By building good relationships with them, we have been able to step 'out of
the ordinary' type of diving and push the envelope a bit. Believe me, the fun
begins when you really can 'boldly go where....'
By Innes McCartney. Full article appears in 990 Vol 2 No 1
Innes McCartney is intending to video all the known submarine wrecks in the Channel. He runs regular diving trips to submarine sites each year and is interested in hearing from any experienced trimix-level divers who may wish to join him on any of his expeditions. He can be contacted at innes@dial.pipex.com, or via 990.