IN OUR PAGES: 100, 75 AND 50 YEARS AGO 1932: British Submarine

PORTSMOUTH: The British training submarine M-2 with six officers and 48 men aboard is feared to be helpless this morning on the bottom of the English Channel three miles off Portland Bill where the undersea craft dived at 10:30 o’clock yesterday [Jan. 26] morning during manoeuvres and has not been seen or heard from since. The vessel carried only eight hours’ supply of oxygen. The vessel, although 14 years old is equipped with the latest submarine safety devices but there is no indication tonight that any of the crew escaped. Every effort is being made by the navy to communicate with the craft. At 1:30 this morning [Jan. 27] the admiralty announced that an object, presumed to be the M-2, had been located three miles off Portland in 102 feet of water and on a sandy bottom. There is no doubt in the minds of navy officials here that it is the M-2, gone to its Channel grave as did its sister ship, the M-1, in 1925 off the Start Point, with 68 officers and men aboard. The fact that the vessel appears to be resting on a sandy bottom gives hope that the craft has not been damaged and that the hull is intact.

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