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[BIG ALAN]

I am a new member of the site, and very interesting it is to, so I hope you have no objections if I try to scramble on board and try to find a bunk, old arthritus in the knees playing up. Any way I have a question that I hope someone will be able to help me with, though they will probably have a long grey beard.
                                              I for my sins am a model boat secretary, and every month we have a club meeting. It is usual that after the committee have beaten their gums, we have a break for a raffle etc, afterwards we put on some entertainment, could be a bring and buy, anything that dont need feeding, a video or a quiz.
                                            I will try to get to the point, last week we staged a quiz and I posed a question, it was , name of the submarine that was rammed and sunk in the Thames estuary on the 12th Jan 1950 that took the lives of 65 men. Most people got it right. My question is, at that time a film was released about a submarine disaster, the showing was going to be postponed but it was released anyway. The name of the film that as came through the mist is I think " DAWN DEPARTURE" and I can vaguely remember a very young Richard Attenbough who played a panic stricken rating who had freaked out and was walking on the deckhead, he was very brave in the end though stiff upper lip and all that, what I am trying to remember is the name of the submarine in the film, I think it started with a "T"     Thanks a lot  Alan

[das boot]

Thetis....I think.


Rich

[Roger in France]

Yes, it was "Thetis" but i am not sure it was the Thames Estuary.

I do not know the film. There was certainly a play but it was called "Morning Departure". I know because my school put it on 50 years ago. I played a shore officer and had to whiten my hair to look older, by mistake I found some rosin used for polishing the stage floor and when I rubbed it in my hair it set solid!

The play was staged in the "Globe Theatre" a fully functional place within the Royal Marine Barracks, Stonehouse, Plymouth, it was a real gem and I often wonder if it is still used.

However, the best part of the play was the scenery. The Metalwork Master, the Woodwork Master, myself and another pupil built a cutaway section of the submarine hull where most of the play was performed. I remember it vividly to this day.

Roger in France

[andrewh]

Thetis sank just off Liverpool, in the bay, and was not rammed, but sunk by paint in the torpedo tube manual cock!

They opened a bow tube (which showed dry using the manual cock) to find the bow door was open so the whole bow flooded and Thetis was stuck with the bow on the bottom and the stern above water.

She was eventually beached near Moelfre on Anglesey, but nearly all of the complement died.

As a result the RN fitted more hatches, more DSEA sets and all manual cocks have prickers to mke sure the tap is not blocked!
andrew 

[DickyD]

HMS Truculent went down in the Thames estuary sunk by a Swedish tanker.

John Mills sub  in Dawn Departure was HMS Trojan

[Patternmaker]

Yes it was HMS Truculent that sunk in the Thames estuary. Tempest Class, launched on 12th Sept 1942 sunk in collision with Swedish tanker SS Davina, salvaged March 1950 scrapped Sept 1950 at Grays. My brother who was in the royal navy at the time was of the pall bearers at the funerals of 48 sailors lost..

[Roger in France]

The play to which I refer was certainly "Morning Departure" and was based on the "Thetis".

Roger in France

[DickyD]

Sorry Rog the film one was definitely HMS Trojan.

Anyway the Thetis sunk bow down with her stern sticking out of the water, almost vertical.

[Roger in France]

OK, we will sort this out.

The play was about a submarine sinking and being damaged such that the escape chamber/s could only be used once. It was called "Morning Departure" and I always understood it was based on "Thetis".

Any more help?

Roger in France

[Roger in France]

Right, found it.

The film "Morning Departure" was based on the play "Morning Departure" by Kenneth Wooland. John Mills played the Sub. Capt. "Commander Armstrong"; Richard Attenborough played "Snipe" a rating who panicked. The submarine was called the Trojan and the film was released in 1950. The accident in the Thames Esturary occurred shortly after the film was released.

Roger in France

[DickyD]

Pardon Roger ?

[Roger in France]

Richard, sorry do not understand your "Pardon Roger ?".

Roger in France

[vosper]

Hi
Thetis sank in liverpool bay pf Anglesey, beached at a place called Traethbychan near Moelfre Angelsey just up the road from where i liver. Its now 70 years.

[vosper]

more pics

[BIG ALAN]

Many thanks for the wonderful response, H M S Trident, great  H M S Truculent had sailed that morning from Sheerness to test her new snorkel which took place off of Margate, she had on board a number of dockyard personel. It was on her return in the evening that the collision occured. At the enquiry most of the blame was apportioned to the submarine owing to confusion with navigation lights.  
                                                                                  Whiilst on the subject of submarines a year later 16TH April 51 another disaster occured that took more lives than "Truculent" , 75 in all, this was H M S "Affray.  Much speculation as to her loss as been written and voiced but the reason for her loss remain a mystery to this day. She was never raised and lies at a depth of 85 metres. with no outer sign of damage She is classified as a grave and must not be dived on
                                                                                  If one is interested there are a few websites  on the "Affray

[BIG ALAN]

Sorry slip of the brain not" TRIDENT" but " TROJAN

[Circlip]

And as an addendum to the Affray saga, I was honoured to be present at the burial at sea of one of the Affray's crewmen who "missed the boat" on it's fateful mission. The guy in question was the late father of my next door neighbour, whom the week before she sailed, fell down the ladder and had to be carried off with a broken leg. He watched his mates ship out without him on a routine exercise never to return and was his dying wish to be buried with them. We discharged his remains from the aft deck of my middle lads first command, a Hunt class sweeper, himself being a "boaty" above the site of the wreck.  VERY moving to reunite them after over 50 years.   

[BIG ALAN]

             A very moving story.  It is probably known that there iis a web site dedicated to the memory of the crew of "Affray". it as been created by a son of a crew member Mr Kevin Cooper whose father lost his life in the disaster. It is very thougher in the build to her sailing on that fateful day, crossing the "T"s and dotting the "I"s and of the subsequent enquiries . www.hmsaffray.co.uk    Alan

[farrow]

With reference to the Truculent sinking, the Royal Navy Film unit made a very good film on her raising using actual footage, the different salvage craft where very interesting and of a type I have never seen recorded anywhere. It used to be shown at the RMAS Salvage and Mooring course and lasted about 45 minutes and would be of great interest to a larger audience. Then we would be shown the lifting of the stern half of a destroyer at Dover I believe and when it broke service, the first persons to board it where custom officers who went down to the wardroom and recovered the duty free spirit.

[tobyker]

Quote from my father's diary 2 July 1939:
"Tennis with Jean Matthews at Camberley. Lt Woods, one of the four survivors of the Thetis disaster, was also playing, with his brother. Fortunately Mrs M warned us that he was coming, and to keep off the subject, so it never cropped up. The enquiry opens tomorrow, in London. They were discussing pipe smoking at one stage of the afternoon, and he mentioned that he used to have two very favourite pipes, but "he lost them both about three weeks ago". 

Upper lips stiff as ever.