The M-1

Some 15 miles off the coast of Devonshire, the super-submarine M-1 floundered suddenly and inexplicably, sank down and down, with all hands on board, to depths at which the Admiralty announced that she must have been crushed like an eggshell by hydraulic pressure.

For several days minesweepers searched vainly for the sunken vessel, plowed futilely back and forth through choppy rising seas. The Admiralty sent out divers and ships equipped with a recently and secretly developed instrument for magnetically detecting sunken masses of iron. The sea bottom was explored by every possible means. Then a startling announcement was made. The trouble it seemed lay not in locating sunken ships but in distinguishing the M-l from the many vessels sunk in that vicinity by the Germans! The sea bottom was described as "littered with ships," and despatches announced that the Admiralty had practically abandoned hope of discovering even the crushed hull of one of Britain's most powerful undersea craft.

In London and indeed throughout England the most widespread sympathy was expressed for the families of the 68 officers and men who went down with the M1. It was recalled that her Commander, Lieutenant Alec M. Carrie, had been married only eleven months. A Mrs. Bertie Jones, wife of one of the submarine's petty officers, was harkened to with indignation when she asserted that her husband had often told her that "the M1's machinery frequently went wrong."

Before an audience of Plymouth women, the Viscountess Astor fulminated against submarines in general. Apropos of the disaster said she: "I would go around the world lecturing five times over if I thought I could do anything to persuade the nations of the world to abandon submarines and poison gas!"

The British press, in general, made only very restrained comment; and late in the week published the following short bulletin from the Admiralty, as a definite and official announcement that the tragedy was an assured fact: "The Admiralty deeply regret that they can no longer hold out any hope that the crew of the M-1 still survive."

Meanwhile naval architects reflected that the "M" or "Monitor" class of submarine had been developed by the British Admiralty during the War, and constituted a class of "super mystery ships" which were never employed against the Germans for fear of rousing them to construct a similar and equally deadly naval arm.

The special feature of the "M" boats, of which the M-1 was the first, consists in the fact that they are the only submarines which are equipped with a regular 12-inch dreadnaught gun. Thus a fleet of such "monitors" might slip into an enemy port unobserved, possibly during the absence of the enemy fleet, and deliver a bombardment of dreadnaught calibre at close range before effective measures could be taken against them.

Naturally, since Britain had quite literally the upper hand of the seas during the War, she was far more anxious to keep the secrets of the M-1 class of submarine out of German hands than to reap a slight advantage from employing "monitor subs" herself.

Following Lady Astor's lead, former Premier Ramsay MacDonald declared: "I am heartily in agreement with the present national demand for outlawing the submarine . . . . No nation can defend the employment of submarines and their further development without throwing down the gauntlet and asserting that it means to employ them in warfare."

Added J. H. Thomas, onetime Secretary of State for the Colonies: "The British Government should call a world conference of all sea powers to consider the abolition of this hellish monster, which is inhumane in war and involves great risks in peace."